The Graduate School has general requirements for M.E., M.S., and Ph.D. students that must be met by all degree candidates (including earning at least 30 credit hours beyond the bachelor’s degree for master’s degrees and at least 60 credit hours beyond the bachelor’s degree for doctoral degrees). The Department of Mechanical Engineering has added 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 knowledge in the fundamental subject areas of nuclear engineering.
2. Students will demonstrate the ability to execute a research or development project in a specific area of interest.

Admissions 

The admission process for the M.S. program in Nuclear 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 (for tests before January 21, 2026) or 4.0 (for tests taken after January 21, 2026)
• IELTS ≥ 6.5

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

Degree Requirements (30 Hours)

A Nuclear Engineering M.S. student must complete 24 hours of graded graduate courses and 6 hours of thesis credit leading to a thesis.

Course List

Course	Title	Credits
Required Core Courses
EMCH 552	Introduction to Nuclear Engineering	3
EMCH 553	Nuclear Fuel Cycles	3
EMCH 757	Radiation Shielding	3
or EMCH 557	Introduction to Radiation Shielding and Sources
EMCH 758	Nuclear Reactor Systems	3
or EMCH 558	Introduction to Nuclear Reactor Systems
Nuclear Engineering Electives		9
Nuclear engineering electives are approved by a student’s advisor and include the following.
EMCH 555	Instrumentation for Nuclear Engineering
EMCH 550	Introduction to Nuclear Safeguards
EMCH 573	Introduction to Nuclear Materials
EMCH 754	Thermal Hydraulic Design of Nuclear Reactors
EMCH 755	Advanced Nuclear Engineering
EMCH 756	Safety Analysis for Energy Systems
EMCH 759	Waste Management in the Nuclear Industry
EMCH 770	Predictive Modeling: Combining Experiments with Computations
EMCH 772	Nuclear Materials
EMCH 774	Radiation Damage
Engineering Elective		3
Engineering electives are approved by a student’s advisor and include the following:
Any Nuclear Engineering Elective (from above)
Any Engineering course at 500 level or higher
Other courses as approved by the student’s advisor and graduate director
Thesis		6
EMCH 799	Thesis Preparation
Total Credit Hours		30