NEW ECE Guidelines

The new ECE guidelines for PhD hours (minimum requirements) are:

· at least 30 hours of "regular classroom instruction," all classes at the graduate level

· no individual instruction classes count towards the 30 hours of "regular classroom instruction"

· at least 12 hours of the 30 should be taken in residence at UT-Austin

· 6 hours should be "outside the principal area of study" (no requirement for inside or outside of department; student's qualifying committee will examine appropriateness of courses indicated as "supporting work")

· GPA in each category ("major" and "supporting") should be at least 3.5

MINIMUM requirements:

These constitute MINIMUM requirements; additional requirements, subject to ECE GSC approval, may be imposed by individual tracks (areas). In addition, a PhD qualifying exam committee can elect to require more if they believe it is appropriate for a given student.

ECE Graduate Students Enrolled Spring 2003 or Before:

Please note that any current student (Spring 2003 or earlier enrollment) may chose to use these new guidelines, or at their discretion, may elect to use the old guidelines. Students enrolled starting Fall 2003 or later will fall under these new rules only, unless there are changes in the future.

OLD ECE Guidelines

ECE Recommendations for Ph.D. Programs of Work

· At least 45 semester hours of formal course-work, taken for letter grade, with no grade less than B. Normally, 6 of the 45 hours may be Conference Course hours, and not more than 6 hours should be undergraduate coursework. Coursework more than six years old may not be used in the Program of Work unless approved by the Qualifying Exam Committee and the Graduate Advisor.

· At least 18 of the 45 hours should be ECE graduate course-work taken at U.T. Austin.

· At least 6 of the 45 hours must be in the supporting area outside ECE.

· At least 3 of the 6 hours should be graduate course-work.

· At least 6 of the 45 hours must be within ECE but outside the principal area of graduate study.

· At least 3 of the 6 hours should be graduate course-work.

· The GPA in each of the four categories listed above should be 3.5 or better