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Current Students

The Doctoral Degree

The Ph.D. degree is the highest degree awarded by the ME Graduate Program, and is primarily recommended for students who are interested in a career in teaching and/or research.

Must complete these requirements to achieve candidacy:

(1) 18 letter-graded credit hours of graduate level coursework beyond the MSE degree.
(2) Successful completion of the Qualifying Examination.
(3) Successful completion of the Preliminary Examination.
(4) 36 RFT's (See Below).
(5) 2 Cognate Courses; elected as part of the relevant Master's or the 18 hours of graduate course work.

Must also complete these requirements to receive the Ph.D.:

(6) Dissertation Research.
(7) A Written Dissertation.
(8) An Oral Dissertation Defense.
(9) 68 total RFT'S (See Below).

Planning Your Program

The Ph.D. degree is very heavily weighted toward research. In planning your Ph.D. program it is imperative that you work closely with your research faculty adviser who may also become the chairperson of your dissertation committee. The early formulation of a research area will be very helpful in course selection. Students must complete 18 letter-graded credits of graduate coursework beyond the Master's (MS) degree, pass the Qualifying Examination, formulate a dissertation committee, pass the Preliminary Examination, and write and defend your research (see below for more information).

To help guide you through your Ph.D. academic career, please access the following websites:

• Grad Tools - Dissertation Checklist (Doctoral Steps).
• Rackham Graduate School (Student Handbook).

Coursework and Rackham Fee Totals (RFT's)

Beyond the MS degree, 18 letter-graded credits of graduate level coursework are required. Most courses within the College of Engineering are acceptable except ME 599 courses that are NOT taught by UM faculty. The student who earns a relevant MS degree from another university will have 18 RFT's applied to his/her record upon enrollment in the program and the submission of an official MS transcript to Rackham Graduate School with degree posted. The student who earns a relevant MS degree at Michigan will accumulate RFT's from the very first term of enrollment in Rackham. Of the 18 letter-graded coursework credits beyond the MS degree, at least 6 must be cognate courses, or the cognate credits may be taken (in spirit) from a relevant MS degree. A total of 36 RFT's must be completed to be advanced to candidacy and may consist of (1) the 18 letter-graded coursework and (2) 18 hours from a relevant MS degree. A minimum of 68 RFT's are required for the Ph.D. degree. See the Chapter on RFTs in the Graduate Student Handbook. The most important to understand is that RFTs are calculated according to the number of credit hours paid for, not necessarily the number of hours enrolled.

The Qualifying Examination

PhD Qualifying Exam

Before entering the QE system you must either be admitted to the PhD program OR, as a MSE student, have a strong petition including the support of a research advisor. The QE is a two-step process:

First, you must pass an exam comprised of 3 Graduate Core Curriculum Exams (GCC exams) based on specific graduate classes in our department. The following classes are scheduled as part of the Graduate Core Curriculum (GCC) classes for the 2007-2008 academic year:

FALL	WINTER
ME 511 (Solid Mechanics)	ME 501 (Mathematics)
ME 520 (Fluid Mechanics)	MSE 520 (Materials)
ME 540 (Dynamics and Vibrations)	ME 530 (Heat Transfer)
ME 552 (Design)	ME 535 (Thermodynamics and Combustion)
ME 553 (MEMS)	ME 541 (Dynamics and Vibrations)
ME 564 (Controls)	ME 555 (Design)
ME 587 (Manufacturing)	ME 561 (Controls)
ME 599.002 (TBA)	ME 599.003 (Biosystem)

In the first year of your PhD studies, you may take up to four exams - you keep your highest three scores and may retake one exam. Stop by the Academic Service Office (ASO) to pick up the Ph.D. Qualifying Exam Handbook.

Each GCC exam consists of the final exam for that class plus an extra hour of questions also based on that course's syllabus. A student need not be enrolled in the course to take the GCC exam.

After passing the written GCC exam, you will take the Research Fundamentals Exam (RFE). The RFE format is set by each area - but it will be an oral exam based on both your research and an examination of your fundamental knowledge surrounding the field you are currently studying.

Selecting a Faculty Research Adviser

To select a faculty research adviser, the student should talk to all faculty in potential areas of research interest. If the research topic is of an interdisciplinary character, the student may choose to have two co-chairpersons for the dissertation committee. The chairperson or at least one co-chairperson must be a Mechanical Engineering faculty. After the dissertation committee is formed, it is that committee's responsibility to set any additional requirements, such as course elections, that may be needed to strengthen the student's background.

The Preliminary Examination and Candidacy

The preliminary examination is an oral examination administered by the student's dissertation committee. Students who have passed the QE, and usually have completed all coursework, will take the preliminary examination. Once all requirements are successfully completed (QE, at least 36 RFT's that include at least 18 letter-graded coursework as a Rackham student, and preliminary examination), the advancement to candidacy will be processed. The preliminary examination and candidacy is described further in Memo GR-4.

The Dissertation Research, Writing, and Defense

The dissertation is the most important aspect of the Ph.D. program and documents the original contributions made by the student as a result of independent research. It is important for the student to meet frequently with their dissertation committee members, and particularly the committee chairperson as the research work progresses. Most students will schedule at least one dissertation committee meeting between the time of the preliminary examination and the dissertation defense. This provides the student with an opportunity to report on the research progress and to obtain feedback from the committee members.

The dissertation must be approved by all the members of the student's dissertation committee, and presented orally in a public dissertation defense. The student will prepare a rough draft of the dissertation and provide it for all the committee members for their comments before preparing the final draft. When the final draft is distributed to the committee members together with the evaluation forms, a defense is also scheduled for a date approximately two weeks later. The defense is public, and a notice is posted in the Rackham Graduate School. The student should also prepare an announcement of the defense for posting locally in the department and the college. The chairperson of the dissertation committee should make sure that after the defense is completed, copies of the signed evaluation forms are sent directly to the Rackham Graduate School, Office of Records and Dissertation.