Doctoral candidates must pass a qualifying examination. This examination is offered twice each academic year: once in the Fall and once in the Spring.

Purpose

The qualifying exam evaluates whether doctoral students, after completing two semesters of courses, should continue with PhD research.

Prerequisite

To take the qualifying exam, students need

• To be enrolled in the MS/PhD Program in EEE
• At least 20 credits (two semesters) of coursework (credits from research do not count) and have taken at least two courses taught by EEE faculty members who are not their primary advisors.
• An overall GPA of 3.5 or higher

Format

Students should work with their advisor to select a committee composed of three EEE department members who represent the department's focal areas (energy, water, and material cycles). The PhD advisor may be a committee member.

One week before the exam, each committee member will provide a peer-reviewed research article (not a review paper) that the committee member believes is the intersection between the examinee's research topic and the examiner's area of expertise within EEE.

Students should give a 20-minute, uninterrupted presentation that briefly discusses their research and then covers the three papers, followed by 40 minutes of questions and answers.

Evaluation criteria include fundamental knowledge of EEE's focal areas and the clarity of the presentation. The evaluation can result in the following grades: Pass or Fail. There are no retakes of the exam. A student who fails the qualifying exam will leave the program with a terminal MS degree.