Doctoral Graduate Student Handbook
Aerospace Engineering
University of Michigan
Summary of Doctoral Requirements
Academic Standing and Progress
Unsatisfactory Academic Standing
Academic Probation and Dismissal
Your doctoral journey begins with admissions into our program, and this is highly competitive. Each year, the department takes on a number of PhD students that nears the number of faculty, although in any given year, some faculty hire multiple students, while others hire none. The ratio of doctoral applications to matriculations is 15 to 1, so if you are here, you should be already proud of this accomplishment!
Most doctoral students are admitted directly from their undergraduate program, and come in with a Bachelor’s degree in Aerospace or Mechanical engineering, or a related field. A small fraction already have a Master’s degree. The time to completion averages 5 years, slightly less if a student already has a Masters. We do have a separate Masters program, which is a terminal degree and rarely a stepping stone to the PhD. Doctoral students can pursue an embedded Masters on the way to their PhD.
The doctoral program in our department is fully-funded. This means that students do not pay for their education. Tuition, fees, and healthcare are 100% covered, and students receive a monthly stipend. This funding is guaranteed, subject to satisfactory academic progress. The duration of the funding guarantee is nominally four/five years for students coming in with/without a Masters, respectively. However, funding will not be revoked for a student making satisfactory progress who needs some extra time to complete their doctorate.
The funding for a doctoral education may come from various sources. Most students are funded through a research assistantship (GSRA), which comes from external sponsored grants of faculty members. The department, college, and university also have fellowships available, and these are often used in the first year of a student’s studies. Some students have external, third-party, fellowships, for example from NSF, DoD, DoE, NASA, Hertz, etc. These are competitive funding sources, but they often provide more flexibility in terms of research. Students are highly encouraged to apply for these fellowships, many of which can be received while already in graduate school. Deadlines are typically late Fall or early Winter.
The department offers a wide range of graduate courses in various topics pertinent to aerospace engineering. Although these courses are grouped into a handful of research areas, students are free to take courses across areas. When choosing courses, students should consider the following:
Within the first year, students should be aware of the preliminary examination coursework requirements. There is a list of “core” courses, listed on the aerospace engineering website, that form the foundation of the coursework preliminary exam. This list is divided into Category 1 and Category 2 courses, and for the exam, students are asked to select five courses, at least three of which must be Category 1. The coursework examination committee will formulate their questions by drawing on material from these five chosen courses. These courses do not have to be taken at the University of Michigan. They can be transferred from another institution, not officially, but only in spirit for the purpose of the exam.
To advance to candidacy, students must also satisfy the cognate requirement. Cognate courses are those that are in a discipline or area different from a student’s field of study but are related or connected with some aspect of this field. The cognate requirement may be satisfied in two ways:
Finally, students should strive to do well in their coursework and to keep their GPA high. The grades will factor into the preliminary examination decision: as a guideline, a GPA of 3.5 in the courses relevant to the student’s research, will be the cutoff for satisfactory coursework performance.
In summary, to achieve candidacy, students must:
Following candidacy, the student must:
The preliminary examination is a requirement for advancement to candidacy and one of the most important milestones in the doctoral program. This section describes the objectives of the exam, its structure, and the grading and decision process.
The objectives of the preliminary coursework examination :
The preliminary examination consists of two oral tests[1]:
1. An oral coursework examination, administered over 1.5 hours by the coursework examination committee (CEC) of three faculty. All members of the CEC must be University of Michigan faculty members, and at most one may be outside of the Aerospace Engineering department. The CEC composition is chosen by the graduate committee, based on the student’s research area and with committee diversity in mind. When registering, the student can provide the name of at most one faculty member whom the candidate does not desire to have on the CEC. The student will provide a description of their intended research area, approved by the advisor, which will be used by the CEC to design the examination questions. Advisors can provide suggestions for names of faculty to include or to exclude from the CEC.
The graduate committee will decide the composition of the CEC by starting with the instructors of courses relevant to the student’s research area, and then cross-referencing this with the lists provided by the student and advisor. Advisors may appeal the graduate committee decision in writing, within one week of the announcement of the CEC. This announcement will be made four weeks in advance of the exam period. In the case of an appeal, the advisor and graduate committee will work together to resolve issues, and the department head will serve as the arbiter, if needed.
