Degree Requirements
MS Students
For a Masters degree, the student may undertake “Plan I” with a thesis or “Plan II” based on course work. Plan I requires 24 hours of course work plus a 6 credit-hour thesis. The thesis generally discusses an organized research topic. Experience has shown that it takes a student from 18 to 24 months to complete this plan. Financial support is generally limited to exceptionally well-qualified students selecting Plan I.
Plan II requires 30 hours of course work. The 30 hours may be all formal course work (Plan II B), or may include (for Plan II A) the 3-hour course entitled Master’s Project (or “Report”). Note that: one half of the course work must be taken in the Civil, Environmental and Architectural Engineering Department. (An exception may be made if the relevant courses were taken as part of an undergraduate degree). Departmental approval is required to select this plan. The Plan II can be successfully completed in 12 – 18 months by a diligent student. Non-CEAE courses at the 4000 level may be used for graduate credit up to a maximum of 6 hours, with the approval of the advisor.
Up to 6 hours of “independent study” may be taken where an individual course of study is worked out between the student and a faculty member. Up to 9 hours of graduate courses can be transferred from another institution.
PhD Students
For a Ph.D., you need at least 30 hours of graduate-level course work plus a dissertation. For an entrant from another university, up to 15 hours of acceptable graduate courses may be transferred leaving at least 15 hours of course work to be done at the University of ֱ. For students already in the Master’s program in the CEAE department, 21 hours of graduate course work performed at ֱ is applicable towards the Ph.D. degree. The Ph.D. also requires that 30 hours of dissertation credit be taken with a minimum residency of 2 years.