Oceanography & Coastal Sciences - PhD

The Ph.D. program includes at least 48 hours of course work beyond the baccalaureate, meeting the core requirements, 9 hours of dissertation research, and research leading to a dissertation.  At least half the credits should be at the 7000 level.

Our department is interested in recruiting highly qualified graduate students who can benefit from our interdisciplinary perspectives. The overarching theme of our graduate courses and research is understanding and predicting ecological changes across gradients that extend from coastal areas across the continental shelf.

A Ph.D. student in the Department must complete a minor requirement.  This requirement can be met in one of two ways.  Other departments offer “official” minors that are satisfied by successfully completing a specific number or set of courses within the offerings of that department.  This is usually a total of 12 semester hours.  The second way to satisfy the minor requirement is to complete a course plan (12 hours at the 4000 level or above, at least 6 of these hours must be at the 7000 level) i an “area of specialization” and the courses must be approved by the student’s committee.  The courses must be from outside of OCS offerings, though they may be taken from more than one department.  For the official minor, the student must have a professor from the outside department as a member of the committee to represent the minor area.