The coursework examination will occur at a time that is mutually agreeable between the CEC and the student. During the exam, each member of the CEC asks questions, roughly 30 minutes in length, which can span one or more of the five chosen courses. The CEC will typically pose three questions that are related to the material in the student's chosen courses. The intent is for every exam to cover material from all five courses, and hence some questions will be multidisciplinary. Note that the student will be informed of the CEC composition, but not of the questions or topics.
There is no eligibility requirement for the preliminary examination, except permission of the advisor. However, note that grades factor into the decision process, with a 3.5 GPA in the courses chosen for the prelims serving as a cutoff for satisfactory coursework performance. This means that a student with a GPA lower than 3.5 in these courses will have an unsatisfactory coursework performance and will therefore be starting out at a disadvantage. The student will have to make up for this with an improved performance during the exam.
If a student fails the coursework preliminary examination without an option to re-take, an exit path for such a student may involve either leaving a program in the same semester or considering completing a Masters' degree if eligible to receive one. Please note that the department dismissal policy stipulates that the student's funding can be terminated after failing the prelims, and no additional funded semester is guaranteed. For students that are close to finishing the Masters, within one semester, the graduate committee will work with the advisor to try to secure funding, either through a GSRA, a GSI, or a fellowship. A student may also be able to continue as self-funded for the remainder of the Masters degree in cases where the department is not able to provide support.
2. An oral research examination, administered over 1 hour by the research examination committee (REC). The REC must contain 2 faculty members beyond the advisor(s) and may be the same as the student’s dissertation committee. Indeed, this is encouraged. If the student does not yet have a dissertation committee, the student and advisor must together submit a proposed REC to the graduate committee, who will then choose the final list of examiners.
The format of the research examination is a 30-minute research presentation and 30 minutes of questions. The topic is the student’s research area and the student’s presentation should include a relevant literature review and results. At least one week ahead of the research examination, the student must submit to the REC a research document, in the form of an AIAA paper (~10 pages in length), summarizing their research.
Students typically take the coursework exam after the second or third semester, but no later than the fourth. The exam is administered within a 1-week window, twice per year: in December and May. Students must pass the coursework exam to advance to candidacy.
Students typically take the research exam after the coursework exam. The timing is flexible, and the exam can be scheduled at any time during the year. It is the responsibility of the student to schedule the exam with the REC. The first exam attempt must occur by the end of the student’s sixth semester. Passing the research exam is a milestone for continuation of PhD studies.
Pass/Fail/Retake decisions for the coursework examination are made in a faculty meeting at the conclusion of the examination period. Each CEC presents a summary of the test performance and states the decision. The faculty then discuss and vote on the outcome. Specifically, the procedure for this meeting will be as follows:
Each student will be allowed a maximum of one Retake decision.
On the research exam, the REC will make a Pass/Fail/Retake decision and communicate it to the student with feedback on performance. If deficiencies are found, students will be encouraged to retake the exam when appropriate. There is no limit to the number of retakes of the research exam, but failing the research exam is grounds for dismissal from the PhD program.
In the past, some faculty have given mock/practice oral exams to students ahead of the exam. Perspectives of the faculty differ on the utility and appropriateness of these practice sessions. In the interest of fairness to all students, such practice exams given by the faculty will not be allowed.
Doctoral research is carried out under the supervision of one or more faculty advisors, and a dissertation committee. The dissertation committee should normally be formed within one year after the student has achieved doctoral candidacy status. Composition of the dissertation committee should adhere to Rackham guidelines. The student should expect to meet with her/his dissertation committee immediately after it is formed and at least on an annual basis up to the Ph.D. defense.
The Ph.D. degree is awarded upon successful completion of a Ph.D. dissertation, a Ph.D. defense, and the final post-defense (see the Rackham Student Handbook for additional details). The doctorate is conferred in recognition of scholarship and demonstrated research accomplishment in a subject related to aerospace engineering. In order to complete the Ph.D. degree, the student must carry out original and publishable research, present the results in a written dissertation, and defend the dissertation at a final oral defense.
Publications, including conference proceedings and archival journal papers, are highly encouraged throughout work on the Ph.D. and afterwards. A reasonable goal is at least one conference paper per year, and at least one archival journal paper submitted by the time of the Ph.D. defense.
Students should meet periodically with their advisor(s) to discuss their academic performance and progress toward the degree. Ph.D. progress report forms filled out jointly by students and their advisor(s) must be submitted at least once per year, ordinarily in May. Advisors should immediately notify students in writing when their performance falls below an acceptable level, and they may indicate this on the Ph.D. progress report form, which can be submitted to the student’s record as often as every term, including Spring/Summer.
