CHEME-MS - Chemical Engineering (MS)
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Program Overview
The Department of Chemical Engineering offers opportunities for undergraduates and graduate students to pursue coursework and research in energy sciences and technology, including the chemical, physical, mathematical, and engineering sciences.
In addition, undergraduates and graduate students can pursue work in interdisciplinary biosciences, including the chemical, biological, physical, mathematical, and engineering sciences. Students are encouraged to review course offerings in all departments of the School of Engineering and to seek academic advising from individual chemical engineering faculty. Students wishing assistance should talk with student services staff in the department.
Current research and teaching activities cover several advanced topics in chemical engineering, including applied statistical mechanics, biocatalysis, biochemical engineering, bioengineering, biophysics, computational materials science, colloid science, dynamics of complex fluids, energy conversion, functional genomics, hydrodynamic stability, kinetics and catalysis, microrheology, molecular assemblies, nanoscience and technology, Newtonian and non-Newtonian fluid mechanics, polymer physics, protein biotechnology, renewable fuels, semiconductor processing, soft materials science, solar utilization, surface and interface science, and transport mechanics.
Fellowships and Assistantships
Qualified predoctoral applicants are encouraged to apply for nationally competitive fellowships, for example, those from the National Science Foundation. Applicants to the PhD program should consult with their financial aid officers for application information and advice. In the absence of other awards, incoming PhD students typically are awarded departmental fellowships. Matriculated PhD students are supported primarily by fellowship awards and assistantship research or teaching appointments. All students are encouraged to apply for external competitive fellowships and may obtain information about various awarding agencies from faculty advisors and student services. Assistantships are paid positions for graduate students that, in addition to a salary, provide the benefit of a tuition allocation. Individual faculty members appoint students to research assistantships; the department chair appoints doctoral students to teaching assistantships. Contact departmental student services for additional information.
Minimum Units in the Program
Minimum University Units
A range of MS programs comprising appropriate coursework is available to accommodate students wishing to obtain further academic preparation before pursuing a chemical engineering career or a degree program. The degree requirements are lecture course based; there are no research or thesis requirements. This is a terminal MS degree, i.e., this degree is not a prerequisite for, nor does it lead to admission to the department’s PhD program.
The Honors Cooperative Program (HCP) MS program, available entirely online, makes it possible for academically qualified engineers and scientists in industry to be part-time graduate students in Chemical Engineering while continuing professional employment. Prospective HCP MS students follow the same admissions process and must meet the same admissions requirements as full-time residential MS students.
For the conferral of a master’s degree in chemical engineering, the following departmental requirements must be met.
Credit toward the required minimum of 45 completed units for the MS degree is not given for Chemical Engineering special topics courses numbered in the 500 series.
To ensure that an appropriate Chemical Engineering graduate program is pursued by each MS candidate, students who first enroll at Stanford at the graduate level must do the following during the first quarter, no later than the seventh week:
Complete a Program Proposal for a master’s degree form.
Submit this petition form to departmental student services for review.
Obtain approval for any subsequent program change or changes using a freshly completed Program Proposal form.
All MS candidates must obtain approvals for the final MS program no later than the seventh week of the quarter preceding the quarter of degree conferral to permit amendment of the final quarter’s study list if the faculty deem this necessary. Students with questions should contact departmental graduate student services.
Minimum Grade Requirement
Any course that satisfies the 45-unit minimum for the Master of Science degree must be taken for a letter grade, if offered. An overall grade point average (GPA) of 3.0 must be maintained for these courses.
Students terminating their graduate work with the MS degree in Chemical Engineering must develop a graduate-level, thematic MS program consisting of a minimum of 45 completed units of academic work that includes:
Four (4) courses selected from the CHEMENG 300 series listed below.
- 1033831
- 1033841
- 2102861
- 1400171
- 1033861
- 1033881
An additional four (4) courses selected from 200, 300 and 400-level Chemical Engineering lecture courses.
- 1034271
* HCP MS students may substitute colloquium with up to three units of a science, math or engineering seminar/speaker series or a three-unit graduate lecture course in science, math or engineering.
These units must be selected from graduate-level science, math or engineering lecture courses (3 units or more each) in any appropriate department.
Students may substitute up to 12 units of graduate-level science, math or engineering lecture electives from a combination of the following categories:
No more than three units of seminar or colloquium courses on science, math or engineering topics.
No more than six units of graduate-level science, math or engineering lab courses.
No more than six units of 100-level or higher lecture, case study, workshop or practicum courses.
PhD and Coterm students are permitted to substitute up to six units of Chemeng 600 or equivalent.
Graduate-level science, math or engineering courses include, but are not limited to, courses from the following departments: AA, BIOE, BIO, BIOMEDIN, CEE, CHEM, CME, CS, EE, ENGR, MATH, MS&E, MATSCI, ME, PHYSICS, PSYCH and STATS.
No courses under 100-level are accepted for any MS degree requirements.
Graduate level courses are numbered 200 and above unless otherwise stated.
Stanford undergraduates with strong academic records may apply to study for a master’s degree while simultaneously completing their bachelor’s degree(s). Interested students should discuss their educational goals with their faculty advisors and discuss the application requirements with departmental graduate student services before submitting an application in Axess. Students, who have completed at least 120 units toward an undergraduate degree and complete their applications by the seventh week of a quarter, may be admitted to the Chemical Engineering MS program the following quarter. The GRE is not required for students applying for the Chemical Engineering coterminal master’s degree.
University Coterminal Requirements
Coterminal master’s degree candidates are expected to complete all master’s degree requirements as described in this Bulletin. University requirements for the coterminal master’s degree are described in Coterminal Master's Degrees. University requirements for the master’s degree are described in Graduate Degrees.
After accepting admission to this coterminal master’s degree program, students may request a transfer of courses from the undergraduate to the graduate career to satisfy the requirements for the master’s degree. Transferring courses to the graduate career requires review and approval of both the undergraduate and graduate programs on a case-by-case basis.
In this master’s program, courses taken during or after the first quarter of the sophomore year are eligible for consideration for transfer to the graduate career; the timing of the first graduate quarter is not a factor. No courses taken before the first quarter of the sophomore year may be used to meet master’s degree requirements.
Course transfers are not possible after the bachelor’s degree has been conferred.
The university requires that the graduate advisor be assigned in the student’s first graduate quarter even though the undergraduate career may still be open. The university also requires that the Master’s Degree Program Proposal be completed by the student and approved by the department by the end of the student’s first graduate quarter.
Graduate Degrees summarizes the university’s requirements, including residency requirements, for the MS, Engineer, and PhD degrees.