Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, Newark
DEPARTMENT OF CHEMISTRY
1. For the Ph.D. degree, at least 24 credits of courses (not counting research credits) must be completed.
2. Continuous registration must be maintained (except for summers) until a degree is awarded. If no course or research is taken during a fall or spring semester, the student should register for "Matriculation Continued," a non-credit course for which a reduced fee is charged. Failure to maintain continuous registration requires readmission and payment of a reinstatement fee for each term missed.
II. TOTAL CREDITS FOR THE DEGREE
1. A minimum of 72 credits (including those applied to an M.S.) are required for the Ph.D. degree. A minimum of 24 credits of course-work must be taken, and at least 24 credits must be in research.
2. Students are required to maintain a B average. If the average drops below B, the Graduate Dean's office sends a notice of unsatisfactory progress to the student, who must then meet with the Graduate Program Director to discuss the problem and outline conditions to be met in order to remain in the Program. If these conditions are not met, the student will be dropped from the Program.
3. No more than nine credits of course-work with a grade lower than B may be used for any degree. However, a grade of B or better is required in all core courses.
4. No more than twelve credits of 400-level undergraduate courses may be used for any degree.
1. Transfer of course credits from outside Rutgers-Newark is allowed up to a maximum of 30 for the Ph.D. degree. However, in no case may such transferred credits constitute more than half of the course credits used toward any degree.
2. Only chemistry-related graduate courses taken as a graduate student with grades of B or better may be transferred.
3. Research credits, pass-fail credits and other non-graded credits may not be transferred.
4. Transfer may be made only after a student completes 12 hours of course-work at Rutgers-Newark with grades of B or better. These 12 hours may include chemistry courses taken at Rutgers-Newark on a non-matriculated basis, through the Non-Degree Program. Any such credits should be transferred at this point.
1. Cumulative examinations:
a. One Saturday morning of each month, October through May, three or four questions will be presented. The exams are currently scheduled for the second Saturday of every month, 9-12 AM, and designed so a student can complete two questions in the allotted 3-hour session. However students may attempt to answer any number of questions, and each will be assigned a grade of 2, 1, or 0. The student will be notified of his or her grade and all grades will be recorded in the student's file. There is no penalty for failing questions, but a student who fails an exam question is encouraged to consult the professor who wrote it.
b. For the Ph.D. degree the student must accumulate ten exam points. This requirement should be completed in the student's first five semesters (not counting summer sessions) after matriculation into the Graduate Program.
c. Students not fulfilling the cumulative-exam requirement within the five semesters specified above will be evaluated by the faculty, and a recommendation based on the student's overall performance will be made. If the recommendation is to drop the student from the Program, the student will be notified in writing.
2. Presentation of a Research Proposal:
a. Students in the Ph.D Program must show satisfactory performance on an oral examination conducted within their first three years and after completion of the cumulative exam requirement. The student is to present an original research proposal--not related to the dissertation research--and defend issues directly and indirectly related to the proposal. The examination committee shall be selected by the student's research advisor in consultation with the student, and shall consist of the research advisor (non-voting member), two additional members of the Chemistry Graduate Faculty, and one additional member with relevant expertise. No later than one week before the examination, the student shall distribute to the committee a short written description of the research proposal. At the conclusion of the exam, the examination committee will issue a grade of "pass," "fail," or "repeat."
b. If the grade is "repeat," the committee must specify a time limit for a re-examination. If a student is re-examined after an initial grade of "repeat," the committee must then issue a grade of pass or fail; a grade of "repeat" is not permitted on the second attempt. The examination committee for the repeat examination shall be composed of all members of the initial examining committee.
V. CANDIDACY AND COMPLETION OF THE DEGREE
1. As soon as a student has accumulated at least 24 course-credits and fulfilled the other requirements listed above under I, II and IV, he or she should file for degree candidacy. This is done with a candidacy form obtained from the secretary.
2. Doctoral students should have an annual review of their progress towards the degree. This should be conducted by the research advisor plus two of the other members of the final Examination Committee.
3. While the Chemistry Department has no formal "residency" requirement for the Ph.D., the faculty believes that Ph.D. candidates benefit from a year of full-time study, and it will normally make support available for such a year.
4. Candidates for the Ph.D. must present the results of their research to their dissertation committee in a pre-oral, to be conducted about six months before anticipated completion of the research. The committee then defines what remains to be done to produce an acceptable, completed research project.
5. Ph.D. candidates must register for Seminar before or during the final semester and present their final research results in a departmental seminar.
6. A candidate finally produces a finished written dissertation and defends it before an examining committee of at least three members of the Chemistry Graduate Faculty, plus one person who is not a member of the Chemistry Graduate Faculty.
Appeals may be made in writing and/or in person to the Graduate Program Director who will establish an ad hoc review committee consisting of three professors. The committee will make a determination within one month's time and communicate its decision to the student and to the Director in writing. A student who is dissatisfied with the decision may appeal to the Dean of the Graduate School.