Ph.D. Student Requirements

Ph.D. students are required to complete 90 credits of course and dissertation work. At least 30 credits must be taken within ESSP. At least 18 credits of ESSP 999 must be completed. A maximum of 30 credits may be transferred from Master's Degree work.

International students without a GRA are required to take 9 credits per semester to be considered full time.

All students must follow the timeline for the submission of all forms, with the consequence that tuition funding will not be granted by the department until the semester after the form is submitted.

Departmental policy states that a student who falls below a cumulative 3.00 GPA in coursework since starting the graduate program in the ESSP department will be placed on academic probation. Students on academic probation are given one semester to raise their cumulative GPA to 3.00 or higher. If a student does not achieve a cumulative GPA of 3.00 or higher after the one semester probation period, the student will be dismissed from the ESSP graduate program. As well, students who are on academic probation will not receive a tuition wavier from the department.

First Semester

Required Courses: ESSP 503, ESSP 504, ESSP 505, and ESSP 590 (10 credits)

During the first semester, graduate students are required to select a faculty advisor for their thesis research.

Second Semester

Required Courses: ESSP 506, ESSP 507, ESSP 508, and ESSP 590 (10 credits)

By the end of the second semester, graduate students are required to select a committee of at least five members (minimum of three from ESSP, and at least one at-large member from outside ESSP), as well as submit a program of study as approved by the committee.

Third Semester

Courses: ESSP 596 OR Elective courses (6 credits)

Elective courses are chosen by the graduate student with approval from their advisor and/or committee.

Elective courses can be from within ESSP or other departments relevant to the thesis topic.

Defend dissertation proposal.

Fourth Semester

Courses: ESSP 596 OR Elective courses (6 credits)

Finish elective courses.

Qualifying exams are conducted late within the fourth semester (advance to candidacy).

Fifth Semester

Required Courses: ESSP 596 OR ESSP 999 (6 credits)

Sixth Semester

Required Courses: ESSP 596 OR ESSP 999 (6 credits)

Seventh Semester

Required Courses: ESSP 596 OR ESSP 999 (6 credits)

Eight Semester

Required Courses: ESSP 999 (6 credits)

Ninth Semester

Required Courses: ESSP 999 (6 credits)

Tenth Semester

Required Courses: ESSP 999 (6 credits)

Apply for graduation at the beginning of the final semester of your graduate work.

Ph.D. students must have approval from all committee members that the dissertation work is ready to defend. Students are required to allow two weeks for committee members to review their thesis. If the dissertation is not satisfactory, students must continue to improve their dissertation until all committee members agree it is defendable. Once committee members agree, students must submit a preliminary approval of dissertation form as well as a notice of defense form.

Graduate students must submit their dissertation to the graduate school for formatting before the
final defense.

Defend dissertation two weeks after the notice of defense form is submitted. The graduate student must provide the final report on candidate form to the committee at the time of defense.

The signature page from the dissertation and final report form must be submitted to the graduate school.

A final copy of the dissertation is uploaded to UMI/Proquest Publishing. Once the dissertation is uploaded, your graduate studies are completed and you may graduate.