Course Requirements

Graduate School Requirements

The graduate school requires all PhD students to complete 34 semester hours of graded coursework beyond the Bachelor's degree. Up to nine semester hours of the requirement may be selected from non-graduate (300 or 400 level) courses not previously taken by the student. Graded seminar courses numbered 500 and above also meet this requirement. The Graduate School further requires students to complete 38 additional credit hours of non-graded (Pass/Fail) coursework. Non-graded coursework includes the credit granted for doctoral research.

Chemistry Department Requirements

The Chemistry Department graduate course breadth requirement is that all PhD students complete one 3-credit graduate (500 level or above) core course in each of two divisional areas outside of their area of specialization in addition to a core course within their area of specialization. For example, a typical fall load for an AER (Analytical, Environmental and Radiochemistry) student would be Chem 520 (Advanced Analytical Chemistry, 3 credits) satisfying the core course within the division, and two other core courses from two different divisions (listed below). Note that two courses in a single outside divisional area do not satisfy the requirement. All chemistry graduate students are required to complete one credit of Chem 590 (Introduction to Research) in their fall semester of the first year. Graduate students who are appointed as teaching assistants are also required to complete 1 credit of Chem 555 (Teaching Workshop). Full-time graduate students in the Chemistry Department enroll for 18 credit hours each semester and these hours are divided into graded and non-graded coursework. Specific course requirements for each division are given below.