Doctor of Philosophy in Chemical Engineering

We offer the Master of Science and Doctor of Philosophy degree programs in Chemical Engineering. Students can apply directly for the Ph.D. degree without already having an M.S. degree. There is a special Master of Science in Chemical Engineering curriculum available for students with an undergraduate degree in chemistry, physics, biology, or a similar area and high qualifications. Students who have their degree in an area other than chemical engineering will likely have to take additional courses besides those listed in the special curriculum and may receive a lower stipend during that time. Research under the regular degrees and the special degree can be within any of the areas our faculty work in as listed on their web pages.

Students applying to our graduate program should have or soon have a degree in Chemical Engineering or Chemical Technology. Students usually apply during their senior year if coming in with a bachelor's degree. Students coming in with a Master's degree usually apply the semester before or the semester of their defense. Students with a degree in a very similar scientific area such as Chemistry, Applied Chemistry, or Materials Science may be considered for admission if the grades are high, the degree is from a highly ranked university and English proficiency test scores are high. If the area is not very similar to Chemical Engineering the application is not likely to be considered for admission. We will receive many good applicants with Chemical Engineering degrees that will be looked at first, so a degree that is not similar will be looked at last, probably after all positions have already been filled.

Students with a degree in Bioengineering, Biomedical Engineering, Bioinformatics, Mechanical Engineering, Electrical Engineering or Computer Engineering may want to also look into the graduate program offered by another department the Stephenson School of Biomedical Engineering.

Any student who has earned an undergraduate degree or the equivalent from an accredited school and earned at least a 3.00 grade point average (on a 4.00 scale) over the last sixty hours of letter-graded undergraduate work may be considered for admission in full standing. Students with a Master's degree should also have at least a 3.00 grade point average over their full degree program. The scale used is 4.00 = A, 3.00 = B, 2.00 = C, 1.00 = D, and below 1.00 = F. Students with a GPA of 3.5 or above have a better chance of being selected.

The TOEFL test is a required item for students for whom English is a second language. An official copy of the score is required by the Graduate Admissions Office. The department requested minimum for the TOEFL is 100 on the TOEFL iBT, 250 on the computer-based, and 600 on the paper-based tests. We will not consider an application if the score is less than the university minimum of 79 on the iBT, 213 on the computer based, and 550 on the paper based tests. We will consider a score of between 99 and 79 but there is lower chance of being selected.