The program will place a notation of “unsatisfactory academic performance” on the academic record at the end of the term in which a student’s cumulative GPA falls below 3.0 on a 4.0 point scale. This notation may also be placed in the event of :
The program will notify Rackham OARD when it determines that a student’s performance is unsatisfactory. The unsatisfactory academic performance may be a basis for placing a student on academic probation.
A student with unsatisfactory academic performance may not advance to candidacy and will not be awarded a degree or graduate certificate, and may change programs and transfer credits only with permission of the admitting program.
Academic probation is normally required before the program may recommend that a doctoral student be dismissed for academic reasons. An exception is for students who fail the preliminary exam, in which case dismissal is allowed prior to the start of the subsequent term.
The advisor or graduate chair may recommend that a student be placed on academic probation. The decision to place a student on probation must then be made by a faculty group of at least three persons, and will consist of the advisor, the graduate chair, and the department chair. If these are not unique, members from the graduate committee will be chosen.
The probationary period will be no shorter than two months of the fall or winter term and will ordinarily conclude at the end of that term. For a student placed on probation within two months of the end of the fall term, the probationary period will extend into the winter term for a total of at least two months. For a student placed on probation within two months of the end of the winter term, the probationary period may include the spring or summer half-terms or the following fall term, for a total of at least two months. A student may be placed on probation starting in the spring or summer half term for a minimum of two months, and does not need to be enrolled during these half terms.
The graduate chair will notify the student and Rackham OARD in writing before the probationary period begins, explaining the reasons and conditions of probation, the start and end dates of the probationary period, funding support, conditions, if any, for returning to satisfactory standing, and options for appeal. A student who has been placed on probation may request a leave of absence from Rackham or withdraw. The leave or withdrawal will stop the clock on the probationary period, which resumes when the student returns to active status or is reinstated. Probation will remain in effect until the conditions that initiated the probation are remedied or the student is dismissed.
The level of funding prior to probation will be continued through the probationary period. At the end of probation, and upon the recommendation of the graduate chair and the consent of the graduate school, a student may either be returned to good academic standing or dismissed from the program. The decision to dismiss a student will be made by the three-person group of faculty who decided on the probation. The chair will notify Rackham OARD of a recommendation for dismissal.
Students may appeal academic probation or dismissal. The graduate committee, with the exception of faculty members involved in the original decision, will consider appeals. Students may use the Graduate School’s Academic Dispute Resolution process only for procedural issues of fair and equal treatment under the policy of the program, and not to appeal the academic reasons for the decision. Appeals must be made and resolved within two months of the original decision.
Students who fail to meet standards of academic or professional integrity or who have been found responsible for violations of other University standards of conduct may be dismissed in accordance with separate procedures described in the Rackham Academic and Professional Integrity Policy.
Each student should initiate research activity with his/her advisor in the first year of graduate study at the University of Michigan. Although coursework will typically be the most time consuming in the first year, research should not be neglected, as early research progress is critical for a successful dissertation.
Research may begin slowly, with a literature review, assistance in an existing project, setup of a lab apparatus, or creation of a software library or code. Classes may take precedence, as can adjustment to student life in a new environment. Although students may feel that not much progress is made in the first couple semesters, most of the time, the initial time spent on research is an important investment into future research productivity.
At the outset of the doctoral program, students should discuss with their advisors the proposed mentoring plan. This includes laying out expectations and commitments on the part of the student and the advisor, and of identifying procedures for carrying out research. The latter may include frequency of meetings, expected work schedule, laboratory protocols, interactions with other students, breaks and vacations, important milestones for a sponsored project, etc. Discussing these topics early will prevent any surprises later in the PhD and help pave the way for a productive research experience.
From time to time, conflicts may arise between advisors and students. These could range from a simple misunderstanding to a deeper, systemic issue. In cases of simple misunderstandings, students are encouraged to discuss the issue directly with the advisor: part of a healthy mentoring relationship is an open line of communication. However, in some cases, a student may not wish to discuss an issue directly with their advisor. While rare, this could be in cases where a student is thinking about switching projects/advisors, experiences any form of harassment, or fears retribution for raising a concern. In such cases, there are several paths to resolving such a conflict:
Confidentiality will be maintained as much as possible in these situations, with the fewest number of people possible involved.
[1] Current Ph.D. candidates who have passed the department’s previous version of the prelims are exempt from both of these tests.