18 Characteristics of UTSA Doctoral Programs

Admission Requirements. The minimum requirements for admission to the Doctor of Philosophy in Electrical Engineering degree program are as follows:

• Normally, a student must hold a master’s degree before being granted admission to the program. Some exceptionally talented students may enter the Doctor of Philosophy program directly upon receiving a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering, with the special approval of the Electrical Engineering Doctoral Studies Committee.
• Applicants without a master’s degree program must have a grade point average of 3.3 or better in the last 60 semester credit hours of undergraduate coursework in electrical engineering.
• Applicants with a master’s degree must have a grade point average of 3.3 or better in their master’s degree program. Applicants with a master’s degree in electrical engineering or in a related field may apply a maximum of 30 semester credit hours of previously earned graduate credit toward their doctoral degree. Each student’s transcript will be evaluated by the Doctoral Studies Committee and credit will be designated on a course-by-course basis to satisfy the formal coursework requirements of the degree. A maximum of 6 semester credit hours may be awarded for a master’s thesis.
• A satisfactory score, as evaluated by the Doctoral Studies Committee for Electrical Engineering, is required on the Graduate Record Examination (GRE). If an applicant’s performance on the GRE is used for that purpose, it will be considered with other criteria when making an admissions or competitive scholarship decision and will not be used as the sole criterion for consideration of the applicant or as the primary criterion to end consideration of the applicant. Students whose native language is not English must achieve a minimum score of 550 on the Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL; paper version).
• Letters of recommendation, preferably three, attesting to the applicant’s readiness for doctoral study.

A complete application includes the application form, official transcripts, letters of recommendation, GRE scores, a résumé, a statement of research experience, interests and goals, and the TOEFL score for those applicants whose native language is not English. Admission is competitive. Satisfying these requirements does not guarantee admission.

For more details, see http://www.graduateschool.utsa.edu/prospective_students/academic_programs