Doctorate Aerospace Engineering Programs

Traditional and Direct from Bachelor’s

Please contact Admissions at stgrad@mst.edu for admission requirements.

The associate chair for graduate affairs will advise the student regarding his/her academic program during the first semester, or until the student selects a graduate advisor. When a student selects a graduate advisor, the student must submit Form 5 to the associate chair for graduate affairs. In situations where two faculty members are actively involved in advising a student, the student may have a graduate advisor and a graduate co-advisor. After the student selects a graduate advisor, the responsibility of advising the student in regards to his/her academic and research programs will reside with the graduate advisor until the student graduates. The graduate advisor or co–advisor must be a faculty member of the mechanical and aerospace engineering (MAE) department.

A graduate student is strongly discouraged from changing graduate advisors. When an unavoidable circumstance arises and warrants consideration for a change, the student and his/her graduate advisor must meet with the associate chair for graduate affairs to resolve the issue before the student may select another graduate advisor.

 

Students with a qualifying master’s degree coming into the program:

In order to obtain a Ph.D. in mechanical engineering, a student must complete the following at a minimum:

  • 60 total credit hours
  • 24 credit hours of lecture courses
  • 36 credit hours of AE 6099
  • 12 credit hours of coursework in the MAE department
  • 3 credit hours of mathematics, statistics, or computer science; AE/ME: 5830 Applied Computational Methods may be used to satisfy this requirement
  • 9 credit hours of 6xxx courses
  • pass qualifying examination (see below)
  • Meet residency requirements (see below)
  • Publish at least three journal articles (see below)
  • Complete dissertation (see below)
  • Pass final examination (see below)
  • Meet seminar requirements (see below)

In order to obtain a direct Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering, a student must complete the following at a minimum:

  • 90 total credit hours
  • 45 credit hours of lecture courses
  • 45 credit hours of AE 6099
  • 21 credit hours of coursework in the MAE department, at least 3 credit hours of which is at the 6xxx level
  • 6 credit hours of mathematics, statistics, or computer science; AE/ME: 5830 Applied Computational Methods may be used to satisfy 3 credit hours of this requirement
  • 15 credit hours of 6xxx courses
  • Pass qualifying examination (see below)
  • Pass comprehensive examination (see below)
  • Meet residency requirements (see below)
  • Publish at least three journal articles (see below)
  • Complete dissertation (see below)
  • Pass final examination (see below)
  • Meet seminar requirements (see below)


No course below the 5xxx level may be applied to the degree requirements. A graduate student accumulating 10 or more credit hours of C and F grades shall no longer be a candidate for an advanced degree from Missouri S&T.

In order to earn a graduate degree, all students must achieve a cumulative GPA of 3.0 or higher in all graduate work taken at Missouri S&T, as well as for all graduate courses listed on the program of study (Form 1 for master’s students and Form 5 for doctoral students).

The student is considered to have passed the qualifying examination if he/she has taken at least four courses and has a GPA ≥ 3.5 at the end of his/her fourth semester. At least two courses must be in the MAE department, one of which must be at the 6xxx level.

The comprehensive examination is taken after the student has completed the required coursework for his/her doctoral program and at least six months before his/her dissertation defense. The examination will be both written and oral; the specific content of which will be determined by the student’s graduate advisor in consultation with the student’s advisory committee. The student’s advisory committee will consist of at least five faculty members, including the graduate advisor. At least four of the members must belong to the graduate faculty and at least one of the members must be from outside of the MAE Department. The chair of the advisory committee is the student’s graduate advisor. If the student fails his/her comprehensive examination, a second comprehensive examination may be scheduled no sooner than twelve weeks after the student’s first comprehensive examination. If the student fails the comprehensive examination a second time, he/she will no longer be eligible to receive a degree from the graduate program. Further information regarding the comprehensive examination is available in the Graduate Catalog.

 

The dissertation is a document embodying the results of the student’s original investigation under the guidance of his/her advisory committee. It is expected that this document will yield scholarly products, typically one or more articles worthy of publication in high-quality archival journals. The student’s advisory committee will examine the student’s dissertation closely for both scientific content and format, and deem it worthy of acceptance by the Graduate Faculty as meeting the requirements for the Doctor of Philosophy degree. The dissertation must be formatted appropriately. Formatting specification and further information regarding dissertations are available at Formatting Resources.

