Prior to admission to the PhD program and during PhD studies, the student must have an AES graduate faculty advisor (the ‘faculty advisor,’ who must be a member of AES and the Graduate Faculty) who has agreed to supervise the student's dissertation research. An advisor may choose to no longer serve as a student’s faculty advisor by providing written electronic notice to the student and the Associate Chair for Graduate Studies.

To remain within the PhD program a student without a faculty advisor must obtain a new AES graduate faculty advisor within 120 days of notice from the previous advisor. To satisfy this time limit the new student faculty advisor must provide written electronic notice indicating their willingness to serve as the student’s faculty advisor to both the student and the Associate Chair for Graduate Studies. If the student is unable to find a new faculty advisor within 120 days the student will be removed from the PhD program; If the student does not already possess a M.S. degree, then rather than dismissal from the PhD program their degree program will be changed to the M.S. program.

A student entering the PhD program in Aerospace Engineering Sciences is not required to possess an MS degree; however, the student must have the proficiency of an individual who has earned an MS degree given in the Department of Aerospace Engineering Sciences at the University of Colorado in order to pass the preliminary examination. After passing the preliminary examination, a student is considered a PhD pre-candidate. Once passed, the student is admitted to candidacy and officially becomes a PhD candidate.

Program Requirements

Program Requirements encompass required aspects of coursework, examination, and timeline for PhD completion. The following are the program course requirements for PhD degree completion:

• A total of 30 course credits numbered 5000 or above with 9 of these taken at the 6000 level or above. A 4000-level course cannot be applied to the PhD. Course curriculum is defined by the chosen focus area and approved by the faculty advisor. See, focus area curricula charts in Appendix E for more information.
• A minimum cumulative GPA of 3.25. A student who fails to maintain a 3.25 grade point average or to make adequate progress toward completing a degree, as assessed by the student’s advisor, will be subject to suspension from the Graduate School upon consultation with the major department. The final decision on suspension will be made by the dean of the Graduate School.
• At least 15 credits must be in ASEN (Note: EMEN 5405 Fundamentals of Systems Engineering counts as an ASEN class). Seminar credits, even those earned in other disciplines, do not count toward the PhD degree.
• At least 6 credits of approved math courses (see list of approved math courses in Appendix B.
• Up to 21 credits from an outside MS program can be applied. All credits earned from a MS program taken at the University of Colorado can be applied toward a PhD. MS thesis credits cannot be applied to the PhD regardless of the institution where the MS was earned.
• At least 30 PhD dissertation credits. A student must register for a minimum of five dissertation hours in the fall and spring semesters of each year, beginning with the semester following the passing of the comprehensive exam and extending through the semester in which the dissertation is successfully defended (final examination). (See Graduate School Rules for additional information: https://www.colorado.edu/graduateschool/academic-resources)
• For the PhD, a course mark below B- is unsatisfactory and will not be counted toward fulfilling the minimum requirements for the degree.

In addition to these course requirements, students must also pass a series of examinations. Students must pass a departmental preliminary examination, or its equivalent:

1. no later than the end of the 3^rd semester as a CU graduate student if the student already has a master’s degree in aerospace engineering;
2. no later than the 5^th semester as a CU graduate student if the student does not already have a master’s degree in aerospace engineering.

Students must pass a comprehensive examination:

1. no later than the end of the 5^th semester if the student already has an aerospace master’s degree;
2. the 7^th semester if the student does not already have an aerospace master’s degree.

Note that students must have completed or be enrolled in the remaining courses to complete the 30 required course credits by this semester. Students cannot be admitted into candidacy until the necessary coursework is complete. The Graduate School requires the accumulation of PhD dissertation credits within the maximum 6 year program length to complete the PhD. For additional information, see Graduate School Rules. Finally, students must complete a PhD dissertation and successfully defend the dissertation in a final examination.

The minimum residence requirement for a PhD is six semesters beyond the attainment of an acceptable bachelor's degree (2 semesters from another institution may be counted towards this requirement). ”Residence” in this context refers to a student’s registration for CU-Boulder courses, and not physical residence. All degree requirements must be satisfied in a period of 6 years from the commencement of coursework for the PhD.

Teaching Practicum

All PhD students are expected to gain teaching experience through a Teaching Practicum. The teaching practicum reflects one semester of documented teaching experience for each PhD student. It may be fulfilled in a number of ways to allow flexibility to the student and their advisor based on interests, skills, and departmental needs. While some teaching activities might be paid assignments from the department (for example, a teaching assistantship or hourly course assistantship), there is no requirement for the teaching practicum to be a paid appointment.

Examples of 1 semester teaching practicum activities:

• Teaching Assistant
• Teaching Fellow or Course Assistant (hourly)
• Team-teaching a course with an AES faculty member
• Mentor responsible for UROP, Discovery Learning Apprentice, SURE or SMART student or high school student, for full summer or semester
• Coordinator for focus area seminar

The advisor is responsible for specifying the teaching activities required and providing guidance and assistance to the student in this work. For teaching as a research mentor the advisor should set clear expectations for the role of the graduate student mentor and ensure that both the graduate mentor and the undergraduate student(s) they are working with understand the responsibilities and roles of each. Students must complete the teaching practicum tracking sheet available in Appendix E, prior to or in the semester of their final defense.