These links have been assembled over time since 2005, and in some cases the links have aged off or the information has changed. This page is not actively curated, but when I look here to refresh my memory and find something to be outdated, I usually fix it. Caveat emptor! -M. Parker
Embedded Files
For graduate students
For graduate students
NEW FOR 2025:
Degree Audit is now the tool for grad students to set their Plan of Work (and similar action items)... search for the email from Lonnie Leithold on 1/21/25 entitles "Degree Audit is now live".
Forms needed by graduate students:
http://www.ncsu.edu/grad/faculty-and-staff/forms-list.html
(Needed for various activities.)
MEAS Departmental Information/Requirements:
(Answers to many technical questions about requirements and progress through the program)
The Graduate School's Handbook:
https://grad.ncsu.edu/students/rules-and-regulations/handbook/
(Answers to questions about general NCSU requirements not covered in the MEAS documents)
Registration requirements in order to maintain benefits:
M.S. students: full time of 9+ hrs for the first 3 semesters, any remaining hours in M.S. plan of work (but at least 3 hrs) in semester 4, 3 hrs of MEA 699 thereafter.
Ph.D. students with previous M.S. from elsewhere: full time of 9+ hrs/semester for the first 6 semesters, and 3 hrs thereafter.
Ph.D. student with no previous M.S.: full time of 9+ hrs/semester for the first 8 semesters, and 3 hrs thereafter.
A "full time load" requires at least 9 credits. However, grad students can sign up for 12 hours (and perhaps as many as 15 hours) at no additional cost. This should be done whenever possible. The purpose of doing so is that, once a student gets to the threshold of being within 3 hours of completing his/her plan of work (27 hrs for an M.S. student, 69 hrs post-B.S. for a Ph.D. student), he/she can then register for only 3 hours per semester from then on. This engenders savings in terms of tuition and fees.
Getting started in the first semester:
The MEAS Student Services Coordinator (currently Meredith Henry) sends out an e-mail message to all new students in early to mid June. Among other things, this message includes information on when the grad student orientation will be held, and also how to fill out the Notice of Sponsorship (NOS) form. This NOS form must be completed by the end of July; it is what informs the cashier that a student's tuition will be paid for by a grant. If the student does not complete this by the end of July, their account will show up as having tuition past due. It is important for students to ensure that they have given us an e-mail address that they will actually check during the summer after they graduate, so that they actually receive this information!
Steps to take in the final (graduation) semester:
See this linked document.
Revised requirements for M.S. students entering Fall 2009:
1. At least 30 hours total.
2. At least 18 hours must be credits completed while at NCSU (not transferred). A student may transfer up to a combined total of 12 program hours from the following sources: a) excess 500 level courses taken at NCSU while in a BS program, if they were not already used to satisfy undergrad requirements; b) NCSU post-baccalaureate studies (PBS) courses taken prior to admission to MS program; c) grad courses taken elsewhere prior to admission here, provided no graduate degree was awarded at the original institution.
3. At least 18 hours must be in letter graded courses that are non-MEAS 400-level, any 500-level, or any 700 level. No more than 12 hours of 695 (thesis research) can be used. Transferred credits from excess 500-level and PBS courses at NCSU count as graded credits, but transfer credits do not (even if the student received a grade from the original institution). Note that, because we require MEA601, students must actually take 31 hours total if they plan to use 12 hrs of 695.
4. No more than 6 hours may be from 400 level (outside MEAS) courses. This means 24 hrs must be 500 level and up, with at least 12 hrs of letter graded 500+ level courses. 400 level MEAS courses DO NOT count towards minimal hrs.
5. Credit hours for the following courses may NOT be used to satisfy the 30-credit hour requirement: Master's Thesis Preparation (699), Non-Thesis Master's Examination (690), Summer Thesis Research (696), Non-Thesis Master's Continuous Registration (688 and 689).
Special topics S/U graded at 600 or 800 level can help satisfy requirement 4 but not 3.
Non-thesis M.S. program
Graduation requirements for the non-thesis M.S. are the same those given for the M.S. with thesis, except that the 30-credit requirement must be fully met with coursework (no research or seminar credits). An exit examination is administered by the graduate committee upon completion of coursework.
