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Graduation Requirements

M.S. Graduation Requirements

No credits that are reported with a grade lower than C are acceptable toward an advanced degree. To qualify for an advanced degree, the graduate student must have a grade-point average of at least 3.0 based on all courses acceptable for graduate credit for which the student has received a grade from WVU.

A plan of study must be jointly prepared and approved by the student and all members of the student’s advisory and examining committee, the department chair, and the dean or dean’s designate, either at the end of the second semester of the student’s attendance or at the completion of the twelfth course credit hour, whichever is later. The plan must contain a minimum of 30 semester credit hours, not more than nine of which can be at the 400 level. If a thesis or a problem report is part of the candidate’s program, not more than six semester credit hours of research leading to an acceptable thesis or more than three semester credit hours of work for an acceptable problem report may be applied toward the credit hour requirement.

Ph.D. Graduation Requirements

Performance Requirements
To remain in good standing, the student must have a grade of B or better for all the courses scheduled in his/her Ph.D. course of study.

Program Requirements
In addition to the University and Engineering Ph.D. Program requirements, the PNGE Ph.D. students must satisfy the followings requirements:

• A minimum of 54 hours of course work and 30 hours of independent research above and beyond a bachelors degree; or 30 hours of course work and 24 hours of independent research beyond a M.S. degree.
  
• Successful completion of a qualifying examination
  
• Successful completion of a candidacy examination
  
• An approved dissertation.
  

Candidacy
The following are the Petroleum and Natural Gas Engineering requirements for Ph.D. candidacy:

• Completion of all the coursework.
  
• Successful completion of Qualifying Exam.
  
• Successful completion of Candidacy Exam.
  

Qualifying Exam
This is a written exam to evaluate the student's fundamental and advanced petroleum and natural gas engineering knowledge. The student can take the qualifying exam anytime during their graduate studies but must pass the exam no later than one semester after completion of the required courses. A student who wishes to take the exam must apply prior to the deadline announced by the Graduate Coordinator each semester. The exam is prepared and graded by a team of PNGE faculty that is chaired by the PNGE Graduate Coordinator. The student will be informed in writing by the Graduate Coordinator of the results of the exam. When a student fails the examination, he/she may appeal to Department through the Graduate Coordinator for re-examination. The exam can only be repeated once.

Candidacy Exam
The Candidacy Exam is an oral exam designed to examine the student's overall ability to engage in high-level research. Only the Ph.D. students who have passed the qualifying exam can participate in candidacy exam. The student must pass the candidacy exam no later than one year after completion of the all the course work. The student must prepare and submit a written proposal outlining of the proposed Ph.D. research work to all AEC member at least three weeks prior to the scheduled exam. The student will defend the proposal during an oral exam given by the AEC. The students cannot be considered as having passed the candidacy exam if there is more than one committee member disapproving. The student will be informed in writing by the Graduate Coordinator of the results of the exam. When a student fails, he/she may appeal to AEC through the Graduate Coordinator for re-examination. The candidacy exam can only be repeated once.

Final Exam
At the completion of the dissertation research, the candidate must prepare a dissertation and defend it orally before AEC. The candidate must arrange through his/her major advisor to have a formal defense of the dissertation. The time and location of the exam will be announced by the Graduate Coordinator. No more than one member may disapprove the dissertation, for the student to pass. The dissertation must be prepared in accordance with the guidelines set forth by the University as described in the Graduate Catalog and CEMR Engineering Ph.D. Program Guidelines.