If you have questions, email us at
PA-Grad@ou.edu.
If you are a graduate student who has been admitted to our Ph.D. program, you have already demonstrated the potential to develop into a scientist of high caliber. The Department will provide many research opportunities, and will do its best to maintain an environment in which you can realize your potential. Please keep in mind, however, that the factors most important for success in this endeavor are your own initiative, intelligence, creativity, and capacity for hard work. The resources provided here are intended to aid you in this journey.
The Red Book (pdf) is your complete guide for navigating graduate studies in the Homer L. Dodge Department of Physics and Astronomy. If you have questions, chances are you will find your answers in this handbook.
The typical steps for a graduate student seeking a Ph.D. in Physics or Astronomy are:
It usually takes 5-7 years to travel this trajectory. Along the way, one gradually masters a research specialty, and develops into a professional scientist: an independent and critical thinker, capable both of conceiving and conducting innovative research programs that advance the frontiers of physics or astronomy, and of disseminating the resulting knowledge widely and effectively.
The following checklists will guide you through the steps necessary to receive a master’s degree, to take the graduate college general exam, and to earn a Ph.D. These checklists must be maintained and filled out as you progress through each of these phases of your graduate school career, and the completed checklist must be returned to the chair of the Graduate Studies Committee according to the timeline outlined in each checklist.
This section is intended as a first stop resource that will guide you to the appropriate forms you need to fill out in order to complete the degree path of your choice. Regretfully, we are unable to provide you with any direct links to the forms themselves on account of how the Graduate College handles the posting and availability of the forms required. You may use the link to the Graduate College Forms page below, with the list of forms here to guide you.
The Physics Master's Degree with an emphasis on Astronomy does not have an approved Non-Thesis option so the forms necessary for that program will be found under the Thesis Master's section.
Our appointed advisor in the Graduate College can change from one semester to another, but you can find out the name and contact information of the current advisor by logging into iAdvise from the Graduate College webpage.
Teaching and Research, Assistants are expected to be present for duties during the entire period of their appointment, even when classes are not in session. This appointment period typically extends from roughly one week before classes start in the fall until one week after commencement in the spring.
While state law does not allow us to guarantee departmental support to any student, historically every student making adequate progress towards degree has had some form of support. Adequate progress includes good performance in classes and on the Preliminary Examination; good performance in research; timely scheduling and good performance on the Qualifying Examination; and steady progress in the composition of the Doctoral Dissertation.
It is the policy of the department that no student supported by the department, either in the form of a TA or RA shall have employment outside the department. Please consult the Chair of the Graduate Studies Committee if you have any questions about this policy.
Those who have a .5 FTE appointment for six months or more are eligible to participate in the Oklahoma Teachers’ Retirement System (OTRS), which provides a defined lifetime income to participating members who become eligible for retirement. OTRS is administered by the State of Oklahoma and Oklahoma laws establish the rules and procedures governing OTRS. Visit the OU Human Resources OTRS page for more information.
A minimum of one year of service as a Teaching Assistant (TA) is required for a Ph.D. degree in our Department. This requirement is usually satisfied early in one’s graduate career (most incoming students are supported financially through Teaching Assistantships). The basic duties of a TA, already familiar to most of you, include running recitation or laboratory sessions, offering office hours for consultation with students, and grading homework and examinations, all under the direction of a faculty member teaching the course. Faculty teaching supervisors may also ask TAs to assist in curriculum development. Curriculum development tasks include the upgrade of laboratory experiments, upgrade of laboratory manuals, preparation of any computerized homework problems, preparation of standard homework solutions, preparation for laboratory session by doing practice experiments, and participation in the training of new teaching assistants. Curriculum development activities can take place during the week before classes begin in the fall, during the four-week period between semesters, and during the three weeks after the end of classes in the Spring term.
Teaching Assistants are required to spend the first week prior to the start of fall classes participating in the Universities TA Training Program. Students who are registered for nine credit-hours of non-research courses are expected to work an average of 15-20 hours a week on their teaching responsibilities.
Students who are granted a Research Assistantship (RA) are expected to focus their efforts on research, as well as coursework if this has not yet been completed. You should switch from a TA to an RA if circumstances permit. For example, your research director may pay you for your work on research if they have an externally funded grant to support their work. Stipends for RAs are expected to be somewhat higher than for TAs.
First-year graduate students are required to enroll in PHYS 5000: Introduction to Graduate Studies in Physics, which is an introduction to research in general as well as specific research done within the department. Attendance at the associated weekly Faculty Research Seminar is expected, where students are introduced to the faculty in the department and the research with which they are involved. This will give you the opportunity to contemplate the research group you would like to join .
The Homer L. Dodge Department of Physics & Astronomy conducts research with the goal of expanding the frontiers of knowledge and training the workforce of the 21st century.