Graduate research credits:
There are two sets of research courses at each level MEA 693 and MEA 695 at the MS level and MEA 893 and MEA 895 at the doctoral level. PhD students should always register for MEA 895 (dissertation research) and lecture courses till they fulfill all course work on their Plan of Work (POW). After they fulfill their POW and have passed their orals they should take 3 hrs of 899 (dissertation prep) and nothing else. MS students should generally register for MEA 695 (thesis research) until they reach 6 hrs of 695 (the Grad School limits the minimal 30 hr program to a maximum of 6 hrs of 695 and our faculty voted to require 6 hrs of 695). MEA 693 is non-thesis research which students are rarely doing. After students fulfill their POW (usually in semester 5) they should register for 3 hrs of 699 (thesis prep) and nothing else. Also, students need to be registered during the semester that they defend; if the POW is complete, then the appropriate course number for that semester would again be 699/899. Occasionally, some of the 6 hrs of 695 are waived if by semester 4 the student has already obtained 30 hrs with < 6 hrs of 695, and taking additional hrs of 695 would put them into a higher tuition and fee category (i.e. 6-8 hrs rather than 3-5 hrs, or 9+hrs rather than 6-8 hrs).
MEA 699/899 should not appear on Plans of Work (POW) nor be taken before a student has completed all hours required for the degree. They do not count towards the minimal degree requirements! These courses should be taken for 3 hours (with no other courses) after a student has completed all courses on the POW. Three hrs of 699/899 in a Fall or Spring semester (no more, no less, nothing else) following completion of all courses on the POW ensures that a student will be considered "full time" and will get GSSP benefits. For summer defenses, see the next item.
Students must be registered in the semester in which they defend and the semester in which they submit their thesis (usually the same semester). This is normally the time when 699/899 is taken (previous item). This applies equally to summer defenses! For a summer defense, the student should register for 1 credit of either 696/896 or 699/899 in the first summer session (SS1). Registering in SS1 allows the student to defend and submit in either SS1 or SS2. 696/896 makes the student full time in summer and avoids Social Security withholding on their RA (if any), but limits their service on an RA to less than 30 hrs/week.
Summer registration and support:
Graduate students are not required to register during the summer. Students not enrolled in the Summer maintain their access to the library, but other facilities that are funded by student fees, such as the gym and Student Health Services, cannot be accessed without paying for a summer membership. All students who take their final oral examination or submit their thesis/dissertation to the Graduate School during the Summer must be registered for at least one of the two summer sessions. Students may defend a preliminary exam during the summer without enrolling permitting they were enrolled in the preceding spring term or following fall term. Students who are employed as Graduate Research Assistants, but who are not enrolled in the University during a period of at least five weeks, are subject to Social Security tax withholding. Specifically, given Federal tax law as it relates to employment outside of student status, Social Security taxes will be withheld in June for RAs who are not registered in Summer Session I and in July for RAs who are not registered in Summer Session II. The source of funds that pays the stipend must pay the same amount of Social Security tax as is withheld from the student’s paycheck during these months. Two special registration categories are available for Graduate Research Assistants who would not otherwise take courses in the summer: XXX 696 (Summer Thesis Research) and XXX 896 (Summer Dissertation Research), where XXX represents the course prefix of a specific department/program. Each of these courses is for 1 hour of credit, which is considered full-time enrollment for tax purposes, for the Summer and which run for 10 weeks, beginning the first day of Summer Session I and extend into Session II. Social Security taxes will not be withheld from the June or July paychecks of RAs who register for either 696 or 896.
Required courses:
We require graduate students to complete two out of the three courses from among MEA514, MEA700, and MEA705. These two courses count toward the 30 credits needed on the M.S. Plan of Work.
Audits:
Courses at the 400 level may count toward the requirements for graduation if they do not have an MEA prefix; courses below the 400 level do not count. Students who wish to take these courses can audit them (so that they appear on the graduate transcript). Audits don't count towards full time status, so students still need to register for 9 other credits in order to remain full time during that semester.
Plans of Work:
General: Students now submit their committees and Plans of Work on line. When the student submits these, faculty promptly receive an e-mail from the system to approve them. There will be two boxes for faculty to check. Checking the "Accept" box means the faculty member accepts appointment to the committee. Checking the "Approve GPoW" box means that the faculty member agrees with the courses proposed by the student. Once all members approve the POW, Janowitz also approves online. It then goes to the Grad School for final approval.
For M.S. students: M.S. students need 3 committee members (advisor plus two more). Although not mandated by the Graduate School, our department requires that M.S. students complete a Plan of Work (POW). The recommended time for completion of the POW is before the end of the student's second semester. The absolute deadline is before the beginning of the student's third semester.
For Ph.D. students: Ph.D. students need 4 committee members (advisor plus three more). If all of the committee members are within MEAS, the Graduate School will also appoint an external non-voting grad school representative. The Graduate School requires POWs from all Ph.D. candidates, which is to be submitted as soon as possible after the student has completed 12 credit hours toward the doctoral degree. This would normally be at the end of the student's second semester.
