Department of Materials Science and Engineering
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
This is the CURRENT graduate policy which applies from Fall 2026 to all graduate students.
Graduate Students Matriculation Requirements and Financial Aid Policy
MSE graduate students should take courses and conduct research in compliance with the following
Financial support (e.g., fellowship, graduate research/teaching assistantships) will be subject to the following requirements:
PhD candidates will receive departmental financial support for no more than a total of 60 months from the start date of their graduate studies at RPI. This duration includes the duration for which departmental support was provided to pursue an MS or MEng at RPI.
MS and MEng students will not receive departmental financial support beyond 24 months upon starting their graduate studies at RPI.
Only PhD candidates are eligible for departmental financial support beyond 24 months.
For Spring semester entrants, the first Spring semester and the immediately following Summer term will not be counted towards the above-listed time limits.
For all of the above, periods of approved leave of absences will be excepted.
The Graduate Program Director (GPD) and the Department Head (DH) may evaluate and authorize deviations from these policies under unusual, special, or mitigating circumstances.
Every graduate student must register for 1 MSE Dept seminar credit every semester until graduation.
The grade will be assigned by the GPD in consultation with the graduate faculty advisor (GFA).
Excused absences for professional activities (e.g., conference, internships, off-site research) must be approved in advance by the GFA.
One unexcused absence per semester can be made up by writing a satisfactory report on a topic assigned and evaluated by the GFA.
Two or more unexcused absences per semester will result in an unsatisfactory grade, and will adversely impact academic standing.
Course and Research Credit Requirements
PhD degree (minimum 72 credit hours)
The student must pass the Doctoral Qualifying Examination (DQE) to be a PhD candidate.
The GPD will serve as the GFA until a GFA is formally chosen.
Course credits (minimum 30 credits)
Three 4-credit MTLE core graduate courses: Advanced Structure, Advanced Thermodynamics, and Advanced Kinetics. Students lacking undergraduate-level knowledge on these topics must consult their GFA to prepare themselves via self-study and undergraduate courses.
At least nine (9) additional credits must be 6000-level MTLE courses. At least 3 of these credits must be from 6000-level MTLE courses focusing on materials characterization or computation (e.g., Materials Characterization, Electron Microscopy, Computational Materials Science).
The remaining required course credits must be from 6000-level courses at RPI
Course selections must be approved by the student’s GFA prior to registration.
Any deviation from the above requires approvals of GPD and/or Department Head.
Research credits
All PhD-intended students should register for PhD dissertation credits even before they have been declared a PhD candidate.
The research credits are determined by complementing course credits to 72 total credits required for PhD degree. Seminar credits cannot substitute either course or research credits.
MS and MEng degrees (minimum 30 credits)
Course credits
Students must take at least 3 of the 5 following 4-credit MTLE graduate core courses, namely, Advanced Thermodynamics, Advanced Structure and Bonding, Advanced Kinetics, Advanced Mechanical Properties, and Advanced Electronic Properties.
At least 5 additional course credits must be from 6000-level MTLE courses. These can include core courses in “a” that were not counted for fulfilling the core course requirement.
The remaining required course credits must be from 6000-level courses at RPI
Course selections must be approved by the student’s GFA prior to registering for the courses.
Any deviation from the above requires approvals of GPD and/or Department Head.
Research/Capstone credits to fulfil Culminating Experience requirements
MS degree (regular and co-term)
At least 6 MS dissertation research credits are required. No more than 9 research credits can be counted towards this requirement.
The student should propose a Master’s Thesis Advisory Committee (MTAC) consisting of 3 faculty members including the GFA, who will chair the committee.
Upon approvals by the GFA, the GPD, and the DH, the MTAC will be appointed by the Dean of Office of Graduate Education (OGE).
The MTAC will evaluate the aptness and quality of the thesis topic, scope, and quality of research and the thesis document, to ensure that they meet the MS degree standards.
While the GFA will provide primary guidance, and supervise research, the student is encouraged to regularly consult with the MTAC members for advice.
The student is required to defend the MS thesis to the MTAC in a public presentation.
Any deviation from the above requires approvals of the GPD and/or the DH.
MEng degree (regular and co-term)
Option A: A 3- to 6-credit capstone or research project, or
Option B: A portfolio with two or more projects supervised by RPI faculty
The student must obtain GPD’s approval of the chosen option.
In both cases, each project must have a final report, and the GFA must certify that the project(s) demonstrate substantial advanced understanding and mastery of disciplinary skills/concepts and/or their applications to solve open-ended problems.
Graduate team and course assignments can count towards the portfolio provided the levels of project scope and individual contributions are approved by the GFA.
Any deviation from the above requires approvals of the GPD and/or the DH.
