PhD Program Plan

Steps to take prior to creating your plan:

1. Form a special advisory committee in consultation with your advisor that includes three faculty: your research advisor, at least one engineering faculty member whose research interests are different from your own, and a third engineering faculty member.
2. Schedule a meeting with each member of your special advisory committee, either as a group or individually. 

The committee will assist you in developing an individual plan that fulfills the PhD program requirements and also encourages you to pursue opportunities for professional and career development. Consider your special advisory committee to be an ongoing resource.

• PhD course requirements
• Course catalog (you can also search by term)
• Graduate Course Equivalence and Credit form; Use this to transfer graduate-level credits. You can transfer up to half of your required 8–10 courses. If you are requesting transfer credits, this form should be completed in the first weeks of your first term.
• Questions or additional guidance: email Graduate Academic Advising Director Liz Lerret or set up an appointment.

1. Log in to DartHub.
2. Click on All Tiles and then the Course Program Plan tile.
3. Select PhD Program Plan, which leads to the form pictured below.
4. Enter your selected courses.
5. Click Continue to generate a PDF of your plan.
6. Create a separate Word document, the Technical Breadth Narrative, to submit alongside your program plan.
   Note: Thayer believes that a well-educated engineer can communicate beyond their dissertation area and, therefore, has a breadth requirement. In describing the rationale for your breadth courses, you should be emphasizing how these are different from your area of specialization. You may need to give a bit more info about your dissertation area to help your special advisory committee discern why courses with similar titles are actually distinct.
7. Sign your program plan.
8. Obtain approval signatures from each member of your special advisory committee.
9. Submit your program plan to the Thayer registrar (hard copy delivered to 103 MacLean ESC or email attachment sent to registrar@thayer.dartmouth.edu). 

The registrar will review and then provide it to the director of the MS/PhD Program for final approval. You will be notified when this approval is granted.

If you deviate from your program plan, log in to DartHub to amend your plan, updating the courses that have changed. Generate a new PDF, obtain a new set of special advisory committee signatures, and send to the Thayer Registrar for final review and approval.

Potential reasons to update your program plan:

• Class schedule changes or conflicts
• You change your mind about a course or want to try something else
• You receive a second LP grade (you may only count one LP for every six courses)

Requirements not listed on the program plan:

• ENGG 700: Responsible & Ethical Conduct of Research (first fall term)
• ENGG 195: Seminar on Science, Technology & Society (28 seminars)
  Note: PhD students enroll in ENGG 195 once at the beginning of the program. You will receive a temporary grade of "ON" (ongoing), which will be replaced by a grade of "CR" (credit) once you have attended the 28 required Jones Seminars.
• ENGG 197 or ENGG 197.1: Professional Workshops
• ENGG 194: PhD Oral Qualifier (in your fifth term)
  Note: It is not required that you finish all of your coursework before taking the oral qualifying exam.
• ENGG 198: Research-in-Progress Workshop (annually)

Example form in DartHub