Requirements for the PhD in Physics with an Astrophysics Emphasis

We offer graduate study leading to the PhD in Physics with an Astrophysics Emphasis.

Course Requirements

Must take all courses as a letter grade and receive a B or better.

Core Courses

Pass five of the six following graduate physics courses with a grade of B or better.

• Physics 232: Stellar Structure and Evolution
• Physics 233: The Interstellar Medium
• Physics 234: High Energy Astrophysics
• Physics 235: Extragalactic Astrophysics
• Physics 236: Cosmology
• Physics 237: Galactic Dynamics

Required Course

• Physics 215A: Quantum Mechanics

Elective Requirements

Theoretical physics students must complete a minimum of four advanced graduate courses, and experimental physics students must complete a minimum of two advanced graduate courses with a grade of B or better. For theoretical physics students, at least one of these courses must be in an area clearly distinct from the student’s field of specialization – such a determination will be made by the departmental graduate advisor.

Additional Course Requirements

These courses are taken the first year of graduate school.

• Physics 260A: Colloquium
• Physics 260G: Graduate Seminar
• Physics 500: Teaching Assistant Seminar (Fall only)

Course Descriptions can be viewed here.

Advancing to Candidacy

Advance

Getting Your PhD

1. Review the filing deadlines. Plan to complete all filing steps by the quarterly deadline. 
2. Review the filing checklist. 
3. Check on the GradPoint Students portal that your committee is correct. If it is not correct, submit a committee petition action to update it. Submit this action a month before your defense. 
4. Schedule your defense with your defense committee. Reserve the room. If Broida 3302 is not available, you may check with CNSI or another resource. 
5. Email communications@physics.ucsb.edu the date, time, location, title and abstract of your defense, so they post it on the lobby monitors. 
6. Contact the Staff Graduate Advisor to set up a pre- and post-graduation meeting and confirm your defense date.  
7. A few weeks before your defense, email your committee your dissertation. (Confirm with them how much time they prefer to read it.) Check the template here. The title page is the month of the degree conferral.
8. Once the dissertation is sent to your committee, email the Staff Graduate Advisor a PDF of your signature page, so that she can set it up via DocuSign to be sent the day of your defense. The Graduate Division and you will get an email confirmation, when it's completed. (The month listed is the month of the defense. There is no need to insert the signed signature page to the filed dissertation.)  If the Staff Graduate Advisor is not available, get the signatures, and email the signed document to academics@graddiv.ucsb.edu.
9. Check that all of your grades are correct. If you have any NR or incorrect grades, email the instructor to log into e-grades to fix it, if relevant.
10. Three business days before your defense, send your defense announcement to grads@physics.ucsb.edu listserv. (Please note that you will not get the email, as the sender. After a few days, check with a Physics graduate student that the email was sent out. If not, email the Staff Graduate Advisor confirmation that it was sent out.)
11. The day of your defense, submit the Form III Powerform for the correction number of committee members. This document indicates that you completed your defense. Use this Form III for 3 Members. Use this Form III for 4 Members.The Graduate Division and you will get an email confirmation, when it's completed. Use the username@ucsb.edu email for the signers. For example, not username@physics.ucsb.edu or username@hep.ucsb.edu. 
12. If you are an international student and want to graduate in the Summer Quarter, check with the Staff Graduate Advisor about the new procedures. 
13. Once your committee approves of your dissertation and any revisions, submit your dissertation via ProQuest. Do not file until you received confirmation from your committee that it is approved. Email the Staff Graduate Advisor that you filed. 
14. Complete the exit survey. 
15. If you have specific questions on filing, contact academics@graddiv.ucsb.edu. 
16. If you are an international student, check in with OISS about filing details. Ask the Staff Graduate Advisor for any additional required steps for filing. 
17. Register for Commencement.