Applicable only to students admitted during the 2018-2019 academic year.

Physics and Astronomy

College of Letters and Science

Graduate Degrees

The Department of Physics and Astronomy offers the Master of Arts in Teaching (M.A.T.) in Astronomy and Astrophysics, the Master of Science (M.S.) and Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) degrees in Astronomy and Astrophysics, the Master of Arts in Teaching (M.A.T.) in Physics, and the Master of Science (M.S.) and Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) degrees in Physics.

Astronomy and Astrophysics

Admissions Requirements

Master of Science

Advising

Entering students or those who have not been admitted to candidacy for the Ph.D. degree should consult with the faculty graduate adviser for Astronomy at the beginning of fall quarter to determine a program for the year. Graduate students should continue to meet at least once per year with the faculty graduate adviser for advising and program review.

Areas of Study

Consult the department.

Foreign Language Requirement

None.

Course Requirements

Requirements for the master’s degree include the following seven core courses (28 units): Astronomy 270, Astronomy 271A, Astronomy 271B, Astronomy 272, Astronomy 273, Astronomy 274, Astronomy 281.

In addition to the core courses, students must take two elective courses (12) from the following course options: Astronomy 275, Astronomy 276, Astronomy 282, Astronomy 283, and Astronomy 286. Students must achieve a grade point average of at least 3.00, averaged over all core and elective courses. Students must satisfactorily complete the two-quarter second-year research project (Astronomy 277A-277B), culminating in a written report of the methods and the results of the research performed. Before undertaking the second-year research project, students must identify a faculty adviser who is willing to oversee their work on the project.

Courses taken in the 300 or 500 series may not be applied toward these course requirements.

Teaching Experience

Not required.

Field Experience

Not required.

Capstone Plan

For the Master of Science degree, students must pass the comprehensive examination at the master’s level. The examination combines both the completion and presentation of the second-year research project and oral examination of core courses taken during the first six quarters in residence. The exam is described in more detail under the requirements for the doctoral degree.

Thesis Plan

None.

Time-to-Degree

Full-time students with no deficiencies at admission should normally be able to finish the master’s degree in six quarters.

DEGREE	NORMATIVE TIME TO ATC (Quarters)	NORMATIVE TTD	MAXIMUM TTD
M.S.	6	6	6

Doctoral Degree

Advising

Entering students or those who have not been admitted to candidacy for the Ph.D. degree should consult with the faculty graduate adviser for Astronomy at the beginning of fall quarter to determine a program for the year. Graduate students are advised by the Faculty Graduate Adviser for Astronomy, with whom they should meet at least once per year.

Major Fields or Subdisciplines

Consult the department.

Foreign Language Requirement

None.

Course Requirements

Requirements for the Ph.D. degree include the following seven core courses: Astronomy 270, Astronomy 271A, Astronomy 271B, Astronomy 272, Astronomy 273, Astronomy 274, Astronomy 281.

In addition to the core courses, students must take two elective courses from the following course options: Astronomy 275, Astronomy 276, Astronomy 282, Astronomy 283, and Astronomy 286. Exceptions or substitutions can be made by petition only and must be arranged in advance or, for students transferring from another institution, during or before the first quarter of residence. Students must achieve a grade point average of at least 3.00, averaged over all core and elective courses.

Teaching Experience

Before receiving a Ph.D. degree, students are required to spend at least three quarters as a teaching assistant at UCLA, preferably completed in the first two years of study. All teaching assistants must enroll in Astronomy 375 for each quarter they hold such an appointment.

Written and Oral Qualifying Examinations

Academic Senate regulations require all doctoral students to complete and pass university written and oral qualifying examinations prior to doctoral advancement to candidacy. Also, under Senate regulations, the University Oral Qualifying Examination is open only to the student and appointed members of the doctoral committee. In addition to university requirements, some graduate programs have other pre-candidacy examination requirements. What follows in this section is how students are required to fulfill all of these requirements for this doctoral program.

All committee nominations and reconstitutions adhere to the Minimum Standards for Doctoral Committee Constitution.