Defense and thesis/dissertation approval process:
With the rules in place, the outcome of "unconditional pass" is reserved for cases where both the defense presentation is a pass and the thesis itself requires only minor revision. This may have been a point of confusion because the rules and wording were changed fairly recently (as of 2014). You can think of an unconditional pass as analogous to a journal article review of "accept as is", or "minor revision, don't need to review again". The wording, copied directly from the exam forms that are emailed to committee chairs and signed by committee members, states: "An unconditional pass signifies that the student successfully defended and that the thesis/dissertation is complete, except for minor editing." If major thesis revisions are required, then the correct outcome for the defense exam is "conditional pass", with the conditions in that case being the required thesis revisions. These should be clearly listed on the exam form. The journal-article analog here would be "recommend acceptance following major revisions".
As of 2010, the committee no longer has to sign off on the student's title page before the student submits his/her thesis/dissertation to the Grad School. Students can submit their thesis/diss to the Grad School any time after passing their final oral exams (or fulfilling conditions set down at the final oral). Committee approval is now the final step in the procedure. After a thesis is submitted, content changes required by committee members and format changes required by the Grad School can be incorporated. Once the Grad School and student are content with the draft, this final draft will be sent to the committee members electronically for their approval.
To graduate in a given semester students should submit a first draft to the Grad School before the first deadline for submission (usually about 6 weeks before graduation). In order to do so, they must have passed their oral exam before this deadline. Students then have until roughly 2 weeks prior to graduation in order to complete any thesis/diss changes required by committee members (and then obtain each committee member's approval). Registration will not be allowed in the semester following an unconditional pass. In other words, students must satisfy their committee members and obtain their approval of the thesis/diss in the same semester as they have defended (and will graduate). Should a student get a conditional pass, the student may register the next semester if that the conditions set down by the committee at the exam have not yet been met in the semester the exam is held.
Preliminary Ph.D. exams
The preliminary written PhD exam is lecture coursework based. The less time that elapses between courses and the exam, the less time the student has to forget material and the less time that might be needed in reviewing material. So the written preliminary exam should be scheduled when most if not all required lecture course work is completed. If there are one or two lecture courses left but the student has completed the bulk of his/her formal education then the written exam should be scheduled. In general, the fourth or fifth Ph.D. semester is reasonable timing for this exam. The Grad School and the department are not involved through the written exam. When a student has passed the preliminary written exam, the advisor should notify the Graduate Chair (currently Jerry Janowitz); this notification should also document who participated in the exam, i.e., who is, or will be, on the committee. The committee composition must be known even if the committee has not been formally established since this exam is internal to the dept.
The formal committee and POW (approved by the committee) must be submitted at least two weeks before the oral preliminary exam (which follows a passed written exam). There is no maximum time specified for the gap between the two exams. Some have occurred within weeks of each other and some have been many months to a year apart. The oral must be passed within 6 years of entering the PhD program and at least four months before the final oral exam (i.e. defense). It is generally taken by the 7th Ph.D. semester.
Student benefits:
Students on qualifying assistantships, receiving a stipend > $3000/semester, who register for the appropriate number of credits (below), get paid health insurance benefits no matter how long they have been here. This payment is automatically charged to the grant. Students also get tuition payments guaranteed for a finite duration (below).
Tuition guarantee periods:
M.S. student: First 4 semesters.
Ph.D. student entering NCSU Grad School with an M.S. from elsewhere: First 8 semesters.
Ph.D. student without M.S. when entering Grad School here: First 10 semesters. Note this clock starts when the student enter Grad School even if that initial entrance was at the M.S. level.
During the guaranteed period, tuition payments are automatically paid out of grants (for RAs) or by the Graduate School (for TAs). Beyond the guaranteed period the grant can pay the tuition like any other bill charged to a grant; this is up to PI.
Remote committee members:
The Grad School has made it harder for PhD orals with a committee member (either NCSU or External) at a remote site. They will now require a two way tele-video (both hear and see both ways) hookup. We will have to certify that the hardware and software is available for this two way interaction and the Grad School will assign a Representative, if one has not been appointed, to ensure that the two way communication is working for the entire exam (or the Rep. can call off the exam). If at scheduling the exam, you know someone will not be present but wishes to participate remotely, you will have to certify by an e-mail to me, that the hardware and software is available. It would then be your and the member's responsibility to ensure the two way hook up works. I will have to request that the Grad School approve this remote scenario. The two alternatives are either to have all members in the same room for the exam, or to appoint a substitute for the missing member(advanced Grad School approval required for the substitution).
International applicants
The GRE is required of all applicants. As far as I can tell, we do not require the TOEFL or IBT exams, although many applicants do take them and submit their scores. In general, if an applicant is not a native English speaker, then we need to look for some evidence of skill in written and spoken English, and those exams are one tool that we use. If an international student is to serve as a TA in our department, then they must also pass the SPEAK test, which is administered locally.
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