Ph.D. Examinations - General Examination (Qualifying Examination)

Please review this document for guidance on the format of the General Examination (also known as Qualifying Examination). To hold your General Examination, please follow these steps:

1. By the end of your first year in the Ph.D. program working under your major advisor, assemble a 5-member Advisory Committee (which includes your major advisor).
2. At a time no later than the first four weeks of the second year in the Ph.D. program working under your major advisor, schedule a 1-hour presentation with your Advisory Committee. We suggest you first find available times that would work for all members of the committee and then contact the Graduate Studies Coordinator at engr-me-dgs@uconn.edu to find a room to hold your presentation. The preferred format of the examination is in person; however, depending on circumstances it may be held in hybrid mode (i.e., in person and providing an online meeting for remote attendees from the Advisory Committee) or fully online. In the former case, you must ensure the room selected for the examination has the technology to support the meeting.
3. Prepare a draft Plan of Study that includes all graduate-level courses you have taken already for your current graduate degree at UConn and obtain an electronic unofficial copy of transcripts for all your prior graduate degrees. You must email these documents to your major advisor prior to the examination. 
4. Hold your examination. The General Examination is not open to the public. Bring the draft Plan of Study and the transcripts; the Advisory Committee will use these documents to recommend courses you must take during your Ph.D. program.
5. If you do not pass the examination, you must take any actions suggested by the Advisory Committee and reschedule the examination at a later time. A second failed examination is cause for dismissal from the program.
6. If you pass the examination, complete and submit the Report on the General Examination for the Doctoral Degree form signed by all five members of the Advisory Committee, and email the completed form to Degree Audit at degreeaudit@uconn.edu.
7. Complete the Plan of Study including the courses recommended by the Advisory Committee, have it signed by the Advisory Committee, and submit it to Degree Audit at degreeaudit@uconn.edu with copy to the School’s Director of Graduate Studies.

Dissertation Proposal (Prospectus Examination)

Please review this document for guidance on the format of the Dissertation Proposal (also known as Prospectus Examination). To hold your Dissertation Proposal, please follow these steps:

1. Start preparing a dissertation proposal document with guidance from your major advisor.
2. At a time no later than six months prior to your expected Ph.D. graduation date, schedule a 1—1.5-hour presentation with your Advisory Committee. We suggest you first find available times that would work for all members of the committee and then contact the Graduate Studies Coordinator at engr-me-dgs@uconn.edu to find a room to hold your presentation. The preferred format of the examination is in person; however, depending on circumstances it may be held in hybrid mode (i.e., in person and providing an online meeting for remote attendees from the Advisory Committee) or fully online. In the former case, you must ensure the room selected for the examination has the technology to support the meeting.
3. Send a copy of your dissertation proposal to all members of the Advisory Committee no later than 3 days prior to the examination.
4. Hold your examination. The Dissertation Proposal is not open to the public.
5. If you do not pass the examination, you must take any actions suggested by the Advisory Committee and reschedule the examination at a later time.
6. If you pass the examination, complete and submit the Doctoral Dissertation Proposal form signed by all five members of the Advisory Committee, and email the completed form to Degree Audit at degreeaudit@uconn.edu. Note: this form has room for signatures for your major and co-major advisors, and three associate advisors. If you do not have a co-major advisor, cross out the word “co-major” and write “associate” above or add a line outside the signatures box for the signature of the associate advisor. In any case, you must provide all five signatures.

Final Examination (Dissertation Defense)

To hold your Ph.D. defense, please follow these steps:

1. Write a doctoral dissertation with guidance from your major advisor.
2. Schedule a 1—1.5-hour presentation with your Advisory Committee. We suggest you first find available times that would work for all members of the committee and then contact the Graduate Studies Coordinator at engr-me-dgs@uconn.edu to find a room to hold your presentation.
3. Send the title and abstract of your dissertation and the names of your major advisor and Advisory Committee members to the Graduate Student Coordinator at engr-me-dgs@uconn.edu to put together the public announcement of the defense. The Graduate Student Coordinator will make the public announcements of the dissertation. The preferred format of the examination is in person; however, depending on circumstances it may be held in hybrid mode (i.e., in person and providing an online meeting for remote attendees from the Advisory Committee) or fully online. In the former case, you must ensure the room selected for the examination has the technology to support the meeting.
4. Send a copy of your dissertation to all members of the Advisory Committee no later than 5 days prior to the examination.
5. Hold your examination. The Dissertation Proposal is open to the public. If an online meeting is being offered, it is recommended that online attendees are accepted in the online meeting by the student’s major advisor, and the general expectation is that members of the public attend the defense in person.
6. If you do not pass the examination, you must take any actions suggested by the Advisory Committee and reschedule the examination at a later time.
7. If you pass the examination, complete and submit the Report on the Final Examination form, which is an electronic form that must be signed by all five members of the Advisory Committee

Major Advisor and Advisory Committee

To obtain an MS Plan A or Ph.D. degree from the school, the student’s major advisor must be a member of the Graduate Faculty of the school. This includes all faculty whose primary affiliation is with the School of Mechanical, Aerospace, and Manufacturing Engineering. Faculty who are not members of the school’s Graduate Faculty must first become members of it; to initiate this process, the faculty member must email the school’s Director. We recommend this process is started with months in advance of any of the graduate examinations. In case the student changes their major advisor, adds a co-major advisor, or removes a co-major advisor, the student submit the Change of Graduate Major Advisor form with the required signatures and submit it to Degree Audit at degreeaudit@uconn.edu.

Students must assemble their Advisory Committee in consultation with their major advisor. The major and any co-major advisor are part of the Advisory Committee. It is recommended a majority of the Advisory Committee are faculty members of the school. It is also encouraged that at least one member of the committee is from outside of the school—either a faculty member from another department at UConn; a faculty member from another institution; or a member of a non-academic institution such as a national laboratory, a governmental institution, or industry. To appoint an individual not affiliated to UConn as an external Associate Advisor in the student’s Advisory Committee, a request must be made by the student’s major advisor to the Graduate School accompanied by a curriculum vitae of the individual; for more details, please consult the graduate catalog. As this process may take some time, it is recommended this request is initiated well in advance of scheduling any graduate examination.

The minimum number of members for the Advisory Committee is as follows. MS Advisory Committees must have at least three members. In the case of MS Plan B students, the Director of Graduate Studies (who is the student’s major advisor) assembles an ad-hoc committee. Ph.D. Advisory Committees must have at least five members. This is a requirement for all the Ph.D. examinations described in Section 11.1. Per Graduate School regulations, all examination forms must be signed by at least five members of the committee.

Graduate Seminar

All graduate students must complete a minimum number of semesters in which they enroll and pass in the Graduate Seminar (ME 6340). The required number of semesters is stipulated in the Graduate Handbook and in the Program Requirements listed here.

Students must attend at least five seminars in a semester to obtain a passing grade. Although discouraged, if prior to the end of the semester there are insufficient seminars scheduled in the school to satisfy the five-seminars requirement, students may attend another (other) seminar(s) in the College of Engineering, complete the Missed Seminar Makeup form signed by the seminar’s organizer or host, and submitted to the Graduate Seminar Coordinator of the corresponding semester.

Exception for remote students: graduate students conducting their research work in a remote institution (for example, a national laboratory or another academic institution) as part of their UConn graduate degree may be granted an exemption to the requirement of attending the seminars in the school. To obtain this exception, the student must:

• Submit a graduate petition no later than second week of semester when exemption is requested. This petition must be approved by the student’s major advisor and the Director of Graduate Studies.
• Inform the Graduate Seminar Coordinator (i.e., the instructor listed in StudentAdmin) of the exception approval.
• Register for the graduate seminar course (ME 6340) as usual.
• Attend 5 in-person or on-line seminar at hosting research institution.
• Have their supervisor at the host institution send an email to the Graduate Seminar coordinator engr-me-dgs@uconn.edu providing a list of the seminars the student attended. This email must be sent before the last date of final exams.

The exemption can be granted for at most two semesters. This process must be followed for each semester the exemption is requested.

