Choose Thesis Advisor

If you have not identified an advisor in the admission process, you should ask your department to assign a temporary advisor in your first semester.

When: By the end of your first semester

Forms: Working with your Advisor, complete a Plan of Study and submit the original to the Office of the Registrar.

See the Frequently Asked Questions page on the Graduate Education Office website

Pass the Doctoral Preliminary Exam

The purpose of this exam is to determine if you are prepared to engage in doctoral studies. Passing this examination is required to be considered as a doctoral degree candidate, and to qualify for doctoral studies financial aid.

The Preliminary Exam includes content normally covered in materials science and engineering related bachelor's program.

Specific Areas of Content:
You must have first-year graduate proficiency in three main areas and one area of specialization:

• Thermodynamics and Kinetics,
• Structure and Defects,
• Properties, and
• One additional area of specialization in;
  • metals,
  • ceramics and glasses,
  • polymers,
  • electronic materials,
  • biomaterials, or
  • composites.

The Doctoral Preliminary Exam consists of 2 parts:

1. Written Exam
2. Oral Exam

When: You would take this exam after completing your first year of graduate studies. For example, if you began in September you would take the exam 13 months later, in October of the following year.

Coordinate your exam date with your Advisor.

You must have a minimum cumulative GPA of 3.0 in Rensselaer's Graduate School to take this Exam. See details below.

1. Written Exam:

Each semester the Department Chairperson (or his/her designee) selects a faculty group to create and grade the written examination.

Everyone takes the same written examination during any particular period, except for the specific section relating your chosen area of specialization (see list above).

When: Written exams are normally scheduled in October and April each year.

You must pass the written exam (65% or higher) before taking the oral exam.

If you fail the written exam, you may retake it only once, generally in your next semester. The second written exam is final, and you will not be allowed a third opportunity to take the written exam.

If you fail the second written exam, you will not be admitted to the doctoral program.

2. Oral Exam:

Each semester the Department Chairperson (or his/her designee) selects a faculty committee to conduct all the oral exams for the semester (note that your advisor is never part of your oral exam committee). The committee consists of four faculty members plus an alternate representing the three standard areas of content and one area of specialization (see list above).

Although you can not select your oral examining committee, you can identify the chairperson of your committee and specify the order in which the examiners are called.

When: You must take and pass the Oral Exam within the same exam semester as passing the Written Exam. For example, if you took the written exam in October, you would have until the end of the semester in mid-December to have taken and passed the Oral Exam.

The Oral Exam is graded on a Pass/Fail basis by the committee.

If you fail the first oral exam you will be allowed to repeat the oral exam once. In this case, you don't need to re-take the written exam you already passed. At the time of your second Oral Exam, the original committee will re-examine you at the time of the next semester’s oral exams on subject matter limited in scope to the areas deemed to have been of inadequate performance during the previously failed oral exam. The entire committee may ask you questions and will be judging your performance. Three or more affirmative votes are required for you to pass this second Oral Exam.

The second oral exam is final, and you will be allowed a third opportunity to take this exam.

Form a Doctoral Committee

Prior to taking the Candidacy Exam, you need to create a Doctoral Committee. In addition to your Thesis Advisor (who serves as your Committee chairperson), your Doctoral Committee as an asset for providing timely research guidance and assistance prior to your final thesis submission. You should plan on meeting with your Doctoral Committee at least once a semester to make sure your thesis topic is suitable for doctoral work and is sufficiently focused.

If you properly employ your Doctoral Committee throughout your program, then your Thesis Defense (see step 9) should not generate any major difficulties or problems with your work or conclusions.

To create a Doctoral Committee, you need to make faculty recommendations to your Advisor. These recommendations need to be approved by the Department Chairperson, then final appointments are made by the Dean of the Graduate School.

When: At least 3 months prior to taking the Candidacy Exam

Forms: A Nomination of Doctoral Committee Form needs to be filed with the Office of Graduate Education

Contact your Thesis Advisor

Prepare a Candidacy Proposal

Your Candidacy Proposal delineates your thesis topic, provides a historical review of your topic, and outlines your proposed research and its relevance to your field of study. It should be approximately 6 to 15 pages and need not, but may, contain new or original data or theoretical calculations.

Your proposal works best if it identifies the bigger picture of your proposed research within the field, highlighting its background and importance to the larger body of work.

