Graduate Written Examination: Must pass by fall of the second year. See Chapters 2 and 7.

Filing of Graduate Degree Plan: File as soon as possible after passing the graduate written examination and selecting a research adviser. The Degree Plan must be filed at least one semester before the Preliminary Oral Examination.

Minimum Grade Point Average: 3.3 in the required courses.

Course Requirements: At least 40 credits, including Physics 5001/2, 5011/2, and 5201. Two semesters of a seminar in the student's research area are required.

Minor Field: 12 credits. If the student declares a formal minor, these credits must be in the graduate program corresponding to that minor. Final authority for the designation of what courses can be counted toward this requirement is the Director of Graduate Studies.

Course Level: All courses must be at the 4xxx, 5xxx or 8xxx level. (Some 4xxx courses, such as Physics 4001, 4002, 4101, 4202 and 4303, do not earn graduate credits.) At least 6 credits of the courses in the sub-field and 8 credits total (not counting thesis credits) must be at the 8xxx level.

Foreign Language Requirement: No formal requirement. However, the adviser may require a reading knowledge of a particular foreign language when that is necessary for the writing of the dissertation.

Preliminary Oral Examination: Ph.D. candidates must pass the Preliminary Oral Examination. See Chapter 3 for more information.

Thesis Credits: 24 (Physics 8888)

Writing and Defense of Thesis: Ph.D. candidates must write and defend a thesis in a final oral examination. See Chapter 3 for more details. The thesis must be written and formatted according to the Graduate School rules, and an electronic copy of the final document approved by the thesis committee must be submitted to the Graduate School.