Admission Requirements

Completion of an undergraduate degree in Nuclear Engineering or in another related engineering or science discipline is required for admission to the M.S. degree program in Nuclear Engineering. Students should have at least a 3.00 (4.00 base) junior-senior average to be considered for admission.

Provisional Admission

Provisional admission is a temporary classification in which an applicant may remain for a period of no longer than 2 semesters following admission or the time it takes to accrue 15 credits, whichever comes first. If the deficiencies that caused the provisional admission are not corrected by this time, the student may be dropped from the program.

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 tongue is English or if the student received a baccalaureate degree 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

Each of the following requirements must be met in order for a student to be approved for graduation:

1) A minimum of 30 graduate credits must be earned. Only grades of A, B, and C are accepted for graduate credit.

2) A minimum grade point average of 3.00 is required, not counting grades obtained in NucE 600, Thesis Research.

3) At least twelve (12) 400- or 500-level course credits must be taken as NucE courses.

4) At least twelve (12) of the 30 required credits must be in 500-level courses. This includes any 500-level NucE courses taken to satisfy requirement #3 above. At least six of these credits must be NucE 500-level courses.

5) Specific course requirements

a) NucE 301, 302, 403, 450 or their equivalent. Students with an undergraduate or graduate degree in Nuclear Engineering will usually have completed the equivalent of NucE 301, 302, and 450. Some students may have the equivalent of NucE 403. You need to review this with your advisor. Students whose baccalaureate degree is not in nuclear engineering have two ways of fulfilling the undergraduate requirement. If they enter in the Summer Session, they take NucE 297A/497A, a four-credit reactor theory course, which is considered an acceptable substitute for NucE 301 and 302. The student can then proceed to NucE 403 in the Fall Semester. It is recommended that students who have not had reactor theory follow this path. If the student enters in the Fall Semester, NucE 301 must be taken in the Fall Semester and NucE 302 in the Spring Semester. Courses below the 400 level do not count toward the graduate program. The intention in the NucE 450 requirement is to make sure the entering student has had an adequate laboratory experience in (at least) radiation detection and measurement.

b) The NucE 597X courses are allowed to fulfill part of the graduate degree requirements. These typically are regular Nuclear Engineering classes which are being taught on an experimental basis (and thus have no official course number.) This requires special approval by the Nuclear Engineering Graduate Faculty, for which a petition must be submitted.

c) NucE 596 and NucE 496 (Individual Studies) courses can be used in special circumstances to fulfill part of the graduate degree requirements. This requires special approval by the Nuclear Engineering Graduate Faculty, for which a petition must be submitted. The petition must state clearly:

• the rationale for taking the Individual Studies course, rather than regular courses,

• the program of study defining the content of the course and the work to be performed by the student in taking the course, and

• the grading criteria whereby the student=s work will be assessed.

The petition must be submitted by the end of the first week of class of the semester in which the course is to be taught. The graduate faculty will evaluate the petition and render a decision by the second week of classes. If the course is approved, the faculty member must document the student’s work and the grading in the student’s file. No more than six (6) total credits of NucE 496 and NucE 596 courses may be applied toward the graduate degree.

6) There are two options for the M.S. degree. Requirements for the Thesis Option and the Non-Thesis Option follow:

a) Thesis Option - six (6) credits of thesis research, NucE 600, and the submittal of a thesis that meets the Graduate School requirements.

b) Non-Thesis Option - an additional six (6) credits, for a total of 18 credits, of 500-level courses and the submittal of a scholarly paper that must be approved by a faculty supervisor and the Program Chair.

7) The remaining credits must be courses at the 400- and 500-level as selected by the student with approval by the student's advisor as having significance and value for the degree program.