EEE Graduate Degree Credit and Exam Requirements

Credit and Coursework Requirements

Note: For all of the degrees credits refer to any units registered on the student portal, including research credits. On the other hand, courses or classes specifically denote lecture-based instruction and do not encompass research credits.

MS Requirements: 

30 credits of graduate level credits, including up to 6 credits of research for MS students (i.e., at least 24 credits of lecture courses). Depending on a student's background (if non-engineering BS for example), some undergraduate level science courses may be required. 

 At school level: 

• All courses must be graduate level (i.e., 4000+), no classes can be pass/fail. 
• No incompletes (i.e., all grades must be assigned).
• MS/Ph.D. level: you don’t need to complete Professional Development and Leadership (PDL) requirements.

Concentrations/tracks, core requirements, and allowances for courses outside of SEAS come from department-level.

While classes taken in other SEAS departments count towards the required 30 credits, a maximum of one course outside of SEAS may be applied towards the degree requirements.

Additional Requirement: All MS students must register for and attend the Earth & Environmental Engineering Colloquium (EAEE E9280), a 0-credit course. 

MS/PhD and PhD Requirements: 

After the completion of 30 credits (with up to 12 credits of research, rather than only 6 for MS terminal degree students), successful candidates can be considered for advanced standing in the PhD program. For the PhD program, students need 60 credits in total. The department allows up to 30 credits to be transferred. PhD students must take graduate level courses (i.e., 4000+) and must obtain approvals from their advisor(s) and the graduate committee for all courses.  Additionally, students must pass the qualifying exam and successfully defend their proposal.

Minimum Credit Requirement: There is no set per-semester minimum credit requirement established by the Department, except where visa or similar requirements apply. These circumstances are not determined by the Department but by international laws and policies. Students should consult with the ISSO, and the appropriate authority in such cases.

Research-Centric Education: Beyond the MS course requirements, the Department supports a research-centric approach to education. Students are encouraged to pursue academic credits primarily through original research endeavors, under the guidance of our faculty.

MS/PhD students are not required to follow a track/concentration within the department. Rather, each student will develop an academic plan with their advisor and the Graduate Student Committee (Pierre Gentine, Shaina Kelly, and Thanos Bourtsalas in Academic Year 2022-2023). The department and advisors can decide how to suggest students’ complete coursework (i.e., complete all classes during MS portion of degree vs. spread out coursework). Depending on a student's background (if non-engineering BS, for example), some undergraduate level science courses may be required. Please note that for MS and PhD students, it is highly recommended to enroll in courses from all academic tracks. This ensures comprehensive preparation for the qualifying examination.

At school level: 

• All courses must be graduate level (i.e., 4000+), no classes can be pass/fail. 
• No incompletes (i.e., all grades must be assigned).
• MS/Ph.D. level: you don’t need to complete PDL requirements.

For questions regarding how many research credits are allowed for MS/Ph.D. students, the SEAS Dean’s Office (Alexis Moore) will check history in the Committee on Instruction (COI).

Additional Requirements: All MS/PhD students must register for and attend the Earth & Environmental Engineering Colloquium (EAEE E9280), a 0-credit course. MS/PhD students may stop registering for this course after passing their qualifying exam.

Note: MS/PhD students must maintain a 3.4 GPA average (including research credits) to maintain funding support. Concerns about the ability to maintain this GPA should be brought to the attention of the advisor and the Graduate Student Committee. 

Upon MS graduation, MS/PhD students should email the Graduate Student Committee to request advanced standing, with the EEE administrator CC'd. Once approved by the committee, the administrator will submit the necessary form. The Dean’s Office will then approve the request and add 30 credits of advanced standing, along with 2 Residence Units, which serve as indicators of full-time student status, to the student's account. 

For PhD-only students, advanced standing requests should be submitted during enrollment for their first semester. The PhD graduate committee will review the courses taken by incoming PhD students and grant approval as appropriate. Following this, the EEE administrator will submit the form to the Dean’s Office. It is important to note that official transcripts must be submitted prior to the processing of advanced standing.

Students are advised to wait until after graduation to request advanced standing. If degree requirements are completed in the fall semester, wait for the February graduation date; for the spring semester, wait for the May graduation date; and for the summer semester, wait for the October graduation date.

The maximum duration for completing a PhD is 7 years. Students who require additional time must submit a petition for an extension.

Teaching Assistant (TA) Experience:

All graduate students admitted to the doctoral degree program (both MS/PhD and PhD) must satisfy the equivalent of two semesters’ experience in teaching. This may include supervising and assisting students in laboratory experiments, grading, and preparing lecture materials to support the teaching mission of the department.

MPhil Requirements:

To obtain an MPhil degree, students must complete 60 credits of coursework and research, along with 6 Residence Units (RUs). Additionally, students must pass the qualifying exam and successfully defend their proposal. MPhil work and proposal defense should be completed within 4 years of initial registration. For students entering with 30 credits of advanced standing and 2 RUs, the requirements should be completed in 3 years.  

