Philosophy of the Graduate Program

Students graduating with a typical BS Physics degree may pursue many different graduate curriculum options at the University of Arkansas under the support of Physics Department. The goal of the department is to help entering students determine the curriculum that will best prepare them for their career goals, and then enroll them into the degree program that best matches that curriculum.

Career Preparation: The Physics and microEP Graduate Programs both provide their students with career preparation beyond the traditional academic course and research environment. All students entering their graduate program in a given year are formed into a Cohort and are given supplemental training in how to utilize their academic knowledge effectively in a group environment. The goal of this extra training is for our graduates to be as effective on their first day of their job after graduation as a typical student after two years of on the job experience.

Preparing Future Faculty: Our physics department is one of only four in the nation offering training to anyone who is considering a job as a faculty member. This program is designed to give both masters and doctoral students experience in dealing with all the responsibilities they would face as a faculty member at any level of academia - from a community college to a four year university. This does not require a degree in physics education; instead it is an optional set of courses designed to enhance the regular masters or Ph.D. degree earned in any area of research.

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Jump to Masters Degree Programs or Ph.D Degree Programs

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Masters Degree Programs

  Comparison of Masters Degrees Available to BS Physics Graduates:

Physics Degrees:

MA Physics (Physics Education Emphasis) is designed to support the curriculum of students wishing to teach in the high school or junior college environment, and is a terminal Masters degree in this department (it is not designed to prepare a student to immediately pursue a PhD Physics degree). Technical electives may include physical science or graduate education courses. No undergraduate deficiencies are anticipated for BS Physics students entering this degree path.

MS Physics is designed as either the first two years of a PhD Physics candidate, or as a terminal MS Physics degree. A research based MS Physics is not required of PhD path students, and a non-thesis MS Physics degree is awarded PhD path students after passing the PhD qualifying examination and completing the course requirements. No undergraduate deficiencies are anticipated for BS Physics students entering this degree path.

MS Applied Physics fully prepares its students for the qualifying exam to enter the PhD Physics program, but is also well positioned to support a student interested in a more applied terminal MS Physics degree. Technical electives may include up to six hours of other science or engineering courses. No undergraduate deficiencies are anticipated for BS Physics students entering this degree path.

Interdisciplinary Degrees:

MS Microelectronics-Photonics (microEP) is an interdisciplinary graduate program to support students interested in electronically and photonically active materials, the devices that may be built from those materials, and the solid-state subsystems that may be created from these materials and devices. This degree is designed to well prepare students to enter this field using the MS microEP degree as a terminal degree, but students from the MS Physics, MS Applied Physics, or MS microEP degrees are fully prepared to enter the PhD microEP graduate program. The degree requires six hours of science (Physics, Chemistry, etc), nine hours of engineering, and nine hours of tech electives from either college. Three hours in management of technology are also required. BS Physics students entering this degree path may require a course in basic circuits as an undergraduate deficiency.

MS Space and Planetary Sciences is an interdisciplinary graduate program currently being defined as a separate degree that is expected to be available in the near future. This is a fully affiliated graduate program with the Physics department whose emphasis is on the exploration of space and planetary surfaces. Students with an interest in this area are encouraged to consider the just approved PhD Physics (Space and Planetary Sciences Concentration) curriculum plan.

Engineering Degrees:

MS Engineering (typically Electrical Engineering) graduate programs at the University welcome students with BS Physics backgrounds, and many Engineering faculty members work in collaborative research groups with Physics faculty. These graduate degrees usually require eighteen hours of graduate courses in the parent department, with the exact curriculum set by each department’s graduate committee. BS Physics students entering these degree paths usually must take the junior/senior courses of the underlying BS departmental degree, which is typically thirty hours of undergraduate deficiencies.

Ph.D. Programs

Physics Degrees:

PhD Physics is a well-balanced degree plan that is designed to support the students’ career objectives in either academic or non-academic settings. The curriculum requires forty hours of graduate courses beyond the BS Physics degree and eighteen hours of doctoral dissertation research. Up to twenty-one hours of coursework from another institution’s MS Physics degree may be included in the forty hour requirement, and a non-thesis MS Physics degree is issued when the MS Physics course requirements are met and the qualifying exam is passed. The qualifying exam is based on the core physics course requirements of the MS Physics/Applied Physics degrees.

PhD Physics (Space and Planetary Sciences Concentration) is co-managed by the Physics faculty and the faculty associated with the affiliated Space and Planetary Sciences interdisciplinary graduate program. These students’ curriculum allows specific substitutions of courses in the standard PhD curriculum to formalize the emphasis of this PhD Physics degree on the area of emphasis. All other PhD Physics degree elements remain unchanged.

Interdisciplinary Degrees:

PhD microEP is administered by the microEP Graduate Program faculty and is a separate degree from its supporting department’s PhD degrees (Physics, Chemistry, EE, ChE, and ME). The PhD microEP requires thirty course hours beyond the MS degree. Students with a MS from a rigorous science or engineering degree program are typically well prepared to enter the PhD curriculum, but students not from the MS microEP program may have to take additional courses in their PhD curriculum to assure both the breadth and depth defined by the microEP graduate degrees.

PhD Space and Planetary Sciences is under development by the UA and Oklahoma State University faculty associated with the joint Center for Space and Planetary Sciences. It is an interdisciplinary graduate program currently being defined as a separate degree that is expected to be available in the near future. This is a fully affiliated graduate program with the Physics department whose emphasis is on the exploration of space and planetary surfaces. Students with an interest in this area are also encouraged to consider the just approved PhD Physics (Space and Planetary Sciences Concentration) curriculum plan.