Doctoral Degree Requirements

1. General Ph.D. Program Description and Requirements

As a university founded on mineral and energy exploration, CSM has a unique focus on providing students with education and research opportunities that revolve around responsible stewardship of the earth and its resources. As part of this focus, the Environmental Science & Engineering Division (ESE) offers curriculum in environmental science and engineering within the context of risk-based decision-making, environmental law, and policy leading to graduate degrees as well as several undergraduate programs. Graduate students in the program come from diverse academic backgrounds in such fields as life sciences, earth sciences, and most engineering disciplines. ESE offers graduate programs leading to the M.S. and Ph.D. degrees. The M.S. degree includes both a thesis and non-thesis option. The Division also offers a M.S. degree through an evening Executive Program, but all admission, performance and credit hour requirements are the same as those for the daytime M.S. program. Information concerning the Ph.D. program is provided in this document, while a description of the M.S. program is given in a separate document. Students should also consult the CSM Graduate Bulletin.

The following requirements are excerpted from the CSM 2001-2002 Graduate Bulletin. At CSM, the Ph.D. degree requires 72 credit hours of coursework and research combined, beyond the B.S. degree. At least 24 credit hours of research must be conducted under the supervision of the student’s faculty advisor. The student’s department or division establishes coursework requirements for the Ph.D. in their field. The degree also requires completion of a doctoral thesis and oral defense of it. The student’s faculty advisor and the Doctoral Thesis Committee must approve the program of study and the topic for the thesis. Ph.D. students must complete at least two semesters of full-time residence at CSM during graduate studies. All doctoral candidates must complete 12 credit hours in a minor program of study. The student’s faculty advisor, Doctoral Thesis Committee and home department head or division director must approve the course selection and sequence in the minor program. The Doctoral Thesis Committee must have at least 3 voting members from the home department or division plus at least 1 member from the minor field and 1 member at large from CSM faculty. If a thesis co-advisor is assigned, then the committee must have 1 more committee member from the home department. Ph.D. students are eligible for reduced tuition, in which registration for 4 rather than 12 credit hours is required for full-time status, once they have completed the following: 1) 60 hours total of coursework and research, 2) 12 credit hours of minor coursework, 3) the comprehensive examination, and 4) have submitted an admission to candidacy form.

General prerequisites for graduate studies in ESE are: (1) calculus through differential equations, (2) one year of college chemistry, and (3) one semester of college physics (one year highly recommended). One semester of college statistics is also strongly recommended. Depending on the student’s area of interest within ESE, there may be additional recommended or required pre-requisites specific to that area. As described in the CSM Graduate Bulletin, doctoral students may be able to apply a limited number of credits of approved coursework earned during their B.S. or M.S. degree toward satisfying their Ph.D. requirements at CSM.

For further information regarding ESE, please visit our website (http://www.mines.edu/academic/envsci) or contact us at Colorado School of Mines, Environmental Science & Engineering Division, Coolbaugh Hall, Golden, Colorado 80401. Tel.: 303.273.3427, 303.273.3467, or Telefax: 303.273.3413.

2. Synopsis of Ph.D. Steps and Requirements

To earn the Ph.D. degree in Environmental Science & Engineering at the Colorado School of Mines, a student must complete the following (not necessarily in the order stated below):

3. Examination and Defense Process

Advisor and Doctoral Thesis Committee. The advisor of each Ph.D. student must be approved by the ESE Division Director. The student and advisor together will select an appropriate Doctoral Thesis Committee, subject to approval by the Division Director according to the guidelines that each member of the committee must possess expertise in some aspect of the student’s research topic area and have experience examining Ph.D. students (or a demonstrated potential and commitment to do so). The advisor and Doctoral Thesis Committee must be approved by the CSM Dean of Graduate Studies, and will have the primary responsibility for oversight of a student’s progress and satisfactory completion of the requirements for the Ph.D. degree. In addition, however, ESE faculty members who are not on the Doctoral Thesis Committee may raise questions, concerns or express praise about a student’s progress and share these at any time with the advisor and/or Doctoral Thesis Committee and the ESE Division Director.

Comprehensive Examination. The Graduate School Bulletin stipulates that each student must satisfactorily complete a series of written and/or oral examinations covering all phases of major and minor fields at least six months before the student’s anticipated graduation date and no later than three years after the student begins the doctoral program. Part-time students may request an extension of up to one year from the Graduate Dean. Individual departments structure and administer the exams for their students. If a student fails to pass the comprehensive examination, he/she may request a re-examination. Failure to pass the re-examination results in termination of the Ph.D. graduate program.

Intent and Subject Matter. The ESE Comprehensive Examination is designed to add to the student’s and the committee’s understanding of certain student attributes considered essential to successful scholarship, including critical thinking ability, creativity, motivation, resourcefulness, initiative, and the potential to conduct successful research. The Comprehensive Examination is also intended to provide a diagnostic tool to improve a student’s performance and chances for success and to provide a learning experience for the student. The Examination is not, however, intended to assess the viability of a research project. Subject matter will include major and minor coursework related to student’s program of study. Preparation time will be determined by the student and Doctoral Thesis Committee, but lengthy preparation times (e.g., several months) are not intended.

Administration. The ESE Comprehensive Examination is conducted by the on-campus members of the Doctoral Thesis Committee. The participation of campus at-large members is optional; however, participants must agree to follow the ESE Examination guidelines stated below. The Examination Administrator will be the student’s ESE faculty advisor or, if unavailable, the student’s ESE faculty co-advisor.