Learn more about our research
The Qualifying Examinations are written tests offered 2 times a year, just before the start of the Fall semester and just before the start of the spring semester. The prelim exams are the week before classes begin. The content and structure of this examination is designed to demonstrate that a student has the comprehensive grasp of physics required for the successful conduct of research. Most graduates remember the Qualifying Examination as one of the most onerous tasks of their graduate years, but virtually all acknowledge its value: in preparation for the test, one must integrate one’s understanding of several fundamental tools of physics, learn how to use them together, and learn to select the most appropriate tool for solving any problem, rather than rely implicitly upon the narrow scope of textbook exercises to formulate one’s approach.
The fundamental areas of physics - classical mechanics, electricity and magnetism, thermal physics, statistical mechanics, and quantum mechanics - comprise the subject matter of the Qualifying Examinations. The level of difficulty and sophistication of the examination is roughly 2/3 undergraduate material and 1/3 first year graduate material.
The best way to learn the details of the content and difficulty of the Qualifying Examination is to look at previous exams. Most students find that the optimal way to practice for the Qualifying Examination is to solve as many problems as possible from previous examinations. The Department strongly encourages students to form study groups in preparation for the Qualifying Examination. Studying with one’s peers is a fruitful way to practice problem-solving techniques, and is a means to alleviate the mental stress that inevitably accumulates as the examination approaches. Students will also find most members of the faculty and senior graduate students willing and able to advise and help with the preparation for the Qualifying Examination.
The Qualifying Examination is written and graded by the entire Department’s Faculty. To continue in the Ph.D. program one must pass the exam at the Ph.D. level. To pass at the doctoral level a student must earn half of the total points on the exam and pass half of the problems as well. Normally each student is allowed two attempts to pass each exam.
A General Examination for the Ph.D. degree is required by the Graduate College before a student can be officially admitted to candidacy. After passing the Qualifying Exams, students must pass the Specialist Examination to continue for a doctoral degree. This exam is usually taken once the student has chosen a Thesis Adviser and an area of research (though not necessarily a specific thesis). The function of the Specialist Examination is to demonstrate that the student is ready to proceed with such research.
That examination must consists of two parts, a written and an oral exam. In the Department of Physics and Astronomy, the written portion consists of a critical review of the subject to be discussed in an oral presentation or candidacy exam. This exam tests your competence in an area of special interest to you (other than your dissertation research topic), as well as your general background in physics.
Within the department this exam has been called the “specialist exam” in the past, much to the confusion of both students in the department and administrators in the Graduate College. From the Graduate College’s point of view the exam is “general,” much like our qualifiers. From the department’s viewpoint, the exam is in the student’s chosen subspecialty and is thus a “specialist” exam.
The General Exam must be completed no later than the fall semester of the student’s fourth year. A student may not schedule the General Exam until all three physics Qualifying exams have been passed for non-astrophysics students, and all four Qualifying exams have been passed by Astrophysics students.
As soon as possible, graduate students should become familiar with the research programs available in the Department, choose a field of specialization, and arrange with a faculty member to serve as Thesis Adviser and principal Ph.D. supervisor. Many students start graduate school without a definite commitment to any particular field of specialization. During their first year of study, students should attend seminars and colloquia, speak with other students and with faculty members about their work, take reading courses, and in general explore the opportunities in the Department. It is each student’s own responsibility to find a thesis adviser. Usually, one’s adviser will provide financial support (in the form of a Research Assistantship) through some appropriate research grant.
The requirements for the Ph.D. include passing the examinations and required courses passing a total of 90 credit-hours of coursework, including reading and research courses, preparing a dissertation according to academic standards of independence and originality, and defending the work before a committee of professors in a Thesis Defense. The purpose of the Thesis Defense is to demonstrate the significance of the dissertation, and the adequacy of the arguments presented in support of the thesis. As such, the result of the Thesis Defense reflects the quality of each candidate’s contribution to the development of knowledge.
To help facilitate graduate students' success The Homer L Dodge Department of Physics and Astronomy has a formal mentoring program for incoming graduate students who are paired with both a more senior graduate student mentor and a faculty mentor. The documents linked below provide an overview of the mentoring program and a more detailed mentoring handbook.
There are strict rules to parking on campus and OU parking will enforce these rules. A complete list of rules can be found on the OU Parking website or in the most recent regulations.
General Rules for Parking on/near Campus
There are a variety of housing options available to students in the department, including on and off-campus housing.
Most of the information below is designed to serve simply as a static resource and to help direct you to locations where you can find time-sensitive or changing information.
Nielsen Hall Network (NHN) access: This is handled through Dr. Andy Feldt who can be found in room 115. When you arrive in Norman please see him to set up a departmental profile and to get set up on the NHN cluster if you have need of the RedHat Linux systems while you are a graduate student.
Identification and Licensing: Information regarding the identification process can be found including a list of tag agencies where you can get a new license or license tag if you meet the necessary requirements. If you need to take/retake your driver's test you can find out where to go from the list of local testing offices (pdf) including hours of operation.
