Ph.D. Qualification and Course Work (Revised: 5/07/08)
=====================================================
At our department, each student has to be qualified by course.
This means he/she takes the course (or take only final exam
of the course) **and** passes with B or A.  This also means
your credits on the similar core courses in the previous
school are not transferred. This applies for all students 
even with masters degree.

For example, for "Ph.D in Physics"
[Note: "Ph.D. in Applied Physics" program is slightly diffeent.
Please visit http://graduateadvisor.physics.tamu.edu/
and click menu "Degree and Policies" in the left window.]

[1] SIX of 9 courses are "qualification" courses:
1) PHYS 601 (CM - Analytical Mech.),
2) PHYS 603 (EM 1)
3) PHYS 606 (QM 1)
4) PHYS 624 (QM 2)
5) PHYS 615 (Math Physics 1)
6) PHYS 607 (Stat. Mech)

Other 3 courses are
7) PHYS 611 (EM 2)
8) At least one elective from 
	elementary particle or nucl. physics courses
9) At least one elective from atomic, quatum optics, 
	or condenses matter phys. courses.

The grades of those 3 courses could be C.
A list of approved elective courses can be found in:

http://graduateadvisor.physics.tamu.edu/degreeandpolicies/GraduateStudentPolicies.pdf

Those qualification requirements are slightly different 
for Ph.D in Applied Physics.

[2] Fall Semester
We offer 601(CM), 606 (QM1) and 615(MP) in the fall semester,
and we recommend you take **two** course in each semester
if you have a teaching assistant-ship.

You have two options to pass the courses:
a) Take those courses and exmas, and get grades.
b) Attend the courses, prepare for the FINAL exams, 
    take the final exams, and get grades.

For option b), the "final exam" means the course's final exam, 
so it is offered at the end of the semester. And you need 
a permission from the Graduate Curr. Committee to take Option b).  
The committee approves your request based on credential record.

The request must be made before a certain deadline. Please read:

http://graduateadvisor.physics.tamu.edu/degreeandpolicies/GraduateStudentPolicies.pdf

[3] Spring Semester
We offer 603(EM1), 624(QM2) and 607(SM) in the spring semester.

[4] PHYS 615 is pre-requisite for PHYS 603 (EM1). 
Students are strongly recommended to pass 615 before taking 603.

[5] What courses should be registered for Fall 2008 and Spring 2009?

Assuming your undergraduate courses are like undergraduate courses at TAMU,
below is a course schedule:

2008 Fall:   615(Math Phys), 606(QM1), 691(Research) ==> 9 hours
2009 Spring: 603(EM1), 624(QM2), 691(Research) ==> 9 hours
2009 Fall:   601(CM), 611 (EM2),691(Research) ==> 9 hours
2010 Spring: 607(SM), Elective course(s) and/or 691(Research) ==> 9 hours

Note
a) The important sequences are:
615 --> 603 --> 611
606 --> 624

b) PHYS 691(Research)
Since we would like students to **identify** his/her research advisor
as quickly as possible, we recommend you take PHYS 691(research)
with a faculty member who is doing a reseach of your interest. 

For the incoming students, we usually assign with Dr. Kamon.
With PHYS 691, you have a regular contact with any faculty member(s).
For example, you could attend his/her group meeting, seminar, and/or
colloquium etc. in order to learn the research. You could also
talk to the students who are already working with the faculty members.
 
The credit hours are adjusted with other PHYS courses in order
to meet a total of NINE credit hours. For example, if you take
PHYS 615 and PHYS 606, you have 1 hour of PHYS 691.