Doctoral Qualifying Examination (DQE)
The DQE evaluates the student’s preparedness for pursuing doctoral studies via an oral examination that tests knowledge, aptitude, approach, and applications of topics broadly represented by the three mandatory MTLE graduate core courses. The following rules apply to students admitted to the doctoral program.
Fall semester entrants will take their DQE scheduled after their second semester (typically in the late May / early June). Spring semester entrants will take their exam together with the same-calendar- year Fall semester entrants. Postponement may lead to immediate termination of financial aid.
A minimum cumulative GPA of 3.0 is required to be able to take the DQE. Financial aid may be terminated if this requirement is not met.
The DQE is a 2-hour oral examination administered by a 3-member DQE faculty committee with a chair appointed by the Department Head. The student’s GFA cannot be on the DQE committee.
The committee will collectively test the student’s ability, approach, and command, to apply their knowledge in three broad areas, namely, Thermodynamics, Kinetics, and Structure represented by the three mandatory graduate core courses.
The students are also expected to exhibit introductory-undergraduate-level knowledge on all topics in materials science and engineering (e.g., ENGR-1600 or equivalent).
The questions in the examination
may not be necessarily be a repetition of the questions covered in the core courses;
can be open-ended, and may require the student to identify, draw upon, and apply knowledge of multiple concepts across the three courses and the broader field of materials; and
will test the depth of understanding of key concepts for applications.
Based upon the student’s overall performance, the DQE committee will assign a Pass or a Fail grade.
With a Pass, the student advances to the status of a PhD candidate with no further action.
If the student does not pass the examination:
The DQE committee chair will provide a written synopsis of the student’s performance in the examination to the GFA and the GPD for review, consultation, and determination of remedial actions to address weaknesses, where applicable.
The DQE committee may prescribe a remedial action plan with a specified timeline and performance requirement and may require the student to retake the exam at a specified time in the year. Fulfillment of these requirements could allow the student to retake the exam or earn a Pass without retaking the examination as specified by the committee.
The action plan will be communicated to the student and the GFA in writing no later than two weeks after the student’s first DQE attempt. The timeline for completing the remedial actions cannot exceed one year from the first exam attempt.
If a student does not pass the DQE either by a retake or remedial action within one year from the first DQE attempt, the student will exit the PhD program, and financial aid may be terminated.
The DQE committee will inform the DH of any extreme, unusual and mitigating circumstances for appropriate consideration and resolution.
Doctoral Candidacy Examination (DCE)
The DCE is meant to be a vehicle to evaluate and advise the student’s progress on topics related to the thesis topic and scope, plan of activities, timeline, research quality, and timely completion. The PhD candidate should propose a Doctoral Thesis Advisory Committee (DTAC) chaired by the GFA who serves as the thesis supervisor. Upon approval by the GFA, GPD and the Department Head, the DTAC will be appointed by the Dean of OGE. DTAC’s responsibility is to ensure a well-defined thesis topic, timely student skilling and training to plan and conduct focused research activities and analyses, to facilitate a thesis defense in approximately 4 years from the student’s entry into the PhD program. The DTAC is responsible for determining that the student's knowledge in the thesis topic areas is adequate in scope and depth for pursuing the proposed research, and recommend necessary remedial actions as necessary. Although the GFA provides primary guidance, and supervises the thesis work, the student is encouraged to regularly consult with the DTAC members . The DTAC is a resource for obtaining timely research guidance and assistance prior to the final thesis submission. The following regulations will apply.
The DCE should be taken within one year of the date of passing of the DQE.
The student, in consultation with, and approval from the GFA, will propose a DTAC, no later than 3 months prior to the DCE.
The DTAC will be chaired by the GFA, and must contain at least two additional full-time faculty members from the MSE Department, and at least one additional full-time faculty member from another Department within RPI. If a student has two or more GFAs, they will be treated as a single entity in the DTAC, which would require additional DTAC members.
Additional members from within RPI and external institutions (e.g., industry, universities and national laboratories) can be included into the DTAC subject to approval by the Dean of OGE. The GFA should provide rationale for including additional members (skill, mentoring, collaboration, expertise relevant to thesis topic) to the GPD, who will evaluate and appropriately recommend to the Dean of OGE.
The MSE Department Head will schedule the DCE and recommend a DTAC to OGE for approval.
The graduate student will prepare a Candidacy Proposal that clearly delineates the thesis topic, provides a comprehensive literature review, and details the rationale and approach of the proposed research activities, along with preliminary results, anticipated outcomes and their impact on the field. The document length should be no more than about 30 pages, following RPI’s thesis formatting guidelines for figures, captions, headings, and references. This document should be distributed to the DTAC at least one week prior to the DCE.
