Physics and Astronomy M.S. and Ph.D. degrees have varying academic requirements. In brief summary:
- An M.S. with essay requires 30 course credits and an M.S. defense. While no particular courses are required, the core courses of the Ph.D. program are strongly recommended. The essay is written based on work supervised by faculty.
- An M.S. with thesis requires 24 course + 6 research credits and an M.S. defense. While no particular courses are required, the core courses of the Ph.D. program are strongly recommended. The thesis is written based on work supervised by faculty.
- A Ph.D. requires 72 credits, of which at least 24 must be research credits, and a Ph.D. defense. The Physics and Astronomy program also requires passing core courses, either through taking and passing the courses or through passing a challenge exam, as well as passing two advanced in-area and two advanced out-of-area courses, with the two being in different areas. The areas are defined as: astronomy, biophysics, condensed matter physics, General Relativity, and subatomic physics. No distinction is made between theory and experiment. Some department courses offered do not fit into these areas, so are not out of area for any students.
See https://www.physics.rutgers.edu/grad/redbook/Red-www-prog.html for the Redbook which gives additional details.
Details on the defense can be found below.
A note for international students
Many international students plan to remain in the U.S. for a postdoc position after completing their Ph.D. This often involves going though the "OPT" process, which can take some months. Information for international students from Rutgers Global Services can be found here, with OPT information here. We recommend you look through the linked web pages and, if you have questions, schedule a meeting with your adviser at Global Services. If you are going to remain in the U.S. working, it is important to figure this out in advance. You need to appropriately schedule your OPT and graduation. You could end up have to wait some months after defending / graduating without permission to work, or possibly having to delay graduating.
Information from the School of Graduate Studies
Graduation requirements of the School of Graduate Studies (SGS) are posted on line. In case of any conflict between the SGS postings and the materials on this page, you should consider the SGS postings authoritative - follow them!
Graduation requirements include, in addition to the requirements above, ``continuous'' registration while a graduate student (for a May / October degree, you must have been registered for the preceding spring term, while for a January degree, you must have been registered for the preceding fall term), the qualifying exam and advancement to candidacy for Ph.D. students, and a final exam, which is a thesis defense, or perhaps an essay defense for certain M.S. students. For more details, see the SGS pages linked below and / or discuss your situation with the GPD.
Related SGS web pages include:
- The main SGS web page with deadlines and links to checklists is here. Also included are style guides, links to graduation workshops, etc.
- The checklist for a Ph.D. degree is at https://grad.rutgers.edu/academics/graduation/checklist-phd-degree.
- The checklist for a M.S. degree with thesis is at https://grad.rutgers.edu/academics/graduation/masters-degree-thesis-checklist.
- The checklist for a M.S. degree without thesis is at https://grad.rutgers.edu/academics/graduation/masters-degree-without-thesis.
Final Examination / Thesis Defense Information
The program practice is to have 4 (5) committee members for your M.S. (Ph.D.) committee, which exceeds the SGS requirements by one. Ph.D. committees need an outside committee member (OCM), but M.S. committees do not. The OCM is "outside" in the sense that they are not on the Physics and Astronomy Graduate Faculty. The OCM should be someone very familiar with your area of research. Typically they are faculty, laboratory staff, or even postdocs in your field of research whom you already know. They can be collaborators in your Ph.D. project, a former grad student of your adviser, or Rutgers faculty from a different department. Once you have decided on an outside committee member, send a CV in pdf format to the GPD, who will arrange SGS approval.
Scheduling of your M.S. or Ph.D. defense is up to you and your committee. Contact your committee and arrange a time and date for the defense. Note that many faculty are more likely to be on travel during the summer, so it is typically easier to schedule a defense during the academic year. Once your defense is scheduled please tell the GPD and Grad AA. Shirley Hinds can help in arranging a room for the defense if needed, and will announce your defense to the department. If you are meeting over zoom, send the zoom meeting information as well, for the announcement.
Note for Ph.D. students who also want an M.S. degree: passing your Ph.D. qualifying (also referred to as candidacy) exam satisfies the M.S. defense requirement. Once you pass the qualifier and have the needed 30 credits, you can apply for an M.S. degree.
Your thesis (often essay for an M.S.) should be sent to the committee 10 days - 2 weeks in advance of the defense, so that the committee has suffficient time to review it. Standard practice in the program is that you will be asked by the committee to correct small errors in your thesis. There are no department standards on the length of your thesis (or essay). There is a standard title page template for Ph.D. theses.
The Ph.D defense includes a public session with a brief introduction, a presentation by the candidate, questions from the committee, and questions from the audience (if there is time), followed by a private meeting of the Ph.D. committee to evaluate the candidate as having passed or failed. The length of the presentation varies, with some research groups favoring a shorter presentation, about 25 minutes, to allow more time for questions while others favor a longer presentation, about 45 minutes, closer to that of a seminar. M.S. defenses also include a presentation followed by questions from the committee, but typically are not announced to the department.
Once you successfully defend your thesis, there are two documents that need to be signed, the title page of your thesis (signed by your committee) and the "FInal Defense Committee Report", which is page 2 of your Application for Candidacy (your committee signs section A - note special line for outside member - and the GPD signs at the bottom of the page). For in person defenses, bring the Candidacy form, picked up from SGS, and your title page, along with a black pen, so that your committee can sign off on your successful defense. This sometimes happens at the defense, but sometimes does not happen until you complete edits to your dissertation.
SGS rules allowed remote participation of up to 2 people on the committee, but required that both the student and adviser be present. But since the onset of COVID, the rules concerning in-person Ph.D. defenses and signing forms have been suspended. At present, Ph.D. defenses remain largely remote, and forms are signed electronically, such as by pasting signatures onto PDFs, or using http://docusign.rutgers.edu.
For in-person signatures, if one of your committee members is not present to sign, the GPD can sign for them. They need to email the GPD a statement minimally indicating that "I approve YYY's dissertation and authorize you to sign on my behalf." (Where YYY should of course be replaced by your name.)
The GPD usually signs off last, after you have obtained all other signatures. Please give Shirley Hinds a copy of the forms you will submit to SGS.
Maintaining Email Access
Graduating students lose email access as they transition to alumni. You can maintain access to your accounts by submitting a guest request at https://requests.rutgers.edu/guest/guestsfaq.htm. The answers to the form questions are mostly obvious. You can use the GPD as your sponsor. Answering yes to "Has the guest ever been affiliated with Rutgers" near the bottom will allow you to specify your netid.
