Doctoral Degree

Doctoral Degree Requirements

The graduate program in civil and environmental engineering offers the degree Doctor of Philosophy that requires at least 48 credits of coursework and at least 24 credits of thesis research.

The doctoral program is arranged in the following two phases.  

• Phase 1: The student pursues courses of study and successfully completes a qualifying examination.      
• Phase 2: The student primarily pursues courses of research and presents results in an acceptable dissertation. 

General Course Credit Requirements

Students must satisfy the following credit requirements toward the Ph.D. degree.

• At least 48 credits of coursework, which may include M.S. degree coursework, plus at least 24 credits of thesis research. 
• At least 30 credits of coursework must be taken from the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering or 15 credits if entering with 24 transfer credits and M.S. degree in civil or environmental engineering. 
• No more than 6 credits of either Advanced Topics in Civil Engineering (180:601 or 180:602) or Advanced Topics in Environmental Engineering (180:611 or 180:612).
• No credit in 300-level courses and no more than 9 credits in 400-level courses may be used toward the 48 credits of required coursework.
• At least 18 credits must be in courses within his/her major area of discipline.
• At least four semesters (N credit prefix) of Seminar in Civil and Environmental Engineering (180:691, 180:692). 
• At least 6 credits in the area of mathematics, numerical methods and statistics are required.