Doctor of Philosophy

Table of Contents - Introduction - Graduate Degrees - Academic Policies - Administrative Policies - NucE Faculty - Course Descriptions - Facilities - Radiation Science & Eng. Center

Admission
Examinations for Admission
Program Requirements
Maintaining Satisfactory Scholarship
Candidacy Examination
Residency Requirement
Language and Communications Requirements
The Doctoral Committee
Comprehensive Examination
Continuous Registration
Final Oral Examination
Paper for Publication
Summary of Degree Requirements

Admission Requirements

The Program requirement for acceptance to graduate study toward a Ph.D. degree in Nuclear Engineering is a B.S. degree from an engineering or science program. The students considered for admission to the doctoral program in Nuclear Engineering are those whose background leads the faculty to believe they will succeed. Students are formally considered doctoral candidates after they have passed the candidacy exam.

Examinations for Admission

Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL). To qualify for admission, an international student must achieve a minimum TOEFL score of 550 on the paper-based test, and a minimum score of 213 on the computer-based test. This requirement is waived if the student's native language is English or if the student received baccalaureate or master's degrees from an institution in which the language of instruction was English.

Graduate Record Examination (GRE). All students must submit scores on the general aptitude tests of the GRE prior to admission consideration.

Program Requirements

A doctoral program in Nuclear Engineering, as in all other disciplines at The Pennsylvania State University, consists of such a collection of courses, seminars, and research as meets the minimum requirements of the Graduate School and is approved by the Doctoral Committee for each individual candidate. No specified number of courses completed or credits earned are required by the Nuclear Engineering Program. Typically, 45-55 credits of 400-500 level courses (including your M.S. program) plus NucE 600 credits are needed. The numbers above (45-55 credits) are not construed as requirements; they are given merely to indicate to the Ph.D. candidate the typical number of graduate course credits taken by students before attaining their Ph.D. Your program is to be worked out in consultation with your major advisor and doctoral committee. About half of the course credits should be in Nuclear Engineering courses and the other half in other disciplines, such as math, physics, or another engineering field.

A student entering the Ph.D. program without an M.S. in NucE must meet the course requirements for an M.S. in NucE. Courses are: NucE 301, NucE 302, NucE 450, NucE 403 and six credits from NucE 500-level courses, but is to exclude NucE 596 courses. NucE 597X courses are allowed only with special approval by the Nuclear Engineering Graduate Faculty. A petition must be submitted asking for approval of these courses.

Effective Fall Semester 1983, teaching became a requirement for the Doctor of Philosophy in Nuclear Engineering. When fulfilling this requirement, the student registers for NucE 602. It is also expected that the student will take ENG 588, Seminar for Engineering Teaching Assistants, during this semester, if they have not already done so. Passage of the Test of Spoken English with a score of 250 or above or successful completion of the required Speech course or courses is required of all international students at Penn State before they are permitted to teach. See pages 30-31 for a complete discussion of the requirements. It is, therefore, desirable that all international Ph.D. candidates fulfill the Test of Spoken English requirement soon after becoming a candidate, if they have not already done so.

Maintaining Satisfactory Scholarship

A minimum grade point average of 3.00 (excluding NucE 600 credits) is required in order to be granted a graduate degree in Nuclear Engineering. In addition, at the end of the initial semester, a student with less than a 3.00 average will be notified by their faculty advisor of future grade point average requirements. These requirements will be developed by the graduate faculty early in the next semester. Nuclear Engineering will review each graduate student's grade point average at the end of each semester. Minimum grade point averages required for continuation as a regular graduate student in Nuclear Engineering are:

If in a review of the student's grade point average, the minimum requirements are not met, a letter (signed by the advisor) to the student from the Graduate Faculty of Nuclear Engineering will state:

a) The requirement(s) which the student has failed to satisfy.

b) The requirement(s) which the student must meet by the end of the next semester.

c) If the next semester requirement(s) in b. is not met, the faculty will review the student's academic performance at a meeting convened prior to the end of the first two weeks of the subsequent semester. In the absence of extenuating circumstances, the student will be dropped as a regular graduate student immediately following the meeting.

If a student is dropped as a regular graduate student in the Nuclear Engineering Program, continuing nuclear engineering study as a provisional student is possible. The student must be readmitted into the Graduate School as a nondegree student. Such admission is subject to the recommendation of the Program Chair of Nuclear Engineering, who will act according to the recommendations of the Graduate Faculty developed in (c) above. During nondegree student status, no research credit (NucE 600, 611) may be earned.

The student may petition the Graduate Faculty of Nuclear Engineering for admission as a regular graduate student when their cumulative graduate course grade point average is elevated to 3.00 or greater. A maximum of 10 graduate-level credits earned while a nondegree student can be counted towards satisfying the graduate degree requirements in Nuclear Engineering.