Scheduling and Question Composition. The process of scheduling a Comprehensive Examination begins with the convening of the Examination Committee by the student to review the student’s program of study. At this meeting or at a subsequent meeting, the Examination Committee must then have a Pre-Examination Discussion, before composing the written questions, to coordinate the types of written questions, to agree upon the approximate number and length of the written questions, and to set dates for the submission of written questions to the Examination Administrator, the written examination, and the oral examination. The question format for the oral examination may also be discussed at this time. Questions must later be collected and reviewed by the Examination Administrator to ensure relevance and compliance with time allocations, and necessary adjustments must be made before the examination may begin. A minimum time period of 14 days must pass between the scheduling of the written examination and the beginning of the examination itself. The Comprehensive Examination may be scheduled at any time during a semester at the discretion of the Examination Committee.

Written Examination Format. The written examination consists of a week-long (7 day maximum) take-home series of questions provided by the Examination Committee (e.g., 1-2 per member) and may include problems involving data analysis, experimental design, computation and modeling, environmental data interpretation, synthesis of information, or critical literature reviews. The written examination questions will allow open resources without specific time limits or circumstances under which a student should answer a particular question. Committee members will indicate their expectations through an estimation of hours of effort for each question. The total length of questions will be limited such that the questions may reasonably be completed within the one-week time period and such that large committees do not result in proportionately long written examinations. At the end of the week, the student should submit the answers to the Examination Administrator for distribution to the respective members of the Committee.

Oral Examination Format. The oral examination must take place within 14 days of the submission of the answers to the written examination. The format for questioning will be chosen by the Committee, but the examination will be of 3h maximum duration with at least 1 break. During the oral examination, the Examination Administrator will encourage the Committee to be concise and deliberate in questioning and the student to be focused in answering. All questions posed during the oral examination should be answered, if not by the student, then by a Committee member, to enhance the quality of the learning experience. Committee members may take informal written notes during the examination at their discretion, but no formal minutes of the examination will be kept.

Evaluation. Committee members will evaluate the answers to the written questions before the oral examination, but the written questions will not be graded separately, nor will feedback concerning the written questions be provided to the student prior to the oral examination. The combined examination will be graded pass/fail by a simple majority of the Examination Committee. In the event of failure, re-examination may be requested as noted below.

Documentation and Reporting. The Examination Administrator will write a brief summary and explanation of the results of the Examination, circulate it to the Committee for approval and signatures, and provide it to the Division Director within 5 calendar days of completion of the Examination. The Examination Administrator will also provide a memo for the Graduate School, stating the outcome of the Examination, to the Division Director at this time. The latter memo, signed by the Division Director, will be provided to the Graduate School within 7 calendar days of the Examination.

Re-Examination. In the event of failure, the student may elect to request a Re-Examination in writing to the Division Director within 30 days of the first oral examination. The Re-Examination may consist of both written and oral portions, at the Committee’s discretion, with each elected part following the guidelines of the original Examination. The Re-Examination may be taken only once, will be graded pass/fail by a simple majority of the Doctoral Thesis Committee, and failure will result in termination of the Ph.D. graduate program.

Thesis Proposal Approval. The purpose of the thesis proposal is to describe the student’s research and enable evaluation of its viability to ensure timely progress toward attainment of the Ph.D. degree. The written thesis proposal must consist of a literature review, preliminary data, methods, experimental plan, and budget, in a format designated by the Doctoral Thesis Committee. Two weeks following submission of the thesis proposal to the Committee, the student and Committee will meet for an oral presentation of the proposal of up to ~2 hr in duration, during which the student will be questioned about matters immediately relevant to the proposal. The Committee will be assess the thesis proposal on a pass/fail basis, where a failure will result in a “finding of insufficient progress” by the advisor and Doctoral Thesis Committee. Two successive findings of insufficient progress in successive semesters are grounds for termination of the graduate program, although termination is not automatic. The proposal and defense must be completed more than 1 calendar year before graduation, and they are not related to the Comprehensive Examination nor are they required for a student to qualify for reduced tuition.

Thesis Preparation and Defense. The thesis proposal must be reviewed and approved by the Doctoral Thesis Committee at least one year before the thesis defense. The student’s faculty advisor is responsible for supervising the student’s research work and consulting with other members of the Committee on the progress of the work. Upon approval of the thesis by the faculty advisor, the thesis is distributed to the other members of the Committee at least one week prior to the oral defense of thesis. The defense will be open to the public and must be scheduled with the Office of Graduate Studies at least one week prior to the defense date. As described in the CSM Graduate Bulletin, the Doctoral Thesis Committee may reach one of three possible decisions: (1) student passes, (2) student fails (>2 negative votes), (3) the defense is adjourned. In the case of failure or adjournment, the student many request a re-examination, which must be rescheduled no less than one week after the original defense. A second failure will result in termination of the student’s Ph.D. graduate program.

Implementation Plan. The comprehensive examination and other Ph.D. requirements described in this document will supercede previous ESE requirements. As described, the comprehensive examination process must begin between 3 and 18 months after matriculation and must be completed within 36 months after matriculation. Leaves of absence, during which a student is not registered in the ESE doctoral program, will not be considered to contribute to the 18- or 36-month time allocations. If a student has not begun the examination process within the specified time allotted, a finding of insufficient progress can be made by the student’s advisor. ESE students may elect either the existing or the new comprehensive examination format during spring and summer 2002. The new format for the comprehensive exam will be mandatory for all ESE doctoral students who have not successfully passed the comprehensive examination as of the start of the fall semester 2002.