Ph.D. Program

Admission to the Doctoral (Ph.D.) program in Mechanical Engineering will be made by the Graduate Committee of the department and will be based on an assessment of your academic background, competence and aptitude for advanced study and research. Normally, an appropriate Master of Engineering degree or its equivalent is required, but exceptionally well qualified applicants will be considered for admission to the doctoral program even without completed Master?s degree. Note that applicants who would like to be considered for assistantships or fellowships must apply by February 1 for consideration for the fall semester. International applicants whose native language is not English and who have not obtained prior degrees from a U.S. institution are required to provide TOEFL scores. International applicants who have not obtained prior degrees from a U.S. institution are also required to provide GRE scores. For the full application requirements checklist, please click here.

If accepted, you will have to select an Advisor with whom you will then define a study plan, select a dissertation topic and form a Doctoral Committee. Courses are selected to develop skills in a particular area of interest. While this course work is necessary to develop the knowledge and skills of your profession, the most important aspect of the course selection is your original research topic. The subject of the doctoral dissertation is open to a wide range of particular choices within the broad range of Mechanical Engineering disciplines.

After you have been enrolled into the doctoral program for at least one year, you will be required to successfully complete a Qualifying Examination. This two-part examination, which is intended to test your comprehension of introductory level graduate material and assess your research aptitude, is usually administered during the fall semester. Subsequently, you will be required to defend a Dissertation Proposal within two years from enrollment into the doctoral program. Your doctoral dissertation must be based upon original investigation, approved by the graduate committee of the department and must represent a contribution to the state of the art worthy of publication in the peer-reviewed literature.

Before receiving the doctoral degree, you must also satisfy the requirements for residence and publication of the dissertation.