Program Requirements
Developing Your Program
The academic program for each student will be developed in conjunction with their advisor and their advisory committee. Many of the research programs in Materials Science and Engineering are interdisciplinary and the Advisory committees will include faculty from Physics, Chemistry and other areas of Engineering. Students are encouraged to cross over disciplinary boundaries whenever possible as part of their academic plan of study, their research activities and their participation in seminars, meetings and technical societies.
The credit hour and exam requirements for the Masters degree programs and the PhD program are summarized below. A single course is normally equivalent to three credit hours, but there are exceptions for lab, seminar and independent study courses. The information in this document applies to new applicants and current MSE graduate students. General requirements and more detailed information on the topics covered can be found in the Graduate Administrative Handbook.
Plan of Work and Advisory Committee
Every graduate student must have an advisor/advisory committee, and the student must submit a Plan of Work (POW) to the Director of Graduate Programs (DGP) for approval and submission to the Graduate School. The POW is a standard form that lists the advisor and the committee members with their affiliations and signatures. It is the student's responsibility, in conjunction with the advisor, to identify committee members and solicit their approval to serve. The remainder of the POW is a summary of all courses transferred (if applicable), and all NCSU graduate courses to be taken, semester-by-semester, along with the grades received. The course list is not binding, and should be updated along with grades received.
The advisory committee members for Masters and PhD degree tracks must be selected consistent with Graduate School requirements. A non-MSE faculty member listed on a student's advisory committee must be from the same discipline/sub-discipline as one of the non-MSE graduate courses taken by that student (check with the DGP if unsure). An exception occurs for PhD students who do not choose the Minor option. In that case, the student is not required to take non-MSE courses, and there is no constraint for the choice of the non-MSE faculty member. All committee members must be members of the NCSU Graduate Faculty (PhD thesis chairs must have full status).
Special Requirements for TAs and RAs
Students with assistantships have their tuition fully paid as part of the Graduate Student Support Plan (GSSP). Students need to be aware that the GSSP has specific deadlines that must be followed in order to maintain eligibility for tuition remission. The MSE graduate program has established timelines that students and advisors are asked to follow in order to make suitable progress towards completing the degree, as well as to maintain GSSP status. Students and their advisors should review the student's progress at the beginning of each semester in order to plan coursework, schedule exams and insure completion dates relevant to their thesis research. The MSE recommended timeline for full-time graduate student progress in the Masters or PhD degree tracks is shown in this chart.
| Semester / Degree | MMSE | MMSE opt B | MS | PhD w MR | PhD w/o MR | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | PW | |||||
| 2 | AC, PW | AC, PW | AC, PW | AC, PW | ||
| 3 | CC | CC | ||||
| 4 | FN, DC | DC | AR, FT, DC | CC (if not 3), RP | CC (if not 3), RP | |
| 5 | FN (if not 4), DC | FT (if not 4), DC | PO | |||
| 6 | AR, FT, DC | PO | ||||
| 7 | FT (if not 6), DC | |||||
| 8 | AR, FT, DC | |||||
| 9 | FT (if not 8), DC |
Legend:
AC: Select and confirm the Advisory Committee members
PW: Submit an approved Plan of Work (PhD candidates must decide on the optional Minor)
CC: Core courses completed
RP: Research proposal qualifying exam
PO: Preliminary oral exam
AR: All credit hour and exam requirements will be completed (except FT)
FN: Final oral (non thesis) exam
FT: Final oral (thesis defense) exam
DC: Degree completed
Notes:
Refer to the GSSP for PhD deadlines w and w/o MR (related masters degree)
Full-time graduate student status requires taking ≥ 9 credits/semester (maximum 15 with ≤ 9 MSE 895)
Requirements for MS Students
MS or PhD Final Oral Exam (Thesis Defense)
The final oral exam must be scheduled 2 weeks after the student has submitted copies of the thesis to all of the thesis advisory committee members. The thesis defense is the venue by which the student will demonstrate to the faculty that the planning, the methodology used, and the scientific conclusions reached during the course of independent research, culminating as a written thesis, are worthy of the expectations for awarding an MS or PhD degree. The format should be a 30-45 minute PowerPoint presentation covering all relevant aspects of the thesis research. Questions during the presentation should be expected. The presentation will be made to the thesis advisory committee. The presentation and initial round of questioning in the final oral exam is open to the public. The subsequent round of questioning is only with the committee. At the conclusion, the committee will convene and determine if the student has passed. The student will have an opportunity to be re-examined if the initial attempt was not satisfactory. The conditions for re-examination are at the discretion of the committee. If the second attempt is failed, the MS or PhD thesis degree program is terminated.
Requirements for PhD Students
Curriculum Vitae
As part of a continuing MSE graduate program assessment activity, every PhD student is asked to maintain a Curriculum Vitae (CV) that is to be updated at the end of the spring and fall semesters. The CV should include the students name, e-mail address, lab and office location, phone numbers, thesis advisor, thesis research topic, current GPA, expected completion date, conferences and meetings attended, presentations made, conference and journal papers published or submitted, awards or fellowships received and any other information relevant to the student’s academic, research and professional activities.
The CV should be e-mailed to the graduate program secretary (Word document) by the end of final exams for the spring and fall semesters. In addition, each exam committee member for the research written proposal qualifier exam, preliminary oral exam and final oral/thesis defense exam is asked to complete an anonymous (student and committee member not identified) evaluation form that rates the students performance on the specified exam. There is a separate evaluation form for each of the three exams. These forms are available from the graduate secretary and should be picked up prior to the exam and returned to the Director of Graduate Programs by the committee chairs.
