Students are required to receive permission to take the Ph.D. preliminary examination from their advisory committee.

The Ph.D. preliminary examination consists of a written portion and an oral portion.
The written physics preliminary examination will be offered once a year at the end of the spring semester, and may be offered at other times if approved by the head of the Physics Department. The written physics portion consists of four, two-hour area examinations: one each on classical mechanics; quantum mechanics; electromagnetic theory; and mathematical physics. During the two-day examination period, one area examination will be given each morning, and one each afternoon. The subject examination will be announced in advance. The questions will be based on material covered in the physics core courses. Each area examination will be prepared by a committee of faculty members who have recently taught the associated core courses. For Engineering Physics Ph.D. candidates, there will be a written 2-3 hour area examination on the engineering courses that the student has taken. The engineering area examination will be scheduled at the discretion of the student's advisory committee. All written area examinations must be successfully completed before the student can take the oral portion. If a student does not successfully complete one or more area examinations, then after a period of at least 4 months, the student has a second chance to successfully complete the written preliminary examination by taking a new written examination over the unsatisfactory area(s).
The oral portion of the Ph.D. preliminary examination consists of a presentation to the student's advisory committee of the student's proposed Ph.D. thesis project. At least two weeks prior to the oral preliminary examination, the student shall provide his/her advisory committee with a short written description detailing the proposed Ph.D. thesis project. The student may be asked questions based on course material of physics courses (both core and non-core) and of other graduate courses the student has taken. The student has two opportunities to successfully complete the oral portion of the preliminary examination. Scheduling of the oral portion is at the discretion of the student's advisory committee, but the oral preliminary examination must be attempted within 12 months of successful completion of the written portions of the preliminary examination.

The Department has a commitment to use its limited resources to financially support its graduate students to the greatest extent possible. However, the duration of financial support in the form of graduate assistantships (either teaching or research) is not unlimited. A student who has entered the Physics graduate program without a Master's degree from another university should not expect financial support beyond his/her sixth year in the program. A student who has entered the Engineering Physics Ph.D. program with a Master's degree from another university should not expect financial support beyond her/his fourth year in the program. Continuing financial support is contingent upon the student
a. maintaining at least a 3.00 cumulative quality point average
b. maintaining satisfactory progress toward completion of their degree program
c. for students with teaching assignments, maintaining satisfactory teaching performance.