Degree Requirements

Degree Requirements

New System of Requirements 

The Physics  Department has updated the requirements for the Ph.D. degree.  It is intended that the new requirements should be in place, at least on a provisional basis, starting in the Fall Semester of 2021.  Students enrolled prior to Fall Semester of 2021 will be allowed to satisfy either requirement, or a hybrid as discussed in the Transition Period section below.

Course Requirements 

To allow students the flexibility to choose courses that are related to their field of research, there is no set required course track for physics graduate students.

Students who do not have preparation in graduate-level physics courses are strongly recommended to take our core graduate-level courses.   Students who successfully complete these classes will be deemed to have satisfied the Qualifying Exam requirement. 

In addition, there are the following requirements:

  • All students must take three graduate-level (600-level or above) courses of three credits or more excluding the core graduate-level classes, seminars and independent studies. These classes need not be in the Physics Department. Completion of the courses is a requirement for graduation.
  • All students must take two semesters of  physics seminar courses. These seminars should be distinct and one of these should be the Physics Colloquium--PHYS 798B.  (Those who satisfied this requirement prior to the Spring semester of 2024 need not use the Colloquium as one of the seminars.)
  • All students must take the non-credit Foundations and Frontiers of Physics seminar. The seminars will be offered in the fall and spring semesters. This non-credit seminar requirement is in addition to the two semesters of physics seminars. Fall 2024 and Spring 2025 Schedule

Advancing to Candidacy

Proposed Committee/Candidacy Policy

To advance to candidacy a student must:

  • Satisfy the Qualifying Examination/core course requirement.
  • Submit a Scholarly Paper.
  • Give a Preliminary Research Presentation.

These requirements must be satisfied within four years of entering the Ph.D. program, but normally within one year of completing the qual/core requirement.  A candidacy committee of three will be formed to approve the Scholarly Paper and Preliminary Research Presentation.

Guidelines for the candidacy committee

The composition and obligations of the candidacy committee are:

  • At least one member of the committee should be tenured/tenure track faculty with an appointment in Physics and at least two members of the committee should be tenured/tenure track faculty at Maryland.
  • This committee should be the nucleus of the future dissertation committee and should be available to give advice to the student during candidacy.
    • If the advisor is a tenured/tenure-track faculty member with an appointment in Physics, or the advisor has substantial experience with Physics students (defined as having graduated 3 or more UMD Physics students) the committee need not meet but can meet at the student's request.
    • If the advisor is neither a tenured/tenure-track faculty member with an appointment in Physics, nor the advisor has substantial experience with Physics students (having graduated 3 or more UMD Physics students) the committee needs to meet with the candidate annually once the student enters candidacy.

The Scholarly Paper and Preliminary Research presentation will be evaluated by the committee as part of the Physics Ph.D. programs Learning Outcome Assessment. For the student to be admitted to candidacy the committee will need to certify that the student meets expectations on the following:

  • The student has sufficient background knowledge of their field of research to do meaningful Ph.D.-level research.
  • The student has identified one or more issues for future research and has a clear plan on how to conduct Ph.D.-level research on them including identifying the key challenges in making progress. The research plan need not be for the remainder of their Ph.D. studies, but minimally includes the next phase of research.
  • The student has demonstrated an appropriate level of mastery of both written and oral scientific communication for a graduate student entering candidacy.
Guidelines for the Scholarly Paper and Preliminary Research Presentation: 

The scholarly paper should be at least 10 pages and must include a sufficient description of the scientific background and possible future research directions to meet our Learning Outcomes. It needs to be written in its entirety by the student; the advisor (or other scientific collaborators) may provide editorial advice but should have no direct role in its writing.

The Preliminary Research Presentation should be between 30 and 60 minutes.

The Scholarly Paper and Preliminary Research Presentation should in general be prepared when the student is at the stage of being ready to begin doing serious research.  Thus, the paper and presentation will typically not be based on a completed research project intended for publication.   Although it is permissible for completed research to form part of the Scholarly Paper and Research Presentation our expectation is that generally students should move to candidacy prior to when they first complete a project.

The purpose of the Scholarly Paper is different from that of a published paper and accordingly its structure should be different.  While parts of a first draft of paper for publication may be included in the Scholarly Paper (provided those are written entirely by the student), the Scholarly paper will need to include enough information on the scientific background and planned future research to satisfy our expectations for our Learning Outcomes; this will be beyond what is included in a typical paper.  In any case we expect students to move to candidacy prior to writing a publishable paper.

Additional Requirements for the Ph.D. Degree

To graduate with the Doctor of Philosophy degree, all students must:

  • Complete all of the requirements for advancing to candidacy.
  • Take at least 12 credits (2 semesters) of Doctoral Dissertation Research (PHYS899). Students who have reached candidacy will be registered for 6 credits of PHYS899 each semester until he/she graduates.
  • Register for classes each Fall and Spring semester until graduation.
  • Maintain a GPA of 3.0 or above.
  • Write and successfully defend an original dissertation.
  • Meet all degree deadlines, outlined here. 

Transition Period 

(For students enrolled prior to Fall 2021)

The old requirements differ from the new ones in two ways: The qualifier examination requirement and the course requirements.  Students who enrolled in the program prior to the Fall 2021 semester have options of satisfying the new requirements or the old requirements or a hybrid. Moreover, since the old and new qualifier requirements do not match neatly, special accommodations may be made for students who enrolled prior to the Fall 2021 semester and have not yet satisfied the qualifier requirement .

The old requirements are listed below:

  • All students must take two courses outside his/her area of specialization. One of these must be a 700 or 800 level physics course.
  • Theory students must take either PHYS624 or PHYS625.
  • All students must take two semesters of a physics seminar course.
  • All students must take the non-credit Foundations and Frontiers of Physics seminar. Typically, this is done during the second semester of graduate study. This non-credit seminar requirement is in addition to the two semesters of physics seminars.

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