The Graduate School has general requirements for Ph.D. students that must be met by all degree candidates (including earning at least 60 credit hours beyond the bachelor’s degree for doctoral degrees). The Department of Mechanical Engineering has additional requirements (some of which are described below) that must be met before students can complete their degrees. Consult the department for complete, current requirements.

Learning Outcomes

1. Students will demonstrate the ability to solve problems in a core area of mechanical engineering.
2. Students, with guidance from their faculty research advisor, will design a research or development project in a specific area of interest.
3. Students will demonstrate the ability to describe complex ideas to others by oral presentation.

Admissions Requirements

The admission process for the Ph.D. program in Mechanical Engineering is highly competitive. Admission decisions are based on the quality of the applicant's previous university-level academic work as reflected by grade point average or GPA, letters of recommendations, GRE scores, and other evidence of past accomplishments.  GRE General Test scores must be submitted by all applicants seeking assistantships and/or tuition support.

International applicants must also submit TOEFL or the IELTS Intl. Academic Course Type 2 exam scores. The minimum required TOEFL and IELTS scores are set by the graduate school and can be found here: https://sc.edu/study/colleges_schools/graduate_school/apply/international_applicants/

Target Minimum Admission Standards

The entire application file is considered when reviewing for admission; that said, the following target minimum standards are used during the admission decision process.

• Undergraduate Engineering GPA ≥ 3.0/4.0
• GRE Verbal ≥ 150
• GRE Quantitative ≥ 155
• TOEFL ≥ 80
• IELTS ≥ 6.5

An applicant whose native language is not English is required to submit a satisfactory score on TOEFL or IELTS.

Degree Requirements (60 Post-Baccalaureate Hours)

For doctoral degrees in mechanical engineering: A Ph.D. student must complete 12 hours of dissertation credit leading to a dissertation. A student with a master’s degree in mechanical engineering or a closely related field must take at least 18 hours of graded graduate courses. A student without a master’s degree must take at least 48 hours of graduate courses, of which 42 or more hours must be graded graduate courses. The remaining hours can be in graded graduate courses and must include the core courses required of all master’s degree students.