Master of Science Degree Options in CAEE

Construction Engineering and Project Management Program Department of Civil, Architectural & Environmental Engineering University of Texas at Austin
(Updated August 2008)

There are three different Masters Degree options available in the Construction Engineering and Project Management Program: 1. Thesis Option: 30 hours total: 24 hours (minimum) coursework plus 6 hours of thesis. 12-18 hours of coursework in Major Area. None of these can be taken Credit/No Credit. 6-12 hours of coursework in Minor Area. No more than 50% of these can be taken Credit/No Credit. Thesis must cover original research in selected area. CE or ARE 698A&B are taken for three hours each and section B must be taken during the semester you graduate. 2. Departmental Report Option: 30 hours total: 27 hours (minimum) coursework plus 3 hours of Report. 15-21 hours (minimum) coursework in Major Area. None of these can be taken Credit/No Credit. 6-12 hours (minimum) of coursework in Minor Area. No more than 50% of these can be taken Credit/No Credit. No more than 3 hours of upper-division (UG) work, with no more than 6 hours in either major or supporting work. CE or ARE 398D is taken for three hours each and must be taken during the semester you graduate. Flexible report requirements are developed individually with your Advisor. Examples of reports are literature surveys and related documentation. The reports must be completed and turned in according to University requirements (last class day of the semester). 3. No Thesis/No Report Option 30 hours total (minimum) coursework. 15-24 hours (minimum) coursework in Major Area. None of these can be taken Credit/No Credit. 6-15 hours (minimum) in the Minor Area No more than 50% of these can be taken Credit/No Credit. No more than 3 hours of upper-division undergraduate work is allowed. Program of Work: A Program of Work (POW) is a list of courses that will count toward the students M.S. degree. Effective with the fall 2008 semester, candidates for the M.S. degree will be required to submit their Program of Work with the electronic application to graduate. Students will be required to maintain an average GPA of 3.0 in all coursework including both the major and minor.

Options Matrix
(Updated August 2008)

Credit Hour Courses

1

Options Thesis Option Departmental Report Option Coursework Only Option

Major Area 18 15 12 21 18 15 24 21 18 15

(Minor) Supporting Total 6 9 12 6 9 12 6 9 12 15

Research/Writing Total 24 24 24 27 27 27 30 30 30 30 ______ Report 3 3 3 _____ Thesis 6 6 6 Total 30 30 30 30 30 30 30 30 30 30

NOTES:

1 2

All Major Area courses must be taken for a grade No more than 50% of your supporting coursework may be taken on a credit/no credit basis.

In addition to these requirements, CEPM requires 2 classes each from the PRT designation (e.g., CE 395 Q.1 is a Q designation) and 2 classes each from the QSU designation for ALL degree options. Classes can be any two from P, R, or T and any two from Q, S, or U. For the Coursework Only option, students are required to take a minimum of 6 CEPM classes in addition to the requirement of 2 PRT and 2 QUS classes. Minor classes are to be taken outside of CEPM graduate and undergraduate offerings. The goal of the minor program is to encourage a complementary specialization outside of CEPM. Minor courses can be taken in other areas of Civil, Architectural, and Environmental Engineering, other disciplines in Engineering, or in other programs across the University such management, policy, law, etc. Choice of minor classes should be made in consultation with your faculty advisor. CEPM has recently removed the requirement that minor classes should be thematically related (i.e., you can now take any set of minor courses you wish); however, the minor sequence is generally most valuable when the courses relate to each other.

THE UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS AT AUSTIN Department of Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering General Guidelines for Master of Science Degree (Thesis Option)
(Updated August 2008)