The final examination is an oral defense of the student’s dissertation and may be attended by any interested person. It may not be scheduled sooner than six months after the completion of the comprehensive examination. Notice of the final examination shall be publicly announced by the Graduate Education at least one week prior to the examination. A candidate will be considered to have passed the final examination if all, or all but one, of the advisory committee vote positively. If the candidate fails the final examination, the advisory committee will recommend suggested work to be completed or other remedial measures to be taken before another examination can be scheduled. Further information regarding the final examination is available in the Graduate Catalog.

The Ph.D. student will normally complete three years of residency, which is the equivalent of six semesters and a minimum of 72 credit hours of full–time academic work beyond the bachelor’s degree. At least half of those credit hours must be taken at Missouri S&T. For Ph.D. students holding a master’s degree, this three–year residency requirement can be met by completing the equivalent of two years (four semesters) of full–time academic work beyond the master’s degree, including at least two consecutive semesters in residence at Missouri S&T while enrolled in at least nine graduate credit hours per semester. At least fifteen hours of graduate coursework, exclusive of research (ME 6099), special problems, special investigations, and seminars, must be taken on the Missouri S&T campus. The Graduate Catalog contains further information regarding residency requirements and how to calculate residency. The Ph.D. student’s residency requirements are to be included on their Graduate Form 5. For distance Ph.D. students, residency requirements are calculated differently. The associate chair for graduate affairs should be consulted for further details.

A Ph.D. student in the MAE department is required to have at least three peer-reviewed journal articles from the Ph.D. work published or accepted as the first author at the time of the dissertation defense. Exceptions require approval from the advisory committee and the notification of the associate chair for graduate affairs.

All graduate students are required to attend the department seminar series.

  1. Register for classes, after consulting with your graduate advisor, before each semester. If you do not have a graduate advisor, the associate chair for graduate affairs will act as your academic advisor until you select a graduate advisor. It is expected that you will select a graduate advisor before the end of your second semester at the latest. Once you select a graduate advisor, you submit the graduate advisor form‌ to the associate chair for graduate affairs.
  2. Pass the qualifying examination at the end of your fourth semester. The associate chair for graduate affairs will report the results of your qualifying examination. You do not need to fill out any paperwork.
  3. Select, in consultation with your graduate advisor, your advisory committee. This committee will consist of at least five faculty members, including your graduate advisor. At least four of the members must belong to the graduate faculty and at least one of the members must be from outside of the MAE Department. The chair of the advisory committee is your graduate advisor.
  4. In consultation with your graduate advisor, complete Graduate Form 5. This form lists all of the courses you have taken and plan to take, as well as your advisory committee members. Your Graduate Form 5 must be submitted by the end of your fourth semester to the associate chair for graduate affairs. If there are any changes in your coursework or advisory committee, you must submit Graduate Form 5A. This form should be done once you are absolutely sure there will be no further changes. The Graduate Form 5 (direct) Checklist can be used to aid this process.
  5. Take the comprehensive examination after you have completed all of your coursework requirements. Your advisory committee reports the results of your comprehensive examination by submitting Graduate Form 6 to the associate chair for graduate affairs.
  6. Submit the Application for Graduation by the end of the fourth week of the semester in which you will graduate (second week if you plan to graduate in the Summer semester) to the Office of the Registrar.
  7. Select the date, time and place of your final examination, in consultation with your graduate advisor, and inform the Graduate Education Education electronically so that the final examination can be publicly announced at least one week in advance. At or before this time you should submit a draft of your dissertation to the Graduate Education Office for review. Note: you must be enrolled the semester in which you take your final examination. Your graduate advisor reports the results of your oral examination by submitting Graduate Form 7 to the associate chair for graduate affairs.
  8. Submit a final copy of your dissertation to the Graduate Education Office.

The following pre-graduation checklist can be used to plan the final steps of your program:

Pre-Graduation Checklist - Ph.D.