phd at university of houston

Doctor of Philosophy in Petroleum Engineering (Ph.D.)

Admission to the University of Houston Ph.D. Program in Petroleum Engineering will require the following:

• GRE — An acceptable score within the Cullen College of Engineering standard on the Verbal, Quantitative, and Analytical portions of the Graduate Record Examination. 
• LETTERS — Three letters of recommendation from recognized academic or industyr professionals who can attest to the applicant’s capability for independent and creative thinking for the graduate level research in petroleum engineering.
• STATEMENT — A written statement of the applicant’s professional goals.
• APPROVAL — Approval by the Petroleum Engineering Graduate Committee.

In addition, students required to submit a valid TOEFL/IELTS score, must achieve the minimum Cullen College of Engineering requirement. Click here to learn more about the English Language Proficiency Requirements.

Degree Requirements

Paths to PhD — There are two Paths to the PhD Degree:

• B.S. to Ph.D. — Direct from B.S. to Ph.D., bypassing the M.S. degree, or by
• M.S. to Ph.D. — Obtaining an M.S. degree first at UH (or elsewhere).

Both B.S. and M.S. degrees must have been obtained from an accredited institution in Petroleum Engineering or a relevant engineering or scientific discipline. The applicants must maintain a Grade Point Average of 3.5/4.0.

The chart below demonstrates course requirements for either path to PhD.

Students without sufficient background for the required courses must complete leveling courses that will not count toward the degree. Each Ph.D. student must maintain a Grade Point Average (GPA) above 3.50 throughout the Ph.D. program.

Candidacy/Dissertation

The Ph.D. in Petroleum Engineering will require a dissertation. 

• Ph.D. Dissertation Committee:  During the third semester after the student is enrolled in the Ph.D. program, a dissertation committee will be formed by the student and advisor with approval of the Chair of the Petroleum Engineering Department. The Chair of the Dissertation Committee will be a tenured, tenure-track or research faculty member associated with the Petroleum Engineering Department. The committee shall consist of at least five members including the Chair of the Committee. Among the committee members, a minimum of three members should be associated with Petroleum Engineering Department and two members can be from outside the Department. Members selected from industry should be actively involved in research and will require the approval of the Associate Dean of the College of Engineering to become a committee member.
• Drilling & Completion
• Production Engineering
• Reservoir Engineering
• Formation Evaluation & Reservoir Characterization
• Students will be asked to officially select their 3 exams and give notification by email approximately 3 months prior  to the QE.
• Authors of the exams will provide study guide materials to all exam takers as soon as the students commit to the QE for a certain date. There may be review sessions scheduled by the examiners.
• Students may not take all 4 exams
• If a student passes all 3 exams — they become a Candidate
• If a student passes 2 exams and receives Conditional for the 3rd exam — they do not become a Candidate until the stipulations of the QE Committee are completed. Official notice will be sent to each exam taker.
• If a student passes 2 out of 3 exams and fails one exam — they need only re-take one exam by either sitting for an oral exam 2 weeks after the original exam or taking the written exam at the next available QE testing date. Students may not switch subjects after failing a QE.
• If a student fails 2 exams out of 3 — they are considered to fail. They must take all 3 of the written exam at the next available QE testing date. Students may not switch subjects after failing a QE.
• If a student fails any one QE exam twice — they are subject to dismissal from the PHD program. Sometimes the option to become a Master Degree Student may be offered after dismissal from the PHD program — this is not a guaranteed offer.
• QE exams will be graded and reviewed by committee and results given to students by the first day of class  following the term the exam preceded.
• Exams will be archived by the department according to the UH Records and Retention Policy.
• Proposal Defense : is the ititial dissertation proposal defense/oral presentation given after the student passes the Qualifying Exam and becomes a candidate. The student is required to write a dissertation proposal of his/her proposed research to the dissertation committee members. After the submission of the dissertation proposal, the student must give a public oral presentation of the proposed research to the dissertation committee. Each committee member must indicate acceptance of the preliminary examination with “Satisfactory” or “Unsatisfactory”. Typically, it is held no later than two semesters before a students plan to graduate.  A unanimous “Satisfactory” by the committee members is required.
• Dissertation Defense:  The Ph.D. candidate must provide the committee members with the final version of the dissertation after the completion of his or her research. After consultation with the committee members, the Ph.D. candidate will defend his or her dissertation at a public oral defense.  The dissertation committee will make the final judgment of the acceptance of the dissertation defense and the contribution of the work to the existing knowledge base of petroleum engineering.

Curriculum 

Of the Total Courses needed for degree, two can be selected outside of the Petroleum Engineering Department Course Offerings. Students will need their advisors consent.

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Doctor of Philosophy

To be admitted for doctoral studies, a student must have an exemplary scholastic record which includes

• an M.S. degree (standard admission) or a B.S. degree (direct-admit program) in Mechanical Engineering or in a related field, preferably from an accredited engineering program.
• three letters of recommendation attesting to the student’s capacity to perform in the classroom and in a research capacity.  A minimum of two letters should be from tenure-track faculty members who have observed the academic performance of the applicant.
• a Statement of Purpose that is consistent with the current research areas within the Department.  An “Application for Financial Aid and Statement of Purpose” form is available on the Application section of this website.  It allows the applicant to specify areas of interest and academic goals, and it provides guidance regarding the issues we would like to see addressed in the statement of purpose.
• a minimum score of 79 on  the internet-based TOEFL examination for students whose native language is not English.
• a grade point average that demonstrates the potential to perform at the level of 3.40 or better in MECE graduate courses.