The minimum requirement for graduation is 30 hours, of which six hours relate to thesis. At least six hours but no more than twelve hours must be taken outside the major area of study. All courses in your major area must be taken for grade. No more than 50% of your minor courses may be taken on a credit/no credit basis. Only graduate and upper division undergraduate courses will apply towards the MS degree. A maximum of nine hours of upper division undergraduate work is allowed with no more than six hours in either the major or supporting area. During the first semester of your MS program you should select a supervising professor. By the end of the semester you and your supervising professor should have a detailed objective and scope outlined for the thesis. To do this some literature review is required. It is essential that you personally invite at least one and preferably two faculty members in addition to your supervising professor to serve on your thesis supervising committee. The members of the supervising committee should be kept informed of the progress of your research. It is your obligation to submit an acceptable thesis to the Graduate School. Therefore, every effort should be made to complete your thesis before you leave campus and take employment elsewhere. When you begin actual work on your thesis research, you need to begin registering for thesis (698A). You must then be continuously registered for 698B each succeeding semester until graduation. Civil Engineering and Environmental and Water Resources Engineering majors (code 621700 and 640100 respectively) register for CE 698A/B; Architectural Engineering majors (code 607700) register for ARE 698A/B. Thesis is taken on a CR/NC basis. Early in the semester you plan to graduate you should read about graduation guidelines and deadlines on the Graduate School website: http://www.utexas.edu/ogs/pdn/. Included in this material is a list of deadlines you must meet during the semester in order to graduate. The following steps constitute the usual procedure for preparing to graduate: a) Register for CE or ARE 698B. b) Submit the Masters Graduation Application Form online to the Graduate School in your last semester (actual time frame for submission is set by the Graduate School). Effective with the fall 2008 semester, an electronic Program of Work will automatically be sent to your Graduate Coordinator and Advisor for approval after you have submitted your online graduation application. Your electronic program of work will then be submitted to the Graduate School to be made a part of your permanent record. Students will be required to have a GPA of at least 3.0 for courses included on the POW. c) Submit your Thesis in either electronic or paper form to the Graduate School by the last class day. No extensions to the deadline will be granted. If, after filing for graduation, you find that you will not complete the degree requirements that semester, you should notify the Graduate School and the Graduate Coordinator. A new Masters Graduation Application Form must be submitted at the beginning of the next semester you hope to graduate. The official degree awarded under this program is the Master of Science in Engineering degree.

THE UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS AT AUSTIN Department of Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering General Guidelines for Master of Science Degree (Departmental Report Option)
(Updated August 2008)

A rapidly expanding technology demands that the engineer have increased breadth and depth of knowledge. Consistent with this need, a Master of Science degree may be completed without the preparation of a formal research thesis. Instead, a student may be permitted to enroll in a no-thesis program which involves additional course work (27 hours of organized course work versus 24 hours for a thesis program) and the preparation of an appropriate engineering project. Most graduate students, especially students holding University Fellowships, traineeships or research assistantships, are encouraged to complete a thesis. For the masters degree under the departmental report option (officially No Thesis/No Report), the Graduate School rules as described in Chapter 3 of the Graduate Catalog apply. That is, at least thirty semester hours of coursework are required. Each program must include at least twenty-seven hours of graduate coursework. At most three hours of upper division undergraduate coursework may be counted toward the degree in either the major or the supporting work. In addition to the Graduate School requirements, coursework must be approved according to procedures set by the graduate studies committee. Credit/No Credit classes are only allowed in supporting work and, thus, seminars, CE x97S and ARE x97S Masters Research are not allowed in approved programs of coursework. The required classes are area specific. Some areas may require registration in a seminar, even if it cannot be counted toward the Graduate School degree requirements. During the first semester of your MS program you should select a supervising professor. By the end of the first semester you and your supervising professor should develop a program of work and select a topic for your report. Three semester hours of credit will be received for an engineering report which the student must prepare and have approved by a supervisory committee. The committee consists of the supervising professor and at least one additional member of the graduate faculty of the Department of Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering. The report must show evidence of good technical writing and demonstrate communication skills. The report should be completed while the student is registered for 398D (Departmental Report) for which credit/no credit is assigned. Civil Engineering and Environmental and Water Resources Engineering majors (code 621700 and 640100 respectively) register for CE 398D; Architectural Engineering majors (code 607700) register for ARE 398D. Once a student registers for 398D, registration must be repeated until graduation. You must be registered for 398D during the semester that you receive your degree. In addition, the student must submit to the Graduate Advisor a Clearance Letter signed by the committee members certifying satisfactory completion of the report on or before the last class day of the semester the student intends to graduate. Early in the semester you plan to graduate you should read about graduation guidelines and deadlines on the Graduate School website: http://www.utexas.edu/ogs/pdn/. Included in this material is a list of deadlines you must meet during the semester in order to graduate. The following steps constitute the usual procedure for preparing to graduate: a) Register for CE or ARE 398D. b) Submit the Masters Graduation Application Form online to the Graduate School in your last semester (actual time frame for submission is set by the Graduate School). Effective with the fall 2008 semester, an electronic Program of Work will automatically be sent to your Graduate Coordinator and Advisor for approval after you have submitted your online graduation application. Your electronic program of work will then be submitted to the Graduate School to be made a part of your permanent record. Students will be required to have a GPA of at least 3.0 for courses included on the POW. c) Because the departmental report is not submitted to the Graduate School, a Clearance Letter signed by the supervising professor, the second reader, and the Graduate Advisor must be turned in to the Graduate Coordinator by the last class day. Certification of graduation is withheld until a Clearance Letter is on file. This form is available in the Graduate Coordinator's office and on the CAEE website. If, after filing for graduation, you find that you will not complete the degree requirements that semester, you should notify the Graduate School and the Graduate Coordinator. A new Masters Graduation Application Form must be submitted at the beginning of the next semester you hope to graduate. The official degree awarded under this program is the Master of Science in Engineering degree.

