Advanced Standing Option

Admission Requirements

To be admitted into the Advanced Standing Option for the Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering program, students must meet all the admission requirements of the Ph.D. above AND must have earned a master’s degree in engineering or closely related fields (e.g., physics, computational mechanics). Only students who have earned a master’s degree in these areas will be considered, no exceptions will be made. All other students should apply to the Ph.D. program above (without the Advanced Standing Option).

Additionally, students with a cumulative GPA less than 3.2 in their master’s degree or more than 2 grades of C in their master’s degree courses are not eligible for Advanced Standing Option. In this case, students have the option of requesting transfer of credit hours for individual courses with grades of B or above.

Degree Requirements

The degree requirements for the Advanced Standing Option are similar to the Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering above except that students complete only 42 credit hours. No transfer credits are allowed under this program. The degree requirement is as follows:

  • 21 credit hours minimum graduate coursework, of which at least 12 credit hours must be MEGR courses
  • Students who have not satisfied the mathematics requirement (6 credit hours minimum) as part of their master’s degree must complete that requirement as part of the coursework at UNC Charlotte (e.g., MATH 6103, MATH 6171, MATH 6172, or MEGR 7172)
  • MEGR 8999 – Doctoral Dissertation Research (21 credit hours minimum)
  • All Ph.D. students are required to register for MEGR 8000 each semester (this 1 credit hour course is graded on a pass/unsatisfactory basis and does not count toward the required 42 credit hours)

A minimum of 42 credit hours are required to complete the degree under the Advanced Standing Option. Once the minimums stated above are satisfied, the remaining hours, if any, can be satisfied via elective coursework or research credit hours (MEGR 8999). Any courses outside the Department of Mechanical Engineering and Engineering Science requires departmental approval.

Qualifying Examination

Students who enter the Ph.D. program under the Advanced Standing Option must take the qualifying examination before the end of their third semester in the doctoral program.