Electrical Engineering, PhD

Admission and Qualifying Exam - Electrical Engineering, PhD

Admission Requirements

Your entrance into the doctoral study and research program is contingent on you passing the departmental qualifying examination and forming a guidance committee.

If you are entering the doctoral program at the baccalaureate level, you must meet the entrance requirements detailed for the master’s program. If you are entering at the master’s level for the PhD in Electrical Engineering, you are expected to have a master’s in electrical engineering.

Students holding a NYU-Poly master’s degree in computer or systems engineering, electrophysics or telecommunications networks also can enter the program.

Applicants with BS or MS in other disciplines may be admitted depending on academic background and record.

Qualifying Examinations

The Qualifying Examination is divided into 2 sections: the Written section (a written examination requiring broad knowledge and problem solving ability at the undergraduate level and requiring preparation at the first year graduate level in several subject areas related to the student's Area of Research Interest —see examples below), and the Concentration or Oral section (an oral examination which concentrates mainly on the student's Area of Primary Research Interest). If you are taking the Qualifying Examination, you must choose 1 of the following areas as the Area of Primary Research Interest.

  • communications
  • computer and network architecture
  • controls and systems
  • electromagnetics
  • networks
  • power/power electronics
  • signal processing

The written exam consists of 2 parts, a fundamental part consisting of 10 questions with 1 question from each area, and 1 question for each of the 3 general areas, EE, EP, and CE; and an advanced part consisting of 14 questions, with 2 questions from each concentration area. You are only permitted to answer a total of 7 questions with the following restrictions:

  • Fundamental Section: answer 2 questions
  • Advanced Section: answer 3 questions
  • At least 1 question in each section must be from your chosen area of interest for research. You can select the remaining 2 questions from either the Advanced or Fundamental Section.

The oral exam in a concentration area will be conducted by a committee consisting of at least 3 faculty members from that area. You will be given 45 minutes to a 1 hour slot. The committee will ask questions that can help the faculty to assess your understanding of the fundamental concepts in the major field and potential for independent research.

Depending on your performance on both the written and oral exam, you may be given “Pass” or “Fail” or asked to “Repeat Oral.” In the repeat oral exam, you will first give a presentation on an independent project in the chosen major field. The project could be in the form of studying research papers and analyzing its outcomes, or implementing/testing a certain algorithm or system and assessing its performance, or performing research related experiment or design. The faculty in the exam committee will ask questions related to the project and other questions that can help the faculty to assess your research potential as well as grasp on the fundamental concepts in the major field. The recommended time for the presentation is 20-30 minutes. The committee will decide whether to fail or pass you based on this exam. The exam should be completed no later than 1 semester after the original exam.

The project presentation can be either on a project supervised by a faculty advisor at NYU-Poly, or a prior research project done by the student independent of NYU-Poly faculty. In the later case, you are advised to seek consultation with the faculty in the major field about the relevance of the project. If you don't have prior research project experience at the time the original exam is taken, you are advised to seek a faculty advisor and a project topic soon after being informed about the need to repeat the oral exam, so that you can present the project within one semester. The faculty advisor for this project may or may not be your PhD adviser should you pass the exam.

A grade-point average of 3.5 or better, with at least 1 semester of study at NYU-Poly, is the normal requirement to sit for the Qualifying Examination. You must submit an application to take the qualifying exam along with other requested documents specified in the application form (Download Application). If you do not pass the Qualifying Examination on your first attempt, you may apply for permission to take the examination 1 more time. Normally, this permission is granted when your first-time performance appears to warrant the second attempt.

The qualifying exam is given twice a year, onceshortly before the fall semester (typically late August), and another time shortly before the spring semester (typically mid January). The oral exam is typically scheduled within 1 week after the written exam.

The format of the Qualifying Examination is subject to change from 1 year to the next. You should watch for announcements of such changes.

Information about exact examination dates, format, subject areas, etc., and copies of sample questions can be obtained from the ECE Graduate Office. Questions regarding qualification to appear for the exam and exam format should be directed to:

Francisco de Leon