Ph.D. Proposal

Each student is expected to submit a research proposal and present it to a thesis committee that consists of at least three faculty members. Compared to the qualifying exam, this committee does not need to include all three areas of our department. They should be chosen based on the thesis topic since the committee should advise the student throughout his/her PhD.

The committee considers the scope of the proposed research, its suitability for doctoral research and the appropriateness of the research plan.

Outcome of the exam: Pass; Fail; Conditional Pass (Conditional Pass students will be given one more chance within the subsequent semester).

In general, the student is expected to submit his/her research proposal after three semesters of doctoral studies. If the student fails, he/she will have the chance to retake the exam in the same format later in the semester.

Thesis Proposal

• Expected after four semesters of doctoral studies (including the summer semesters so 1 year after qualifying exam).
• Committee of at least three faculty members including the advisor, at least two of them hold primary appointments in EEE (with one full time tenured professor).
• If the primary advisor is outside of EEE (e.g., Civil, ChemE) the advisor from that department will replace one of the three EEE faculty members.
• A 10-page report (single space) will be submitted to the committee seven days prior to the exam and will be used as part of the evaluation.
• The proposal defense will last for 1 hour, with 30 minutes for the research presentation and 30 minutes for questions and answers.

Information about Exams: Qualifying Exam, Proposal Defense, Distribution, Dissertation Defense and Evaluation

Qualifying Exam:

 Doctoral candidates are required to pass a qualifying examination. This examination is offered after 12 months of doctoral studies (i.e., in the student’s second Fall semester). Students must have taken at least 18 credits of coursework (i.e., credits from research do not count), with at least 2 of those courses taught by EEE faculty members that are not the student’s direct advisor. Ideally, the Qualifying Exam occurs on or around the first Friday of the Fall semester.

Definition of qualifying exam: This is an exam to evaluate whether doctoral students, on completion of two semesters of courses, should continue with PhD research.

 Format of qualifying exam: At the exam, students should give a 5-minute presentation on their research interest, defining a broad problem area, and dedicated to a broad audience. This is followed by 50 minutes of questions and answers by the exam committee composed of three members of the EEE department, who represent three areas of the department: water & climate, energy & carbon, and materials (including mining, data science). The student and advisor will work together to choose the committee and schedule the exam. For information on the areas of expertise of the EEE faculty, please use the link here.

 The qualifying exam will be based on 3 research papers that will be provided by the faculty committee members exactly one week in advance (each member will provide one paper). Those papers are meant to assess the understanding of the students on classes they have covered earlier. This list of classes taken by the student will be made available to the committee before they have to select a class. The test  will be an oral examination. The student will first present their research (one to two slides), then one slide presenting the list of classes taken, followed by slides summarizing each paper (2-3 slides per paper), followed by questions on the papers.

 The primary objective of the exam is to assess the capacity to think through those questions, which are meant to be very generic but to demonstrate the capacity to use basic knowledge in the field of research of the candidate. The candidate will be assessed on their fundamental knowledge of the topics and also clarity of presentation.

 Outcome of the exam: Pass; Fail; Conditional Pass (Conditional Pass students will be given one more chance to retake the exam in the same format at the end of the Fall semester to the thesis committee of three faculty members).

 Evaluation processes: The committee will meet after the exam and discuss the final decision for the student.

 Advisor involvement in qualifier exam:

• Advisor should have the opportunity to provide general comments on the overall contents and research directions, prior to the exam.
• Students are encouraged to have practice talks with his/her peers and group members. 

Proposal Defense:

Each student is expected to submit a research proposal and present it to a thesis committee. Thesis proposals shall be approved in writing by a committee of at least three faculty: at least two must be Columbia faculty named on the list of approved dissertation advisors from the EEE department/program; a third can be from within the department, from another department at Columbia, or from outside the university (with GSAS permission). A dissertation advisor from the list of approved dissertation advisors from the student’s home department/program must be named at the time of the proposal defense. Compared to the qualifying exam, this committee does not need to include all three areas of our department. They should be chosen based on the thesis topic since the committee should advise the student throughout the PhD. 

The committee considers the scope of the proposed research, its suitability for doctoral research and the appropriateness of the research plan.

Proposal Defense Deliverables:

• A 10-page report (single space) will be submitted to the committee seven days prior to the exam and will be used as part of the evaluation.

• The proposal defense will last for 1 hour, with 30 minutes for the research presentation and 30 minutes for questions and answers.

Outcome of the exam: Pass; Fail; Conditional Pass (Conditional Pass students will be given one more chance within the subsequent semester.

In general, the student is expected to submit their research proposal after four semesters of doctoral studies (including the summer semesters so 1 year after qualifying exam).

After the student has defended the thesis proposal, the department completes the Report of the Dissertation Prospectus Committee and submits it to the Dissertation Office ([email protected]) for processing.

