College of Engineering

Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering

To qualify for a PhD degree, a student is expected either to complete at least 51 credits of coursework beyond the requirements for a BS degree; or to complete at least 21 credits of coursework beyond the requirements for an MS degree, plus complete enough credits of dissertation research to have a total of 90 credits beyond the BS degree or 60 credits beyond the MS degree. Completion of this coursework generally requires three semesters of study beyond the MS degree, and allowing up to 18 credits beyond the BS degree being taken in courses outside the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department.

After a student has completed at least 18 credits of coursework beyond the MS degree, he or she must pass a comprehensive examination based on graduate-level courses, as well as pass a dissertation research proposal defense. The comprehensive examination will be given only after a student has applied and received permission to take the exam. Near the end of the program, the results of the original (publishable) research work will be presented and publicly defended as a dissertation.

For further information, visit the departmental website at: http://www.engineering.usu.edu/ece/