Masters
The Graduate Catolog and the Civil and Environmental Engineering Department website list Civil Engineering Field of Study graduate degree requirements in detail. Following is an amplification specifically for the Transportation and Urban Engineering area of concentration.
MSCE Plan A:
The MSCE Plan A is generally for students intending to continue on to a Ph.D. All students supported as Graduate Research Assistants are expected to choose this track. Following are the requirements for this degree program:
- Background preparation (see courses) and 21 credits (including the MSCE Core) and 9 credits of GRAD 395 (Master's Thesis research)
- A written thesis and oral final examination, consisting of a presentation of the thesis findings to the student's academic advisory committee
(see Thesis and Dissertation)
A limited number (up to 6 credits) of 200-level (not open to sophomores) background preparation courses may be included in the 21 credits
MSCE Plan B:
The MSCE Plan B is generally for students who do not expect to continue on to a Ph.D. degree. Instead, it is designed to prepare students for professional positions in transportation engineering. Following are the requirements for this degree program:
Background preparation (see Courses) and 30 credits (including the MSCE Core)
- A Final Examination either:
Similar to the first part of the Ph.D. General Examination (see Ph.D.)
-or-
Written report and oral presentation of a practice-oriented project, carried out either as an independent study or as an internship with a professional firm (included in the 30 credits).
- A limited number (up to 6 credits) of
200-level (not open to sophomores) background preparation courses may be included in the 30 credits.
The Plan of Study
Each graduate student must submit a plan of study to the Graduate School listing the courses he or she will use to complete the requirements for their degree. For TUE, the course program listed on the plan of study must conform to the requirements listed in this document and be approved by his/her major advisor and two associate advisors (selected jointly by the student and the major advisor). MS Students enrolled in the Civil Engineering field of study must also complete the Civil Engineering addendum to the plan of study, available at the CEE website, and submit it to the CEE graduate coordinator. For the MS degree, the plan of study must be approved by the Graduate School before the student may appear for his/her oral final examination. For the PhD degree, the Plan of Study must be approved by the Graduate School before the student may appear for his/her General Examination.
The Thesis and Dissertation
The thesis or dissertation must constitute original work by the student resulting in ground-breaking, seminal findings in the field of study. Once completed, the student presents the major findings in an oral final examination according to Graduate School regulations.
The scope of research to be undertaken will be more extensive for a PhD dissertation than for a MS thesis. In either case, but especially for the PhD dissertation, the literature review must be exhaustive and clearly demonstrate the contribution of research conducted by the student relative to work previously conducted by others. In other words, enough information about previous research should be provided to show that the thesis or dissertation is one of the next steps required in the area. For either a dissertation or thesis, simply itemizing the content of each background paper is not adequate; all papers discussed in a literature review must be tied together and explicitly related to the research topic. In many cases, the results of previous work will be compared to the results of the analysis undertaken by the student. The research analysis consists of some combination of data collection, data analysis, and model development and usually takes about two to three terms to complete for a MS thesis, and five to eight terms for a PhD dissertation. The Civil Engineering field of study offers the option of preparing the dissertation as a series of several peer-reviewed journal papers.
A student should expect revisions to an individual thesis or dissertation chapter will take at least 6 weeks from the first time a complete draft is provided to his/her major advisor. Students are encouraged to provide drafts one section or chapter at a time when possible. Once the major advisor is satisfied the thesis or dissertation is ready, a copy is provided to each member of the final exam committee, which consists of the major advisor and two associate advisors for a thesis or a dissertation, and two additional faculty (5 total) for a PhD dissertation. A final examination date and time is set at least two weeks from the time the copies are provided to the examination committee.
For more general information refer to:
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