Many students enter our graduate programs to pursue a masters or doctoral degree on a part-time basis. Such students are normally working full-time in local industries or governmental agencies, and thus their studies are conducted under a reduced academic workload. Typically part-time students take only one course per semester and are not required to register for MCE 501 Graduate Seminar - a requirement for all full-time students. Of course under a part-time schedule, degree completion time will be extended. Beginning with no previous graduate course work, masters' degrees are normally completed in about 3-4 years. With a previous MS degree, the doctorate would take about 5 years of part-time study. In order to help accommodate part-time students, we commonly offer our graduate courses in the late afternoon with a meeting schedule of either twice and sometimes once a week.

Admission Procedure
Individuals interested in pursuing part-time graduate studies must apply for admission to a particular degree program. Application procedures can now be done completely on-line from the Graduate School's site www.uri.edu/gsadmis/ It is common that many part-time students will take a course or two before they formally apply for admission (non-matriculated status). However, since only up to 12 credits of non-matriculated work can be transferred into a degree program, students are advised to secure admission soon after beginning any course work.

Summary of Degree Requirements
Masters Degree - Thesis Option: 21-24 course credits; 6-9 thesis credits
Masters Degree - Non-thesis Option: 30 course credits; option only available for part-time students
Doctoral Degree: 72 total credits with 30 credits given for previous masters degree
Further details on degree requirements can be found in our department Graduate Student Guide which can be accessed on line at www.mce.uri.edu and at the Graduate School's site previously given.

Registering for Courses
Registration is now done on-line using the university's E-campus system at www.uri.edu/ecampus/. All students (admitted and non-matriculated) have to register to use the web-based system. New users should download the Step-by-Step Guide available at the E-campus site.

Continuous Registration
The university requires that all matriculated students must maintain continuous registration; i.e. by registered for some type of course each semester. On occasion, course offering schedules or individual work commitments may result in part-time students wishing to take a semester off. For such a case, a Leave of Absence form should be filed with the Graduate School for each semester that no course work is taken. Students who have completed all required course work and thesis research should register for continuous registration (CRG 999) for which no grade or credit is given. More information on this can be found at the Graduate School's web site previously given.

Department Contact Information

Professor Martin H. Sadd
Graduate Studies Director, Mechanical Engineering Department
Tel: 874-5548; E-Mail: sadd@egr.uri.edu