THE UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS AT AUSTIN Department of Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering General Guidelines for Master of Science Degree (No Thesis/No Report Option)
(Updated August 2008)

A rapidly expanding technology demands that the engineer have increased breadth and depth of knowledge. Consistent with this need, a Master of Science degree may be completed without the preparation of a formal research thesis or report. Instead, a student may be permitted to enroll in a no thesis/no report (coursework only) program which involves additional course work (30 hours of organized course work versus 24-27 hours for the thesis or report program). Most graduate students, especially students holding University Fellowships, traineeships or research assistantships, are encouraged to complete a thesis. For the masters degree under the no thesis/no report option, the Graduate School rules as described in Chapter 3 of the Graduate Catalog apply. That is, at least thirty semester hours of coursework are required. Each program must include at least twenty-seven hours of graduate coursework. At most three hours of upper division undergraduate coursework may be counted toward the degree. In addition to the Graduate School requirements, coursework must be approved according to procedures set by the graduate studies committee. Credit/No Credit classes are only allowed in supporting work, and thus seminars, CE x97S and ARE x97S Masters Research are not allowed in approved programs of coursework. The required classes are area specific. Some areas may require registration in a seminar, even if it cannot be counted toward the graduate school degree requirements. During the first semester of your MS program you should select a supervising professor. By the end of the first semester you and your supervising professor should develop a program of work. Early in the semester you plan to graduate you should read about graduation guidelines and deadlines on the Graduate School website: http://www.utexas.edu/ogs/pdn/. Included in this material is a list of deadlines you must meet during the semester in order to graduate. The following constitutes the usual procedure for preparing to graduate: a) Submit the Masters Graduation Application Form online to the Graduate School in your last semester (actual time frame for submission is set by the Graduate School). Effective with the fall 2008 semester, an electronic Program of Work will automatically be sent to your Graduate Coordinator and Advisor for approval after you have submitted your online graduation application. Your electronic program of work will then be submitted to the Graduate School to be made a part of your permanent record. Students will be required to have a GPA of at least 3.0 for courses included on the POW. If, after filing for graduation, you find that you will not complete the degree requirements that semester, you should notify the Graduate School and the Graduate Coordinator. A new Masters Graduation Application Form must be submitted at the beginning of the next semester you hope to graduate. The official degree awarded under this program is the Master of Science in Engineering degree.

Thesis/Report Example Schedule: *

Typically, it takes 16 months to complete the program. Completion in 12 months would be quick while completion in 24 months would be longer than normal. If a student entering in September desired to graduate in December of the following year, the schedule below would indicate an approximate time frame for specific tasks to be completed: ACTIVITY DURATION START

1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9.

Start School Define Topic Research Write First Draft 1st Draft -- Supervisor Review First Corrections Supervisor and Reader Final Review Final Writing Printing & Binding Signed Thesis/Report Deposit

Fall 8 weeks 42 weeks 6 weeks 3 weeks 2 weeks 2 weeks 2 weeks 1 week 1 week

Sept 1 Nov. 1 July 21 Sept 7 Oct 1 Oct 15 Nov 1 Nov 14 Nov 21

TOTAL 68 weeks This schedule indicates that Research must begin early in order to be completed at the required time. Defining Topics 1 semester Performing Research 1- 2 semesters Writing 1 semester

*Note that the Ph.D. degree follows no typical schedule and generally takes from 2.5 to 5 years depending on topic and student preparation.