The primary goal of the graduate program in astronomy is to train students to perform research at the Ph.D. level. The comprehensive examination is therefore designed to assess both research ability and general knowledge of astronomy and physics at the graduate level. The examination is conducted in the spring quarter of students’ second year by the comprehensive examination committee, which consists of three faculty members who are appointed by the vice chair. All second-year students are assessed by the committee on the following basis:

(1) A collective assessment of the written report on the second-year research project, which constitutes the written comprehensive examination.

(2) Performance on the oral portion of the comprehensive examination. During this oral portion of the comprehensive examination, students present the results of their second-year research project and are expected to be able to respond to questions on their research and to solve basic problems from all core areas of astrophysics in which they have had the opportunity to take the course following the normal schedule of classes. The comprehensive examination committee will also review the comments from course instructors to give a more complete picture of student preparation.

The potential outcomes are:

(1) Pass — with immediate eligibility to proceed to the University Oral Qualifying Examination.

(2) Incomplete — with the possibility of reassessment by an agreed upon date during the following year on the basis of a specific written list of requirements supplied by the graduate evaluation committee. (This option is meant to be used sparingly for students with a single, identifiable and presumably correctable weakness, but who are otherwise above the passing threshold.) The incomplete option can only be used once for any particular student.

(3) Terminal master’s pass — allows the student to only finish any outstanding course requirements for the master’s degree, if any.

(4) Fail — results in an immediate recommendation for termination of the student’s affiliation with the department.

The comprehensive exam must be completed at the Master’s level or above (outcomes 1, 2 or 3).

Advancement to Candidacy

After the scope of the Ph.D. dissertation research has been clearly defined and in consultation with the student’s dissertation adviser, a doctoral committee is nominated, approved by the department chair, and finally appointed by the Graduate Division. The main purpose of this examination is to discuss and evaluate the student’s proposed dissertation problem, but at the discretion of the committee, questions may be asked with regard to other material in the student’s field of specialization and related matters. The committee members guide, read, approve, and certify the dissertation. The oral qualifying examination is taken no later than the tenth quarter in residence.

Doctoral Dissertation

Every doctoral degree program requires the completion of an approved dissertation that demonstrates the student’s ability to perform original, independent research and constitutes a distinct contribution to knowledge in the principal field of study.

Final Oral Examination (Defense of the Dissertation)

Required for all students in the program.

Time-to-Degree

The normative time-to-degree is fifteen quarters. Full-time students with no deficiencies are expected to submit their Ph.D. dissertations within the normative time-to-degree. Normal progress towards the Ph.D. degree has been established as follows:

(1) The requirements for the comprehensive examination should be completed during the sixth quarter in residence.

(2) The sequence of 596 courses begun by the seventh quarter in residence with a faculty adviser chosen then or before.

(3) The oral qualifying examination (and advancement to candidacy) should be completed no later than the tenth quarter in residence.

(4) The dissertation and final oral should be finished by the end of the 15th quarter.

DEGREE	NORMATIVE TIME TO ATC (Quarters)	NORMATIVE TTD	MAXIMUM TTD
Ph.D.	10	15	21

Termination of Graduate Study and Appeal of Termination

University Policy

A student who fails to meet the above requirements may be recommended for termination of graduate study. A graduate student may be disqualified from continuing in the graduate program for a variety of reasons. The most common is failure to maintain the minimum cumulative grade point average (3.00) required by the Academic Senate to remain in good standing (some programs require a higher grade point average). Other examples include failure of examinations, lack of timely progress toward the degree and poor performance in core courses. Probationary students (those with cumulative grade point averages below 3.00) are subject to immediate dismissal upon the recommendation of their department. University guidelines governing termination of graduate students, including the appeal procedure, are outlined in Standards and Procedures for Graduate Study at UCLA.

Special Departmental or Program Policy

A student’s progress is evaluated during each spring quarter by a committee of departmental faculty. A student is advised of the faculty’s evaluation either informally or in writing.

A student may appeal a recommendation for termination in writing to the faculty adviser, who then reconvenes the entire departmental faculty to reconsider the recommendation.