Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
The PhD requires a minimum academic residency of two years beyond the bachelor’s degree. Programs are individually developed in consultation with a field advisor and must be approved by the Committee on Higher Degrees (CHD), which also reviews any requests for exceptions to the requirements. There is no foreign language requirement.
Courses
Courses provide the background knowledge that is often needed to successfully complete research, and allow one to learn more broadly about a field or related fields in a structured fashion. Students should work in close consultation with their advisor to develop an appropriate program of study (the "PhD Program Plan") that contains a minimum of ten (4-unit) courses. The ten-course requirement is considered a minimum and not a goal; students are encouraged to take additional courses whenever appropriate. Of the ten required courses for the PhD degree, at least eight courses will normally be disciplinary courses, i.e. courses that provide the scientific, mathematical, and technical depth that students need for the graduate programs in engineering and applied science.
A prospective PhD Program Plan must be filed for review by the CHD before the beginning of spring recess during the student's second term. A final PhD degree program must be submitted before Thanksgiving recess in the student's third term.
Each course must be passed with a grade of B- or better, and a B average must be maintained. Academic, but not financial, credit may be granted for graduate work done elsewhere, but only if those courses are approved by the Committee on Higher Degrees as part of the degree program and justification for inclusion has been provided. Ordinarily, three such courses is the maximum number that may be approved, and in many cases fewer than three will be accepted. Detailed requirements are available in the Policies of the CHD document.
The first year is ordinarily spent primarily on coursework, although some students may begin research. The second year is usually divided between coursework and research, with coursework completed during the third year if necessary.
Teaching
One term of teaching is an SEAS requirement for the PhD degree. Second-year students must serve as a Teaching Fellow for a SEAS course or for an FAS course outside of SEAS taught by a member of the SEAS ladder faculty. Students are welcome to teach beyond the one term requirement if they wish and if their advisor is supportive of their doing so.
Advising
When a student enters the PhD program, she or he is assigned a field advisor, based on the research interests she or he expressed in the application. The field advisor assists the student with developing, within the CHD guidelines, a program of courses that will provide the preparation needed for dissertation research.
During the first two terms in the program, the student focuses on identifying a specific research area and a potential research advisor, who is often the field advisor who was originally assigned. However, if the student finds that another faculty member’s research more closely matches his or her interests, the student can ask that faculty member to become his or her advisor. If the original field advisor will not be the potential research advisor, she or he provides assistance, if needed, in identifying other possible research areas and advisors. In either case, the student should discuss this question with and have agreement from a potential research supervisor during the Spring term of the first year. During the second year, the student finalizes the program of courses with approval of the research advisor and the CHD, and a qualifying examination committee is developed, chaired by the research advisor and including faculty nominated by the research advisor, the student and the CHD. When the qualifying examination is passed, the research advisor nominates and chairs a research committee, which oversees the student’s research and dissertation. A research/dissertation committee exists throughout the rest of the student’s graduate career, with any necessary changes to its composition made by the research advisor. Any member of the research committee can serve as a source of information and advice for the student throughout subsequent graduate years, as can the members of the CHD.
The Oral Qualifying Examination
Preparation for research in the major field is evaluated in a two-hour oral examination by a qualifying committee. The examination has the dual purpose of verifying the adequacy of the student’s preparation for undertaking research in a chosen field and of assessing the student’s ability to synthesize knowledge already acquired. Areas within SEAS have different customs regarding the detailed nature of the qualifying examination. For example, the format may involve principally the presentation and discussion of a potential dissertation topic. It may also include, to a lesser or greater degree, general questions in the chosen research field and related areas.
The qualifying exam committee is selected when the final PhD program is filed, and consists of four Harvard faculty members, including at least two SEAS faculty members.
The qualifying examination should be taken in the fourth term; any extension beyond the fourth term must be approved by the Committee on Higher Degrees.
Three outcomes of the qualifying examination are possible. The exam committee may pass or fail the student or (if it is the student's first attempt) judge the performance to be inconclusive. Within its discretion, the committee may stipulate further requirements, such as additional course work, a written examination or presentation of a research proposal, as conditions that must be satisfied. If inconclusive, the student and committee may schedule a second examination, which must be conclusive. If the outcome of either examination is a failure, a student may not re-register, thus terminating degree candidacy.
Research and Dissertation
Upon successful completion of the qualifying examination, a committee usually consisting of three or four Harvard faculty members is selected and chaired by the research supervisor and constituted to oversee the dissertation research. The committee must include at least two SEAS faculty members, one of whom must be a senior faculty member.
A dissertation must, in the judgment of the research committee, meet the standards of significant and original research. No prospectus is required. The dissertation should be a coherent document addressed to a broad audience in the subject area. A collection of manuscripts intended for publication as technical papers is not considered by SEAS to constitute an acceptable dissertation.
Final Oral Examination
When the dissertation is completed to the satisfaction of the research committee, generally in the fourth or fifth year and rarely later than the end of the student’s sixth year, a final oral examination is scheduled at a time to which the committee has agreed.
This public examination devoted to the field of the dissertation is conducted by the student’s research committee. It consists of a presentation and defense of the dissertation itself and may also include more general questions relating to the field of the research.
At the end of the examination, the committee may accept the dissertation, possibly subject to revisions, or specify further requirements. Once the Research Committee has accepted the final dissertation, each member signs the dissertation acceptance certificate (DAC).
The final dissertation, including all required changes, must be submitted to the FAS Registrar’s Office by the appropriate deadline. The FAS Registrar’s Office publishes all deadlines before the beginning of the academic year and it is the student’s responsibility to know when their dissertation is due. The official signed hard copy of the DAC is delivered to the FAS Registrar’s Office by the SEAS Office of Academic Programs, with a scanned PDF sent to the student to be included in the submitted dissertation.