The Texas A&M University Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering offers a Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) in industrial engineering. It is a research-oriented degree for individuals interested in a career in academia, consulting or with an organization requiring advanced training. With the advice and approval of your advisory committee, you can develop a degree plan which matches your professional interests.
The traditional doctorate plan for the student who already has a master's degree must contain at least 64 credit hours, including credit for dissertation research hours. We also offer a Ph.D. for direct-entry study, allowing a student with only a bachelor’s degree to apply, effectively bypassing the master’s degree. If a student holds only a bachelor's, a total of at least 96 hours is required.
Doctoral students must maintain a 3.0 official GPR and a 3.0 GPR on degree plan courses. The dissertation is expected to be suitable for publication in a peer-reviewed (scholarly) journal.
Doctoral students are required to take three major exams: the qualifying exam, the preliminary exam (taken within six credit hours of the completion of formal coursework), and the final exam (also known as the defense). A formal proposal presentation is also required.
Admission to the doctoral program does not imply an offer of financial support.