Ph.D. Degree

The course work required for the PhD degree includes six departmental “core” courses (Physics 521, 751, 742, 752, 831, 743) and five departmental electives^*.  Restrictions on choices for these electives are detailed below. The Graduate School requires seven additional courses with letter grade (not S-U). The seven can include advanced physics courses, independent study, or seminars. Exceptions to these requirements must be approved in writing by the Graduate Program Committee. For example, this is warranted when a student arrives with a Master’s degree or a strong undergraduate background.

The following is a typical course schedule:

^* Electives and Advanced Courses

At least two of the five required electives must be “advanced” 700 or 800 level courses.

IMPORTANT for students entering the Ph.D. Program with an M.S.

Students entering the Ph.D. program with a M.S. degree are required to take 10 letter grade courses, five of which must be non-core departmental electives as described above. Departmental tuition support for these students is only given for two semesters. Exceptions must be approved by the Graduate Program Committee and the Graduate Admissions Committee.

Ph.D. Qualifying Examination

A Ph.D. qualifying examination is given twice at the end of the second semester, in May and August. Students are allowed two attempts at the exam. Both attempts will be made after passing the required prerequisite courses, which include Physics 521, 742, 743, 751, 752, and 831. Exceptions must be approved by the Graduate Program Committee Chair. The examination consists of four parts: Classical Mechanics, Thermodynamics and Statistical Mechanics, Electricity and Magnetism, and Quantum Mechanics. The latter two subjects are given twice as much weight as the first two. It is given on two afternoons, four hours each. The examination is intended to require an integrated and comprehensive understanding of the subjects. Typical textbooks which characterize the level of the examination are:

• Classical Mechanics: Goldstein
• Thermodynamics & Statistical Mechanics: Zemansky, Crawford, Landau and Lifshitz
• Electricity & Magnetism: Jackson
• Quantum Mechanics: Schiff, Merzbacher

At least half of the qualifying exam is closely related to questions from previous examinations, which are available from Dawn Shifflett in the Physics Office (Room 101).

Seminar Requirement

In addition to the annual research review, every Ph.D. candidate must give a departmental seminar by the end of the fourth year in the program.

Foreign Language Requirement

There is no foreign language requirement for advanced degrees in Physics.

Research Advisors

Students normally choose a Research Advisor in their second semester of study. In order to facilitate this, the following sources will provide information about research programs.

1. Regularly scheduled research talks to first-year students by faculty members;
2. Private discussions with faculty or older students at the initiative of individual students; and
3. Consulting full descriptions of the various research programs, as given in the booklet “Graduate Study in Physics at the University of Virginia” and on the department web site.