Doctor of Philosophy: Civil Engineering
A graduate program leading to the Doctor of Philosophy is offered with a major in civil engineering.
Specific departmental requirements for the PhD include
• A minimum of 72 semester hours beyond the bachelor’s degree, exclusive
of credit for the MS thesis. Of this number, a minimum of 24 semester hours
in 600 Doctoral Research and Dissertation will be required. It is expected that
the research work will be in journal publication form prior to approval of the
dissertation.
• A minimum of 18 semester hours of graduate courses in civil engineering
or environmental engineering, exclusive of thesis or dissertation credit, at
least 6 hours of which must be 600-level courses.
• Additional coursework in civil engineering, environmental engineering,
or related scientific and engineering fields, amounting to a minimum of 18 semester
hours, subject to approval by the student’s faculty committee. These related
fields will normally include such disciplines as mechanics, chemistry, mathematics,
microbiology, physics, and other engineering fields. A minimum of 6 semester
hours of mathematics will be required beyond the civil engineering undergraduate
requirements.
• At the discretion of the student’s dissertation committee and
depending on the student’s background, more than 36 hours of courses may
be required.
• A maximum of 24 course credits from the master’s degree may be
used to satisfy the course requirements for the PhD.
• One foreign language if the student’s faculty committee feels
that a reading knowledge of a foreign language is crucial to the student’s
research efforts.
• Upon completion of at least one-half of all coursework, each student
must pass a comprehensive examination. After completion of the dissertation,
prior to graduation, each student must pass a dissertation defense examination
administered by a faculty committee.
Admission and prerequisite requirements