The Ph.D. program emphasizes scholarly research and helps students prepare for research and related careers in the nuclear power industry, national security, government agencies, national laboratories, hospitals, and academe. Students are formally considered doctoral candidates after they have passed the written and oral candidacy examinations.

A doctoral program in nuclear engineering 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.

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 of the NucE Graduate Handbook 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.