Descriptions of individual classes in materials science can be found in the Caltech Catalog listings, or more informally in our own Materials Science Course listings. The first section below, Courseload, describes unit requirements and typical numbers of classes per term.

The second section below, Core Courses for the Ph.D., is a general description of the required course program for graduate study in materials science. The required courses are described with legal precision in the Catalog requirements for graduate degrees in materials science. You should click here to open another browser window to display these Catalog requirements. (The Materials Science requirements are in the middle of a long list of the requirements of various other options. It might be easier to find them in a printed Catalog) You will need to refer to the the list of Core Courses in this new browser window.

Unlike the text in the Catalog requirements for graduate degrees in materials science, the ideas behind the requirements are explained below in the section Core Courses for the Ph.D. If you seek an alternative to the Catalog requirements that is consistent with the ideas explained below, you are encouraged to discuss your plan of study with your adviser and the Option Representative for Materials Science. We like new ideas.

Courseload

The graduate program for the Ph.D. degree requires five 1 year sequences of core lecture courses. We have three quarters per year, and each one-quarter course is 9 units (except MS 132), so note that 5x3x9 = 135 units. A seminar course is also required, but this is a trivial effort (you report your attendance at a weekly seminar). The total units of core courses are: 135 + 3 extra in MS132 + seminar units. Most first-year graduate students in materials science take 3 or 4 core courses per quarter. To obtain the 36 units required to qualify as a full-time student, a first-year student taking 3 lecture courses will concurrently take 9 units of MS 200 (research). Second-year students typically carry a smaller load of core courses, but they are expected to be more involved in research, and second-year students must take time to prepare for the candidacy examination, taken near the end of the second academic year. After passing the candidacy examination, students typically take no more courses, and devote all their energy to thesis research. (This change from courses to research is a major transition in a young person's scientific career.) Most of our students file their Ph.D. thesis in bit over 4 years, so they graduate in the Commencement ceremony at the end of their fifth academic year.

The Master's degree can be completed in one year, although two is more typical. First-year students who take 4 core courses per term will have at least 4x3x9 = 108 course units. Together with 27 units of research (9 units per quarter), the student will have completed the right balance of 135 units to obtain a Master's degree in Materials Science.

Core Courses for the Ph.D.

Two Sequences Required of Everyone Materials are defined by their internal structures, so all students in materials science must complete a sequence of courses on real space structure and k-space structure (MS 131 and 132). A term on kinetic processes (MS 133) follows. Thermodynamics is a central topic for all materials, so all students must complete a thermodynamics/statistical mechanics sequence (item 2 on the list of core courses), together with a course on phase transformations (MS 105).

Phenomena in a Class of Materials Graduate students need to select a broad class of materials for study such as, for example, crystalline solids or polymeric liquids and solids. We require at least two quarters (2x9 =18 units) of study on fundamental phenomena in these materials. This course sequence should cover general physical concepts underlying the synthesis, structure and properties of the selected class of materials. Typical courses are given in item 3 of the list of core courses, but a student with other ideas is encouraged to negotiate with his or her adviser and the Option Representative for Materials Science.

Typically, however, students interested in metals, semiconductors, or materials physics will take the course APh 114ab(c), Solid State Physics. Students interested in polymers or materials chemistry may take the courses Ch/ChE 147 and ChE/Ch 148, Polymer Synthesis and Physics. Micromechanics, offered by the Applied Mechanics Option under various course numbers, is appropriate for students with interests in mechanical properties. Students interested in ceramics may take the Solid State Physics sequence, or perhaps Ge 114, Ge 214, Ge 260, Mineralogy, Spectroscopy of Minerals, Physics of Earth Materials.

Concepts Underlying the Phenomena The concepts used in courses on phenomena in materials rest on thermodynamics and structure (which are covered in the two sequences required of everyone). There are additional concepts from physics and chemistry that a materials scientist needs in order to understand the internal interactions within materials. For example, Solid State Physics relies heavily on Quantum Mechanics, Micromechanics relies on Mathematical Elasticity Theory, and Polymer Chemistry relies on the Nature of the Chemical Bond. Item 4 in the list of Core Courses specifies these additional required classes.

Item 5 in the Core Course list is typically a third term of a sequence under items 3 and 4. If this third term is not offered, or if it is less productive than an alternative, a different course should be substituted.

Mathematics Mathematics is used widely in the courses described above. We rarely admit graduate students to Caltech who have had no prior exposure to partial differential equations, for example. Nevertheless, there is a wide range of mathematical competence of first-year graduate students. The mathematics requirement is designed to extend the student's mathematical competence. We do not demand a specific level of mathematical competence, however. A student should choose a mathematics course that is challenging, but not excessively so.

Further Information on Regulations for Graduate Study

We have summarized unofficially, in chronological order, all required steps towards the Ph.D. degree. New and continuing graduate students should consult this chronological list periodically during their time at Caltech.