Students admitted to the Ph.D. program in Astronomy or Physics may petition the Astrophysics Committee for entrance into the Ph.D. program in Astrophysics after establishing departmental residency.
Students must complete a minimum of 90 credit hours, including four core graduate courses in Astronomy, four core graduate courses in Physics, plus one additional core course in either Astronomy or Physics. By meeting the course requirements for this degree, a student from the Department of Astronomy will automatically fulfill the requirements for a minor in physics.
The requirement for the qualifying exam may be met in one of three ways:
- by passing the full Astronomy qualifying exam;
- by passing the full Physics qualifying exam;
- by passing specially designated parts of the qualifying examinations of both departments.
The examination requirements must be satisfied by the end of the student’s sixth semester in residence.
Astrophysics students must complete a candidacy seminar, which is an oral presentation to the student’s research committee. The candidacy seminar usually addresses either a student’s dissertation proposal and/or a summary of past research.
The final oral defense of the dissertation presented to the student’s advisory committee marks the completion of a student’s graduate curriculum.
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