Qualified students holding an M.S. or a B.S. degree can be admitted to the Ph.D. program in mechanical engineering. All students admitted to the Ph.D. program are required to designate their Ph.D. thesis supervisor before the end of the registration period in their second semesters.
Ph.D. students admitted with a Master's degree, are required to take 7 courses having a total of minimum 21 credits. The course program of each student is designed by the student and his/her thesis supervisor according to following rules:
- All courses must be at graduate level.
- In order to satisfy the mathematics requirement, ME 540 should be taken.
- At least one course must be selected from the following pool of courses: ME 502, ME 503, ME 504, ME 505, ME 511, ME 517, ME 526, ME 532, ME 537, ME 541, ME 543 or ME 547.
- At least 3 courses must be graduate courses offered by the Mechanical Engineering Department, excluding ME 521, ME 510 and ME 540.
- The program may contain at most 3 courses (subject to the approval of departmental Graduate Programme Committee) offered by other departments.
- PhD students during their graduate program (M.S. + Ph.D.) must take, in total, 2 Mathematics courses and 3 courses from the pool. Ph.D. students who have masters degree from outside of METU must submit their mathematics and pool courses from their masters to the Graduate Programme Committee for course substitution.
The maximum period to complete course work is 4 semesters.
Click here for the table showing the semesters in which graduate courses were offered.
In addition to the course load, the PhD students are expected to
- * pass ME 690 PhD Thesis Seminar (non-credit) course before the end of their fourth semester,
- * pass ME 599 Research Methods and Ethics in Engineering (non-credit) course before the end of their fourth semester.
* This rule is relevant for students who started graduate studies on 2016th first semester or later.
Upon completion of their course work successfully, Ph.D. students are required to take a doctoral qualifying examination before the end of their fifth semester, the latest.
You can find the 2020 spring semester PhD qualifier exam guideline, schedule, and application form from the links below,
A Ph.D. candidate who passes the doctoral qualifying examination is required to submit a written thesis proposal to his/her thesis supervising committee, which consists of the student's thesis supervisor and two other faculty members, one being from outside the department.
Ph.D. students are required to complete, write, and defend their Ph.D. thesis successfully before the end of their 12th semester.
For inquiries about Ph.D. Qualifying Examination, students can consult with the Ph.D. Qualifying Examination Committee Coordinator: Prof. Dr. Yiğit Yazıcıoğlu (Office: B-313, Phone: 0312 210 5259, e-mail: yigit@metu.edu.tr).
Please download and use the letter of recommendation while applying to the Ph.D. program in mechanical engineering.
Mechanical Engineering Research Guide prepared by METU Library