UMass Boston

Pursue the highest level of academic expertise in applied physics.

UMass Boston's Applied Physics PhD program is for current UMass Boston Applied Physics master's students who want to earn a PhD. Since the early 1980s, long before it became fashionable, UMass Boston's Physics Department has offered a terminal master's degree in applied physics. Because of the match between the skills taught in that program and the needs of employers in the technology sector of the economy, the MS program has grown to become one of the largest and most successful terminal master's programs in the country. Over the last couple of decades, the research profile of the UMass Boston Physics Department has developed to the point where it became desirable to include the option of continuing on to a PhD for some of our master's students.

Because of this history, the Applied Physics PhD has a structure that is distinct from other programs. All students must apply to the Applied Physics MS program, even if they already have a master's degree. Students who already hold a master's degree may receive transfer credits for some of their previous coursework.

Where it makes sense to extend from a master's thesis into a doctoral dissertation, students in the master's program who develop a research relationship with a faculty member are transferred into the PhD upon successful completion of a portion of the Qualifying Exam. In rare cases, where a student enters with an existing relationship with a faculty member, and where they have sufficiently strong preparation to pass qualifiers upon entrance into the master's program, those students will be advanced into the PhD after their first semester.