Degree R​equirements

Standard program .

This option assumes that the applicant has completed an M.S. degree from a recognized university.  A minimum of 51 hours of approved graduate study beyond the hours completed for the M.S. degree are required.  These hours include at least 30 hours of Research and Dissertation credit and at least 21 hours of course work (7 classes) at the 6000-level or higher composed of

• three hours from the course MECE 6384 Methods of Applied Mathematics I,
• at least nine hours of MECE courses,
• a two-course breadth requirement as described below,
• the remaining courses are from any department in the College of Engineering, or the College of Natural Science and Mathematics.

A comprehensive qualifying examination is required early in the degree program, and a dissertation examination is required at the end.

Direct-Admit Program

This option assumes that the applicant is being admitted without a completed M.S. degree.  Students who begin in the M.S. program may petition to transfer into the Direct-Admit Ph.D. if they have demonstrated exemplary course work and research potential.  This option requires a minimum of 66 hours of approved graduate study beyond the hours completed for a baccalaureate degree in engineering.  These hours include at least 36 hours of Research and Dissertation credit and at least 30 hours of course work (10 classes) at the 6000-level or higher composed of

• three hours MECE 6384 Methods of Applied Mathematics I,
• at least fifteen hours of MECE courses,

All PhD candidates must have at least one peer- reviewed (archival) journal paper accepted prior to his/her dissertation oral defense. This paper must be based on the student’s dissertation research at the University of Houston .

Breadth Requirement

Two courses with content outside of the research concentration area are required to insure a minimum academic breadth in the program.  The courses can be in MECE, and suitable courses in the Colleges of Engineering and Natural Sciences. The suitability of courses for the breadth requirement is determined by petition to the Director of Graduate Studies.  This petition should be filed well in advance of the dissertation defense.

Comprehensive Qualifying Examination

This oral examination determines whether a student has mastered, and can integrate and apply, the knowledge gained in courses.  The student should set aside a period of time to prepare for the examination by reviewing course material and reflecting on how this information can be integrated to solve problems.

To stand for the Ph.D. comprehensive examination, a student must have a grade point average of 3.40 or higher in a minimum of 12 MECE graduate hours (4 classes) and no more than the first 21 MECE graduate hours (7 classes) after being admitted to the Ph.D. program. The examination should be scheduled as soon the accumulation of relevant course work allows. For a student with an M.S. from another university, the exam should be attempted no later than 18 months after study towards the Ph.D. begins.  For students who complete the M.S. here and for students who petition into the direct-admit program, the exam should be attempted within 12 months of the change of program. The examination committee is set by the Director of Graduate Studies in consultation with the Mechanical Engineering core research groups (Controls, Materials, Mechanics, Thermo-Fluids) and the dissertation advisor.  Click here for more information about the general and transitional qualifying exam guidelines.  Some qualifying exam guidelines will vary by group.  Please review the table below for more information about each group's specific core courses. Please click the group name for more information about their respective exam guidelines.

The committee is composed of a minimum of three voting members and the dissertation advisor who serves as a nonvoting member.  One of the voting members is responsible for examining the student regarding the content in the mathematics requirement described above.  The committee can be composed entirely of MECE faculty; however, members from outside the department may be approved if the nature of the student’s program warrants such involvement.  Judgment of the examination is by vote; two or more negative votes results in failure of the examination.  In the case of failure, the commit-tee shall decide whether or not the student should be invited to take the examination a second time.

Dissertation Examination

A dissertation committee should be formed by the advisor, with the approval of the Director of Graduate Studies, during the semester in which the student passes the comprehensive qualifying examination.  This committee consists of at least four members of the MECE Department including the advisor, and at least one member from outside the Department.

The College requires a minimum of one academic year (two long semesters) of full-time enrollment at the Ph.D. level.

Ninety-nine Hour Rule

The student is cautioned to be aware of the scheduling involved in meeting these requirements.  University regulations require that a student who has accumulated more than 99 hours at the Ph.D. level be charged out-of-state tuition for the hours in excess of 99.  This tuition rate applies to Texas residents as well as true out-of-state students.

Students requiring Doctoral Research and Dissertation hours should be advised of the following:

Doctoral Research and Dissertation.  Doctoral Dissertation hours should be assigned an S or U grade which is changed to a letter grade after successful completion of the dissertation.  An S or U grade must be assigned to every dissertation course until the dissertation is successfully completed (defended and submitted).  A final letter grade via grade change request will be assigned to the required number of dissertation hours once the student has successfully completed the dissertation (defended and submitted).  In case a student registers for dissertation hours over and above the nine hours that are required, these additional hours will remain as S or U on the student’s transcript.  This is a Graduate School directive and aimed at avoiding grade inflation.

Dissertation hours (8x99) for a PhD degree are restricted to 12 hours.  PhD students must take at least 30 hours of research and dissertation. Any additional hours should be registered as Doctoral Research 8x98 to complete the research credit hours requirement.  Doctoral Dissertation hours should be assigned an S or U grade which is changed to a letter grade after successful completion of the dissertation.  If a student is not done after registering required number of Doctoral Research and Dissertation hours, additional hours should be registered as Doctoral Research which are graded on S/U basis.  In the event a student registers for extra Dissertation hours, these hours will be left as S or U.  It is not necessary to assign the same grade to all the hours while completing S or U grades.

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