If, through the late drop process or other processes (e.g., auditing a course instead of taking it for credit), a graduate student on financial support falls below the proper credit load, that support will be lost.

Candidacy Examination

Early in the doctoral program, a student is required to be evaluated by the Nuclear Engineering Program’s Ph.D. Candidacy Examination Committee. A student who has been admitted to the Graduate School and has been accepted by the Nuclear Engineering Program may begin working toward the doctoral degree, but has provisional status as a doctoral student and no assurance that they will be accepted as a doctoral candidate until after the candidacy examination is passed. A candidacy examination can be taken after the student has had enough course work to prepare to solve the exam problems. For example, a student who has completed the Nuclear Engineering B.S. program could be ready to take the exam in the first or second semester of graduate work; whereas, other students may require 18 months of graduate course work in nuclear engineering. Students are expected to take the candidacy examination after no more than 3 semesters (excluding summers) as a provisional doctoral student. Students must be registered for the semester the candidacy exam is taken.

The evaluation of each student will be based on academic record, overall fitness for candidacy and a formal examination. The candidacy examination may include questions on all areas of basic engineering including: radiation protection, nuclear science, reactor physics, heat transfer, radiation detection, reactor kinetics, nuclear systems, radiochemistry, and computational methods. The specific topic areas for a given exam will be announced four weeks before the exam.

The oral exam will be scheduled no sooner than one week following the written exam but as soon as practical thereafter. The full Committee and the student's advisor will participate with the option of the Candidacy Committee inviting additional graduate faculty members. The candidate's advisor will be asked to suggest documents to be the main topic for the oral exam. The topic is to be related to the candidate's field of interest but different from the thesis topic. The documents will be identified to the candidate one week before the oral exam. This requires that the signup period close two weeks before the written exam to allow the advisor and committee time to compile and review the documents.

If a Candidacy Committee member is the advisor to a student being examined, the Committee Chairman will ask another graduate faculty member to be added to the committee for that student's oral exam. If the Committee Chairman is advisor to a student being examined, the student will designate another Committee member as acting Chairman for the oral exam; the acting Chairman will, in turn, ask another graduate faculty member to serve on the Candidacy Committee.

Residency Requirement

There is no required minimum number of credits or semesters of study to meet residency requirements. However, during some 12-month period between admission to candidacy and completion of the Ph.D. degree, the candidate must spend at least two semesters back-to-back (Fall/Spring or Spring/Fall) (including the semester in which the candidacy examination was taken) as a registered, full-time student engaged in academic work at University Park.

Language and Communications Requirements

The Graduate School requires a high level of competence in the use of the English language. The College of Engineering has implemented an English Proficiency Test that will be carried out in the spring semester of the student's first year of graduate school. The English Proficiency Test will include three separate parts. The Oral Language Test (for nonnative speaking graduate students only) will be given first. The Presentational Skills Test (all nativespeaking graduate students and nonnative speaking graduate students passing the Oral Language Test) and the Writing Test (all eligible graduate students) will be given next. Based upon these assessments, coursework in Speech Communication and English will be identified to improve English competency and enable the student to meet the requirement. Competency must be formally attested before the doctoral comprehensive examination will be scheduled.

In addition to the Assessment program in coursework at the time of candidacy, each student must submit a three to five-page technical paper prior to the oral exam on the subject identified for the oral presentation. The language complexity should be similar to that of a thesis. The student must certify that the paper is their original work without review or assistance by others. The Candidacy Committee and the student's advisor will certify whether adequate proficiency in the English language has been demonstrated based on the paper and the oral exam. A student may pass the candidacy exam but not be certified in English proficiency. In this case, the complete exam need not be taken again; but simply to demonstrate English proficiency by retaking the English language exam. If the student has not demonstrated proficiency in English, the student will not be admitted to candidacy and a doctoral committee will not be appointed. Upon improvement of English skills, the student must write another paper, make a verbal presentation and respond to questions by the Candidacy Committee and advisor in the same manner.

The Doctoral Committee

The doctoral committee has the responsibility of giving the Comprehensive Examination and/or approving the doctoral thesis, both written thesis and the oral defense. The formation of the doctoral committee is governed by requirements of the Graduate School, which follow:

1) appointed soon after the student is admitted to the candidacy,

2) must include at least of four active members of the Graduate Faculty,

3) normally includes at least three faculty members from the Nuclear Engineering Program,

4) at least one regular member of the committee must be from outside Nuclear Engineering,

5) the chair, or at least one co-chair, of the committee must be a faculty member from Nuclear Engineering. If the student is working with a faculty member outside of the Nuclear Engineering Program, that individual can be co-chair of the committee, and

6) the student's faculty advisor must notify the Graduate Secretary to appoint a committee. There is a required form that must be completed.