When: You must distribute your Candidacy Proposal to all of your Doctoral Committee members at least one week prior to your Candidacy Examination.

Contact your Thesis Advisor

Pass The Candidacy Examination

The purpose of the Candidacy Examination is to provide you with useful and timely input about your thesis topic and its implementation.

You will need to make a presentation to the Doctoral Committee of:

• a synopsis of the thesis topic, and
• the proposed research, and its relevance to your field of study.

Your presentation should be approximately 20 to 30 minutes (without questions). However, you should expect questions throughout your presentation. Then, your presentation is followed by Doctoral Committee members asking you detailed questions relating to your overall thesis area.

Typically, the meeting is of two hours total duration, and you'll be expected to demonstrate the background knowledge and skills deemed essential for conducting research in your chosen field.

When: You must take the Candidacy Exam within one year of the date that you passed the Doctoral Preliminary Exam.

Forms: A Record of Candidacy Exam Form needs to be filed with the Office of Graduate Education

This exam is passed by a vote of "Acceptable" by your Doctoral Committee. If they vote "Unacceptable" you can re-schedule the Exam with the same committee (must be within 6 months of your first exam date). In your second attempt, you should focus on correcting any shortcomings identified by the Committee in the first exam.

Three "Unacceptable" attempts may result in the discontinuance of all financial support.

Publish Thesis Related Paper(s)

When: Anytime.
You must publish at least one scholarly paper based on your thesis research before you can schedule your Thesis Defense.

Submit a Draft of your Thesis to your Advisor

When: No less than 30 working days prior to the proposed date for the Thesis Defense.

For information on format requirements, consult the Thesis Writing Manual.

Submit Approved Thesis Draft to your Doctoral Committee

When: Once your draft has been approved by your Thesis Advisor, you must submit it to your Doctoral Committee no less than 15 working days before your proposed Thesis Defense date.

Pass Your Thesis Defense

The Thesis Defense is your final examination for your doctoral studies. It represents the culmination of your substantial amount of scholarship and effort.

The Thesis Defense provides you a mechanism for disseminating your work to the technical community at large. If you have had adequate and meaningful interactions on a continual basis with your Thesis Advisor and Doctoral Committee there should be no surprises at Thesis Defense time.

Your thesis advisor serves as the chairperson of your Thesis Defense meeting.

You should prepare no more than a 1-hour oral presentation of your Thesis emphasizing the relevance and principal achievements of your work. It is common for your Doctoral Committee to ask short questions of a clarification nature throughout your presentation, so be prepared to answer these questions accordingly.

Following your presentation, additional questions of a more comprehensive nature may be asked.

When: The Thesis Defense is conducted after your thesis advisor (or advisors) has (have) approved your thesis draft, you have completed stsubmitted it to your Doctoral Committee for their evaluation.

Then, the Department Chairperson will post notices regarding the time, date and location for the Thesis Defense, which is open to the public.

Forms:

Submit;

• 2 Copies of your Thesis

• 1 Copy of your Abstract

• Microfilm Agreement

• Record of Thesis/Project Examination Form

• Earned Doctorates form

• Graduate Student Exit Survey

to the Office of Graduate Education

Pay;

• Binding Fee to the Bursar (approx. $80.00)

After your Thesis Defense, your Doctoral Committee will vote to accept or reject your thesis document. If accepted, each member will sign your Thesis to signify their acceptance.

Tentative approval of the thesis document may be given if revisions are required. These revisions may include changes in grammatical, organizational and/or scientific content and conclusions, generally requiring as few as one to two days to complete.

In a more serious situation, substantial revisions involving additional laboratory work or computations, for example, may be involved. This is usually the consequence of insufficient interaction between you and your Doctoral Committee members prior to your thesis defense.

In the unlikely event that your Doctoral Committee is unable to reach a unanimous decision regarding the acceptance of your thesis, after revisions, the Committee shall meet with the Department Chairperson and an ad-hoc committee of department faculty assigned by the Departmental Chairperson to resolve the issues involved. If a resolution cannot be obtained, the final authority for adjudicating the disputed actions rests with the Departmental Chairperson.

Graduate!

When/Forms: The same semester as your Degree Application was filed with the Registrar.

Please give us your forwarding address when you leave the Department.