Course Transfers

Students who have completed prior graduate work at an institution other than the University of Connecticut may transfer up to six credit hours of graduate-level work, provided the credits were not used to satisfy the requirements of a degree in that institution, and subject to approval by the school. The student must have obtained a grade equivalent to "B-" or higher in the courses to be transferred. Students must first submit a Graduate Petition Form requesting the transfer, accompanied by the syllabi of the courses at the other institution. If approved, the student must complete a Transfer Credit Request Form and email it to Degree Audit at degreeaudit@uconn.edu.

Students who completed their undergraduate degree at the University of Connecticut may transfer up to 12 credits of graduate-level (i.e., 5/6000-level) courses taken during their undergraduate studies to satisfy the coursework requirements of their graduate degree, even if those courses were used to satisfy undergraduate degree requirements (e.g., electives). In this case, a graduate petition is not necessary, and the student may directly submit the Transfer Credit Request form to Degree Audit.

Note that undergraduate-level courses (i.e., 4000- and lower-level courses at the University of Connecticut or equivalent courses at other institutions) cannot be transferred to satisfy graduate degree coursework requirements. Please note that some University of Connecticut courses offer both a 3/4000-level and a 5/6000-level section (with a different course number); while the learning objectives and assessment between the two sections differ, they usually meet at the same time and place. Therefore, University of Connecticut undergraduate students who take these dual courses with the purpose of transferring them to a future graduate program at the University of Connecticut must make sure they are enrolled in the graduate-level section of the course. If an undergraduate student mistakenly registers for the 3/4000-level section of the course, it cannot be transferred to a graduate degree, even if the student completed all the work and assessments for the graduate-level section.

Independent Studies

A graduate student intending to enroll in a graduate independent study course (ME 6300) must complete an ME Graduate Independent Study Form in Kuali Build. After approval is granted, submit the Student Enrollment Request Form to enroll in the course. The school designee to whom the form should be routed by the student’s advisor is the Director of Graduate Studies. 

Graduate Assistantships

An assistantship is awarded to a graduate student who provides teaching (teaching assistantship: TA) or research (research assistantship: RA) support to the University that is a part of their academic program. In recognition of this support, tuition is waived by the University and subsidized health insurance is offered. Graduate Assistants (GAs) are responsible for paying their student fees at the negotiated GA rate.

To be appointed, to retain an appointment, or to be reappointed, a student must hold Regular (not Provisional) status, must maintain a cumulative average of at least B (3.00) in any course work taken, must be eligible to register (i.e., must not have more than three viable grades of Incomplete on their academic record), must be enrolled in a graduate degree program scheduled to extend through the entire period of the appointment or reappointment, and must be a full-time student enrolled in 6 or more credits.

Additional GA information can be found here: https://grad.uconn.edu/graduate-assistantships/.

Stipend Increases: Successful general examination (also called qualifying examination) stipend increases will not be processed beyond two weeks after the first day of class. The completed Report on the General Examination for the Doctoral Degree form is to be submitted to Degree Audit at degreeaudit@uconn.edu prior to the two-week deadline. Please keep in mind that it may take several weeks for the increase to be applied to your paycheck, however your increase will be processed based on the day you submit your paperwork to Degree Audit. Please plan your qualifying examination accordingly. Stipend increases for qualifying examinations whose paperwork is submitted after the two-weeks period will be effective starting the following semester.

TA Language Test: All Teaching Assistants for whom English is not a primary language must pass an oral English proficiency test regardless of citizenship or visa status. A primary language is defined as a language used to communicate since childhood. Please note this is separate from the English proficiency requirement for admission. Even if proof of proficiency was waived for purposes of admission, proof of proficiency is required for those who will be assigned instructional duties as part of their graduate assistantship. More information on the policy and testing format can be found in the International Teaching Assistant Services website.

GA Training: As part of their employee role, GAs are required to participate in these mandatory trainings. There may be additional trainings or orientations required or recommended depending on the specific GA duties.

Steps to Graduation

Detailed information on the steps to graduation can be found in the Office of the Registrar's website. In addition to these steps, students must complete a Graduate Program Evaluation/Exit Survey and a Graduate Separation Checklist prior to exiting the University.