The committee is not limited to four faculty members, and frequently includes additional members who can contribute technical advice regarding the research are included. External members, e.g., scientists at national laboratories, who are not at the University can be included as special members of a committee.

The doctoral committee is formed by the candidate with consultation between the candidate and main research advisor. It is advisable for the committee chair and the candidate to then schedule a committee meeting to review past and future course work in relation to the proposed area of research.

Comprehensive Examination

When a Ph.D. candidate has completed a substantial amount of the necessary course work, including the language and communication requirement, they will be required to take a comprehensive examination. The type of examination is determined by the doctoral committee but usually consists of a literature review and thesis proposal. Additional questions can cover the major and related areas of study. Requirements are as follows:

1) the student must satisfy the English Competence Requirement before taking the comprehensive. The College of Engineering offers English Proficiency Testing every February;

2) must have a minimum grade point average of 3.00;

3) may not have deferred or missing grades;

4) must be registered full- or part-time for the semester in which the comprehensive is taken, including summers. Being registered for one credit of NucE 600 is sufficient;

5) the examination should be taken at least 3 months before the final oral examination;

6) must give at least two-weeks' notice to the Graduate School for scheduling, and;

7) must see the Graduate Secretary to schedule the exam. There is a required form that must be completed.

It is given and evaluated by the entire doctoral committee and may be either written or oral, or both. A favorable vote of at least two-thirds of the members of the committee is required for passing. In case of failure, it is the responsibility of the doctoral committee to determine whether the candidate may take another examination.

If a period of six years has elapsed between the passing of the comprehensive examination and the completion of the program, the student is required to pass a second comprehensive examination before the final oral examination can be scheduled.

Continuous Registration

After a Ph.D. candidate has passed the comprehensive examination and met the twosemester full-time residence requirement, the student must register continuously for each fall and spring semester (beginning with the first semester after both of these requirements have been met) until the Final Oral Exam is passed and the Ph.D. thesis is accepted and approved by the doctoral committee. Post-comprehensive Ph.D. students can maintain registration by registering in the usual way, or by registering for noncredit 601 or 611, depending upon whether they are devoting full-time or part-time to thesis preparation. Students may take 601 plus up to 3 additional credits of course work for audit by paying only the dissertation fee. Students wishing to take up to 3 additional credits of course work for credit, i.e., 590, 602, etc., with 601 may do so by paying the dissertation fee and an additional flat fee. Students who want to combine course work with thesis preparation must register for 600 or 611 (not for 601, which is full-time thesis preparation). Note that the least expensive way for a student to work full-time on research and thesis preparation is to register for 601. This clearly is the procedure of choice for international students who need to maintain status as full-time students for visa purposes.

Final Oral Examination

Upon recommendation of the doctoral committee, a doctoral candidate who has satisfied all other requirements for the degree will be scheduled by the Dean of the Graduate School to take a final oral examination. It is the responsibility of the doctoral candidate to provide a copy of the thesis to each member of the doctoral committee at least one week before the date of the scheduled examination. Other requirements are as follows:

1) The final oral examination may not be scheduled until at least three months have elapsed after the comprehensive exam was passed;

2) two-weeks' notice must be given to the Graduate School for scheduling;

3) must see the Graduate Secretary to schedule this exam. There is a required form that must be completed;

4) the deadline for holding the exam is ten weeks before commencement. This date is listed in a calendar produced by the Graduate Programs Office. A copy of this calendar can be obtained from the Graduate Secretary;

5) the student must be registered full- or part-time during the semester in which the final oral exam is taken.

The final examination is an oral examination administered and evaluated by the entire doctoral committee. It consists of an oral presentation of the thesis by the candidate and a period of questions and responses. The examination is related largely to the thesis, but it may cover the candidate's whole field of study without regard to courses that have been taken either at this University or elsewhere. The defense of the thesis should be well-prepared including any appropriate visual aids. The portion of the exam in which the thesis is presented is open to the public.

A favorable vote of at least two-thirds of the committee is required for passing. If a candidate fails, the committee will determine whether another examination may be taken at a later date.

Paper for Publication

As a requirement for the doctoral degree, a student must prepare and submit a paper for publication to a refereed periodical based on the doctoral thesis.

*Every semester the Graduate School produces a calendar of deadline dates regarding graduation and thesis approval. This calendar will be posted on the bulletin boards in the Reber Building, or a copy may be obtained from the Graduate Records Secretary. This calendar is also posted on the Web at http://www.gradsch.psu.edu/calendar/gradcal.html