Course Requirements
PhD Minimum Course Load Requirement
The minimum academic course load for the PhD program is as follows: six courses (18 credit hours) must be taken as specified by the PhD core course requirement described in the next section. In addition, three courses (≥ 9 credit hours) must be taken as the Minor Option or the Materials Option. The Minor Option requires three non-materials science courses for a discipline specific minor (math, physics, etc.) or an interdisciplinary minor. The former is to be approved by the host department and the latter by the MSE thesis advisory committee. The Materials Option requires three upper level materials science courses approved by the thesis advisory committee. A minimum of four of the nine required courses must be taken as NC State MSE or non-MSE courses, and cannot be transfer courses.
PhD Core Course Requirement
Six core courses must be selected based on one of the following two tracks. Once a track is selected, it cannot be changed or modified.
| "Hard Materials" Track | "Soft Materials" Track |
|---|---|
MSE 702 Defects in Solids MSE 704 Elec., Mag. and Optical Prop. of Materials MSE 705 Mechanical Behavior of Eng. Materials MSE 706 Phase Transformations and Kinetics MSE 708 Thermodynamics of Materials MSE 710 Elem. of Crystallography and Diffraction |
MSE(TC) 561 Organic Chemistry of Polymers MSE 704 Elec., Mag. and Optical Prop. of Materials MSE 705 Mechanical Behavior of Eng. Materials MSE 706 Phase Transformations and Kinetics MSE 708 Thermodynamics of Materials MSE 775 Structure of Semicrystallline Polymers |
A student must maintain an overall B grade-point average (GPA = 3.0) or higher for the six core courses in the selected track in order to qualify as a PhD candidate. If a core course grade is below C, the student is given one chance to retake that course and earn a grade of C or higher (the lower grade is dropped for purposes of computing the core course average, but not in the overall GPA). The six core courses do not have to be completed before the research proposal written qualifying exam is taken, although that is strongly recommended. Equivalent courses from other institutions can be accepted for core course credit if the student has earned a grade of B or higher and the NCSU core course instructor recommends an exemption after reviewing the request (the grade for an exempted course is not used in determining the core course average).
Exams
PhD Research Proposal Written Qualifying Exam
The topic for the research proposal written qualifying exam should not be closely related to the PhD thesis research topic. The student will submit a one-paragraph summary of the research proposal to the Director of Graduate Programs (DGP), approved by the thesis advisory committee chair, within the first three weeks of the semester in which the exam is be taken. The written component of the research proposal must be completed and submitted to the exam committee members by the deadline for that semester.
The exam committee consists of three MSE faculty members (thesis advisory committee chair and two others not on the thesis advisory committee) appointed for each student by the Department Head. The thesis chair should insure that the proposal topic is appropriate and that the proposal is readable and properly formatted. Technical help from the chair is limited to editing and providing examples of well-written proposals.
The proposal format must follow NSF guidelines. A single Summary page at the beginning of the proposal must describe the Intellectual Merit and Broader Impact. The remainder of the proposal will be a Project Description limited to 15 single-spaced pages (12 point font), including figures. References are attached separately and do not count in the page total. NSF budgets, bios, etc., are not to be included.
The exam committee’s evaluation will be based upon the student’s ability to establish the scientific background, motivation, research plan (experiments and analysis) and expected impact of the research work. Exam committee members will transmit their assessment of the written proposal to the committee chair, and will arrange for any changes or re-review as needed.
Upon completing the written proposal, the student will schedule an oral presentation to be made to the committee. The format should be a 30-45 minute PowerPoint presentation covering the key scientific points and content of the written proposal. Questions regarding specific aspects of the research proposal and related materials science topics should be expected. The exam is closed to the public, but may include faculty or peers during the presentation and initial round of questioning (at the discretion of the exam committee). At the conclusion, the exam committee will convene and determine if the student has passed.
The student will have an opportunity to be re-examined if the initial attempt was not satisfactory. The conditions for re-examination are at the discretion of the committee. If the second attempt is failed, the PhD program is terminated.
PhD Preliminary Oral Exam
The preliminary oral exam is scheduled after the research proposal written qualifying exam has been successfully completed. This format should be a 30-45 minute PowerPoint presentation covering the scientific basis and current status of the PhD thesis research. The presentation will be made to the thesis advisory committee, which consists of the thesis chair (or co-chairs), and MSE and non-MSE faculty members selected and approved according to Graduate School requirements. Questions regarding the current and future status of the thesis work as well as related material science topics should be expected. The presentation and initial round of questioning in the preliminary oral exam is open to the public. The subsequent round of questioning is only with the committee. At the conclusion, the committee will convene and determine if the student has passed. The student will have an opportunity to be re-examined if the initial attempt was not satisfactory. The conditions for re-examination are at the discretion of the committee. If the second attempt is failed, the PhD program is terminated.
MS or PhD Final Oral Exam (Thesis Defense)
The final oral exam must be scheduled 2 weeks after the student has submitted copies of the thesis to all of the thesis advisory committee members. The thesis defense is the venue by which the student will demonstrate to the faculty that the planning, the methodology used, and the scientific conclusions reached during the course of independent research, culminating as a written thesis, are worthy of the expectations for awarding an MS or PhD degree. The format should be a 30-45 minute PowerPoint presentation covering all relevant aspects of the thesis research. Questions during the presentation should be expected. The presentation will be made to the thesis advisory committee. The presentation and initial round of questioning in the final oral exam is open to the public. The subsequent round of questioning is only with the committee. At the conclusion, the committee will convene and determine if the student has passed. The student will have an opportunity to be re-examined if the initial attempt was not satisfactory. The conditions for re-examination are at the discretion of the committee. If the second attempt is failed, the MS or PhD thesis degree program is terminated.
Questions? Comments? Email the MSE Webmaster • North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC, USA