University of Florida

Master’s Core Curriculum

The Master’s program requires 30 semester credit hours, and is formulated as either a thesis option (in which up to 6 credit hours of Master’s Research – EOC 6971) can be counted toward the degree, or a non-thesis option (30 hours of coursework only).  Students on a research assistantship must complete a thesis.

The required courses in the Coastal Master’s program are outlined below:

            OCP 6165       Ocean Waves I (Linear Theory)                        3 credits
            EGM 5816       Intermediate Fluid Dynamics                            3
            MAP 5304       Intermediate Differential Equations                   3
            3 elective courses within the Coastal Program                         9
            Total credits                                                                       18

Elective courses can be found below in the Ph.D. Core Curriculum                                                                                                
Note that a Master’s student with an eye toward a Ph.D. would be allowed to substitute EGM 6322 for MAP 5304 in order to expedite the progress toward the Ph.D. degree. 

Ph.D. Core Curriculum

The Ph.D. degree requires 90 semester credit hours beyond the bachelor’s degree.   No more that 30 semester hours of a Master’s degree can be transferred from another institution.   Coastal and Oceanographic Engineering Ph.D. students must take a minimum of 27 hours of research credits (either Advanced Research EOC 7979 or Doctoral Research EOC 7980), but can count no more that 39 hours of EOC 7979 plus EOC 7980 toward the Ph.D. degree.   The core curriculum of required coursework toward the Ph.D. degree is outlined below:

Basic Core:
            OCP 6165       Ocean Waves I (Linear Theory)                         3 credits
            EGM 5816       Intermediate Fluid Dynamics                             3
            EGM 6322       Principles of Engineering Analysis 2                   3
            EOC 6196       Littoral Processes                                             3
            OCP 6050       Physical Oceanography                                     3
            OCP 6168       Data Analysis Techniques                                  3
                                                                                                     18 credits
Elective Core:
5 elective courses within the Coastal Program                15 credits
beyond those needed for the Master’s degree

             Elective courses include: Numerical Simulation Techniques in Coastal and Oceanographic Engineering, Estuarine and Shelf Hydrodynamics, Nonlinear Wave Theory, Turbulence, Sediment Transport, etc. which are offered by the Coastal Program. Consult the graduate coordinator for the exact course numbers of these courses.
 
Ph.D. Qualifying Examination Process

The Ph.D. Qualifying examination is administered every Fall semester and consists of both a written and an oral examination.   Ph.D. students should take the qualifying examination no later than their third Fall semester after entering the Ph.D. program (although they are encouraged to take the examination during their second Fall semester).  The written examination is generally given in early October and is administered by the graduate coordinator.  The written examination includes the following five subject areas, taken over the span of one week:

            Wave Mechanics
            Fluid Dynamics
            Mathematics
            Specialty Area #1
            Specialty Area #2

The specialty exams are given in areas of the student’s choosing in consultation with the student’s advisor and supervisory committee.  It is the student’s responsibility to identify the specialty examination areas and examiners and provide this information to the graduate coordinator at the start of the Fall semester.

Upon successful completion of the written portion of the examination, the student will schedule and complete the oral portion of the qualifying examination within the same Fall semester.  The oral examination is administered by the supervisory committee.  The committee may also request that other faculty members from outside the committee be present at the examination (such as those examiners from the written portion of the exam).  Upon successful completion of the oral examination, the student is advanced to Ph.D. candidacy.

Within one year after the completion of the qualifying examinations, the doctoral candidate will present a formal dissertation proposal to the supervisory committee.

Details on qualifying exam

First, when you have completed the written part of the exam, you need to see CE Graduate Records to complete the Advancement to Candidacy form prior to the oral exam (which completes the process).

Second, you also must have your supervisory committee established in order to schedule the oral exam (since the supervisory committee is the examining committee - of course you can invite other faculty members as examiners).  Although strictly speaking you do not need to have the committee constituted prior to the written exams, you may find it easier to at least begin the process (asking faculty members, etc) before that time. The chair of the supervisory committee must be a faculty in the Coastal and Oceanographic Engineering Program. At least one member of the supervisory committee must be outside of the Civil and Coastal Engineering Department.

Third, our procedure in the past has been to ask examiners to supply a letter grade consistent with the current UF grading scale:

A, B+, B, C+, C, etc. (no minus grades)

Then a "grade point average" is compiled for the entire suite of examinations and a 3.5 "GPA" is required for a passing grade (i.e. B+) and the subsequent convening of the supervisory committee for the oral examination.   If the student does not pass the written part, they can sit for the written examination a second time; a second failure would result in dismissal.

If the student misses the B+ cutoff by a small amount (say 3.4), the committee has the discretion to move the candidate to the oral exam portion and emphasize an examination of any weak areas at that time.

There is an expectation that there should be no grades below B level;  a C+ or C grade in any subject demands additional examination at the oral exam even if an overall passing grade (>3.5) is attained.

A student does not advance to Ph.D. Candidacy until both portions of the exam are completed (forms for CE Graduate Records/Grad School are therefore initiated prior to the oral exam and completed at the end of a successful exam).

Contact Us

If you have any questions about the coastal curriculum, please contact:

Dr. Y. Peter Sheng                                           Dr. Arnoldo Valle-Levinsen
pete@coastal.ufl.edu                                        arnoldo@coastal.ufl.edu
352-392-9537 Ext 1521                                  352-392-9537 Ext 1479