Dissertation Distribution:

• Students are expected to distribute final copies of the dissertation to defense committee members at least four weeks before the anticipated defense date, to allow adequate time for committee members to review the dissertation thoroughly. GSAS expects that the defense will take place within two months after distribution. Students who wish to defend and deposit in time for a particular degree conferral date (February, May, October) should keep this timing in mind when planning their final distribution. For information on Distributing Dissertation Copies, please use the link here.
• The department/program approves the dissertation for defense and distribution by submitting an Application for Dissertation Defense to the GSAS Dissertation Office ([email protected]) at least two weeks prior to the planned defense date. Per GSAS policy, students must be continuously registered up to and including the semester in which they distribute. Please review the registration requirements for distribution.
• The term in which distribution occurs is the last semester in which a student is permitted to register, even if the defense takes place in a subsequent term.
• The final dissertation should be distributed to the examiners either in digital format or printed on paper, depending on the preference of the individual examiners. The dissertation must be complete, including bibliography, footnotes, abstract, and table of contents, and should conform to the norms of the student's field.  The Dissertation Office does not examine distribution copies for compliance with formatting.

Nomination and Appointment of the Defense Committee:

The following rules pertain only to the final dissertation defense committee.

The responsibility for selecting and recommending the final defense committee members rests with the advisor, department or program chair, and the director of graduate studies. Students may not select their own defense committees; furthermore, students should not be placed in the position of having to ask particular faculty members to serve on their defense committees.

Dissertation defenses will be conducted by a final defense committee that is composed of exactly five members. Three of the members of the final defense committee (Dissertation Defense Moderator, Dissertation Advisor, and Third Examiner) must be inside examiners (holding a formal appointment or approved as a dissertation advisor in the doctoral candidate's home department or program).

*An Assistant Professor may serve as Dissertation Defense Moderator as long as they have previously participated on a student’s dissertation defense committee. For more information on Nomination and Appointment of the Defense Committee, please use the link here.

A complete list of approved dissertation advisors is available here. 

At least one (but preferably two) of the five must be an outside examiner, defined as:

1. 1. a faculty member, clinician, or practitioner who holds a position at another university or research institution;
   2. a full-time faculty member at Columbia University outside the student’s own department or program;
   3. a research scientist at Columbia University outside the student’s own department or program
   4. an adjunct professor at Columbia University outside the student’s own department or program
   5. a full-time faculty member whose appointment is at Barnard College, Jewish Theological Seminary, Teachers College, or Union Theological Seminary

OR

1. 6. a full-time faculty member in the student’s interdisciplinary program whose field is outside of the student’s dissertation field

In cases where the “outside” member satisfies criterion 6 above, the department/program must include with the Application for the Dissertation Defense a brief explanation to clarify how the fifth examiner’s primary field differs from the focus of the student’s dissertation. PhD programs must submit to GSAS a copy of their curriculum vitae together with the Application for Dissertation Defense.

Final approval of the members of a final defense committee rests with the dean of the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences.

When proposing defense committee members who have not been previously approved to serve on a defense committee who:

• do not have a Columbia affiliation, and/or
• do not serve at Columbia in an adjunct capacity, and/or
• do not hold a PhD

Dissertation Defense and Evaluation:

Only the candidate and the approved members of the dissertation defense committee may be present during the defense. Columbia University policy does not allow spectators or other individuals to attend a defense. Audio or video recording during the defense is strictly prohibited. No exceptions to this rule are permitted unless recommended through the amended Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act.

Please refer to the GSAS Defense and Evaluation guidelines for more information about:

• Participation in Doctoral Dissertation Defenses
• Committee Member Absence in Exceptional Circumstances
• Examination Procedures
• The Vote
• Distinction

The Graduate School of Arts and Sciences requires that all doctoral dissertations undergo a formal examination in which the student has the opportunity to discuss and defend the dissertation with respect to its sources, findings, interpretations, and conclusions before a committee of faculty knowledgeable in the student’s field of research. All faculty members of the defense committee are expected to be present at the defense.

The defense will last for 1.5 hours, with 50 minutes for the research presentation and 40 minutes for questions and answers.

Doctoral programs must submit to the GSAS Dissertation Office ([email protected]) a copy of the external examiner’s curriculum vitae together with the Application for the Dissertation Defense four— but no fewer than two—weeks before the scheduled defense date. The application must be typed; handwritten applications will not be accepted. Applications received less than two weeks before the proposed defense date will require that the defense be rescheduled. 

Formatting Guidelines and Dissertation Template:

For students’ convenience and use while writing the dissertation – or towards the end, when preparing it for deposit – students are encouraged to use the GSAS dissertation Word template or LaTeX template, which incorporate and comply with all GSAS formatting requirements, and can be used to eliminate common formatting errors that may delay the dissertation deposit.

Please use the link here or paste the below text in your browser to view formatting guidelines.

https://www.gsas.columbia.edu/content/formatting-guidelines-and-dissertation-template