Typically, the DCE duration is about two hours. The PhD candidate presents a 30-minute talk on the proposed research in the context of prior works, anticipated outcomes, and impact on the field of study. Questions and clarifications can extend the talk to about one-hour, after which the DTAC will examine the student in detail. In the DCE, the student is expected to demonstrate the necessary knowledge, appropriate skills and adequate planning for conducting the proposed research.
The DTAC will vote “Acceptable” or “Unacceptable” on the DCE, provide feedback and recommendations regarding the topic and its scope (e.g., appropriate, too wide, or too narrow), as well as the student's preparedness in the field of study.
If the student’s performance is found to be unacceptable, a second DCE must be conducted with the same DTAC within six months to evaluate if the student has addressed the DTAC’s objections.
If the second DCE performance is also unacceptable, the student will exit the PhD program.
The DTAC will also serve as the Final Examining Committee for the PhD thesis defense.
The student is expected to consult regularly with the DTAC members to ensure fruitful and efficient progress and timely thesis completion.
The DTAC will inform the DH of any extreme, unusual and mitigating circumstances for appropriate consideration and resolution.
The PhD Thesis Defense
The PhD Thesis Defense is the final examination that represents the culmination of a substantial amount of work carried out during the doctoral studies. The student must regularly consult with the DTAC throughout the conduct of research to obviate any major objections to any aspect of the work and its conclusions that could lead to an unsuccessful Defense. The PhD Thesis Defense will be open to the public and serve as a mechanism for disseminating the research work to the scientific community at large for all to learn, appreciate, raise questions and/or criticize. This session will be followed by a private session between the DTAC and the PhD candidate. The following regulations apply.
The PhD Thesis Defense can be scheduled only if
the GFA has approved the student’s draft of the thesis document, and consents its sharing with the DTAC; and
the student has co-authored at least one scholarly paper with the GFA based on the thesis research. The paper must be published or under review in a refereed journal. The manuscript(s) along with proof of it/their being considered for publication must be made available to the DTAC.
The student must submit a thesis draft to the GFA no less than 30 working days prior to the proposed Thesis Defense date. It is expected that the student has composed different pieces of the thesis document with the thesis GFA’s advice and directions throughout the doctoral studies, and the thesis draft preparation is an exercise in refining, recompilation and editing of these pieces into a single coherent document.
The GFA-approved thesis draft must be submitted to the DTAC no less than 15 working days prior to the proposed PhD Thesis Defense date, scheduled in coordination with the DTAC members’ availability for both reviewing the thesis and attending the defense.
Upon receipt of the GFA-approved thesis draft by the DTAC, the MSE Department Head will post public notices regarding the time, date and location for the Thesis defense. The defense will be scheduled only if all conditions of candidacy, manuscript submission to a refereed journal, advisor approval and timely distribution of the thesis draft to the DTAC have been met.
The GFA, i.e., the thesis advisor, will chair the PhD Thesis Defense meeting.
The student should prepare no more than a one-hour oral presentation of the thesis emphasizing the relevance and principal achievements of the work. The student should be prepared to address queries and provide clarifications to short questions by the DTAC during the presentation.
All attendees will be allowed to ask questions on the thesis, following which the meeting will be restricted to the student, thesis advisor and the DTAC members for additional questioning.
The DTAC will vote to accept or reject the PhD thesis document. Tentative approval of the thesis document may be given if revisions are required. Revisions may include changes in grammatical, organizational and/or scientific content and conclusions, generally requiring as few as one to two days to complete. The student should not expect to obtain immediate acceptance of the thesis solely because a PhD Thesis Defense has been conducted. In situations where the student has not consulted inadequately with the GFA and/or the DTAC, substantial revisions entailing additional laboratory work, analyses, or computations, may involve significantly longer timelines.
The DTAC has the authority and responsibility to request confirmation and inspection of all revisions to the thesis, especially if substantial revisions are required. In the event that the requested revisions are minor, the DTAC may elect to have the GFA act on their behalf in reviewing and approving the changes to the thesis. A unanimous vote of the DTAC is required for all actions, including signing the thesis by the individual members.
In the unlikely event that the DTAC is unable to reach a unanimous decision regarding acceptance of the thesis, after revisions, the DTAC shall refer the matter to the DH for resolution.
The DH will take appropriate action to resolve the issues in consultation with the GPD and advise from the OGE.
It is the student’s responsibility to ensure that the final thesis conforms and adheres to all rules and requirements of the Rensselaer OGE. Acceptance of the thesis content by the DTAC does not automatically imply conformity of the thesis document to the OGE rules and requirements.
The student must provide one bound copy of the committee-approved thesis in its final form to the GFA and one bound copy to the Department.
Applicability
All regulations contained herein shall apply from Fall 2026 to all MSE graduate students and co-terminal students, irrespective of their date of entry into the MSE graduate program.