Degree Requirements

One semester of Chemistry 398T is required of all candidates for advanced degrees.

Master of Arts

Master’s degree students must complete thirty semester hours of coursework, including a minor of at least six semester hours. No more than nine hours of upper-division work may be counted; these hours must be divided between the major and the minor. Candidates normally must also submit a thesis based on individual research. The thesis course may be counted as six of the thirty semester hours required for the degree. In general, two and one-half years are necessary to finish the Master of Arts. A Master of Arts degree with report is not offered, nor is a non-thesis Master of Arts.

Doctor of Philosophy

Doctoral degree students who plan to specialize in analytical, inorganic, organic, or physical chemistry must complete six courses on the letter-grade basis. The qualifying examinations are usually completed within the first twenty months in residence or before application for candidacy. The student is examined by members of the Graduate Studies Committee in his or her areas of concentration before admission to candidacy. While the doctoral degree program requires a minimum of 30 credit hours of coursework including the dissertation, four to five years of full-time study, or 80-105 hours of coursework, are usually required to complete program requirements.

Dual Degree Program

Doctor of Philosophy/Doctor of Medicine

The graduate program in chemistry participates in a dual degree program with the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston (UTMB). Applicants must apply separately to and be admitted to both the PhD program in chemistry at the University of Texas at Austin and the medical school at UTMB; this program is not accepting new applications. Students accepted into the dual degree program spend their first two years in the medical school at UTMB, followed by at least three to four years of doctoral work at UT Austin and eighteen months of clinical rotations. The degrees are conferred separately by each institution. This program is not accepting new applications. Additional information may be found at the MD-PhD dual degree program website.