Prospective Students
Graduate Degree Requirements
Prospective graduate students should Start Here
Graduate Student Guidelines: Overview of Financial Support & Satisfactory
Progress are Here
Full degree requirements can be found Here
Expectations for Graduate Students are Here
Master's Degree in Geology or Geophysics
By the start of the first semester, each M.S. student will have a main advisor who will select,
in consultation with the student, additional member(s) of the Guidance and Evaluation (G&E)
Committee. Each candidate must have a thesis advisor not later than the start of his or her
second semester of graduate study.
Candidates for the Master’s degree in Geology or Geophysics are required to complete a minimum
of 16 graduate credits (300 or >). The courses taken will be approved by the students’ G&E
Committee.
The normal Master’s degree program takes no longer than two years; candidates working toward a
single M.S. degree should obtain their degrees at the latest by the end of five full semesters
of credit (summers excluded). Any student who has not finished by then will be considered not
to be making satisfactory progress toward a degree.
The G&E Committee (continuing students only) will decide whether or not the student is approved
to continue toward the Ph.D. degree in geology or geophysics.
Ph.D. in Geology or Geophysics
Upon registration, each Ph.D. student will have a main advisor who will select, in consultation
with the student, additional members of the Guidance and Evaluation (G&E) Committee.
The candidate must have a minimum of 32 UW-Madison graduate level credits (300 or >) before
completing the Ph.D. The minimum credit requirement must be completed prior to achieving
dissertator status. The normal doctoral program does not take longer than three years beyond
the Master’s degree, or 5 years if there was no Master’s degree. A student who does no
graduate work for a period of five or more consecutive years will be considered to have lost
all credit.
A Ph.D. minor requirement is required to be approved before taking the prelims.
The preliminary examination is usually oral, but, at the direction of the examining committee,
may be written, or partly oral and partly written. Prior to the preliminary exam, some
research areas may request additional exams.
Dissertator Status. Students are formally admitted to status as Ph.D. candidates
(dissertators) upon successful completion of the Preliminary Examination, major and minor
requirements and credit requirements.
The Final Oral Examination. The final oral examination is administered by a committee of 5 or
more faculty and is to ascertain the suitability and quality of the Ph.D. dissertation. It is
typically given in closed session following a public, oral summary of the Ph.D. research, but
may be given at another time.
The final oral examination may not be given until all other requirements are satisfied and any
incompletes removed. It must be taken within five years of passing the preliminary
examination.
