MGTSC-PHD - Management Science and Engineering (PhD)
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Program Overview
The PhD degree in MS&E is intended for students primarily interested in a career of research and teaching or high-level technical work in universities, industry, or government.
Minimum Units in the Program
Minimum University Units
The program requires three years of full-time graduate study, at least two years of which must be at Stanford. Typically, however, students take four to five years after entering the program to complete all PhD requirements. The PhD requires a minimum of 135 units, up to 45 units, which may be transferred from another graduate program. The PhD is organized around the expectation that the students acquire a certain breadth across all department areas and depth in one of them. The current areas are:
Computational Social Science
Decision and Risk Analysis
Operations Research
Organizations, Technology, and Entrepreneurship
Policy and Strategy
Quantitative Finance
Doctoral students are required to take a seminar in autumn quarter specifically designed for first-year students (breadth) and several specified courses in one of the areas of the department (depth). All courses used to satisfy depth requirements must be taken for a letter grade if the letter-graded option is available. Before candidacy, at least three units of work must be taken with each of four Stanford faculty members.
Each student admitted to the PhD program must pass an area qualification procedure. The qualification procedure aims to assess the student’s command of the field and evaluate their potential to complete a high-quality dissertation based on research that must make an original contribution to knowledge promptly.
Finally, the student must complete a PhD dissertation and pass a university oral examination, which is a defense of the dissertation. During the PhD program, students who do not have a master’s degree are strongly encouraged to complete one, either in MS&E or in another Stanford department.
Degree Progress and Student Responsibility
Each doctoral student’s progress is reviewed annually by the MS&E faculty. Typically, this occurs at a faculty meeting at the end of spring quarter, and an appropriate email notification is sent over the summer to the student and their advisor. The student is responsible for initiating each required step in completing the PhD program.
Annual Doctoral Student Degree and Career Progress Meeting (IDP)
Students are expected to meet annually with their advisors to take stock, set goals, and develop an action plan for the coming year. This worksheet, endorsed by the Committee on Graduate Studies, can help facilitate such conversations. Please complete this form to let us know when you have completed each year’s discussion.
To maintain good standing in the degree program, first-year students must:
Complete 30 units, including the first-year seminar and doctoral courses taught by faculty in their research area
Develop relationships with faculty members who can serve as dissertation advisors or reading committee members. A faculty member is more likely to accept the responsibility of supervising the research of a student they know reasonably well than a student whose abilities, initiative, and originality the faculty member knows less well. It is recommended that students participate in research rotations with MS&E and related faculty to facilitate the development of these relationships.
To maintain good standing in the degree program, second-year students must:
Complete at least two one-quarter research rotations or tutorials, or one two-quarter research rotation, tutorial, or research paper, continuing to develop relationships with faculty members who might serve as dissertation advisors or reading committee members
Pass an area-qualifying exam or defense of the written paper(s)
Submit a candidacy form signed by at least one MS&E faculty member with whom they have or will complete research rotations, tutorials, or papers, and listing the course requirements agreed upon by both the student and the program advisor
Complete 30 units, including most, if not all, of the required courses listed on the candidacy form
Be advanced to candidacy by the faculty
To maintain good standing in the degree program, third-year students must:
Submit a progress form listing the dissertation topic and signed by the dissertation advisor (if the dissertation advisor is not an MS&E faculty member, the form must also be signed by an MS&E faculty member who agrees to be on the student’s reading committee, as well as the student’s point of contact within the department)
Complete 30 units, including any remaining depth courses.
To maintain good standing in the degree program, fourth-year students must:
Select a reading committee (a dissertation advisor and two readers) with at least one member from the student’s major department, and submit the reading committee form signed by each member of the reading committee
Make satisfactory progress on their dissertation as determined by their dissertation advisor
Complete 30 dissertation units (if the student has not transferred any previous graduate units to Stanford)
To maintain good standing in the degree program beyond the fourth year, students must make satisfactory progress on their dissertation as determined by their dissertation advisor and approved by the faculty. Indeed, the dissertation advisor will have to present the case to (and seek approval for the student’s good standing from) the faculty in the annual faculty meeting for student review. It should be noted that each student inherently has to pass the oral examination (see below) and submit their dissertation before their candidacy expires.
Additionally, students must perform well in all assistantship positions to remain in good standing and eligible for funding.
Any exceptional cases for a student to remain in good standing based on extenuating circumstances must be presented to and approved by the whole faculty.
All first-year students must attend and participate in course Fundamental Concepts in Management Science and Engineering, which meets in the autumn quarter.
Each course session is devoted to a specific MS&E PhD research area. At a given session, several advanced PhD students in that area make carefully prepared presentations designed for first-year doctoral students regardless of area. The presentations are devoted to:
Illuminating how people in the area being explored that day think about and approach problems
Illustrating what can and cannot be done when addressing problems by deploying the knowledge, perspectives, and skills acquired by those who specialize in the area in question
Faculty in the focal area of the week comment on the weekly student presentations. The rest of the session is devoted to questions posed and comments made by first-year PhD students.
During the last two weeks of the quarter, groups of first-year students present how they would approach a problem drawing on two or more perspectives to which they have been exposed earlier in the class.
Attendance is mandatory, and performance is assessed based on the quality of the student’s presentations and class participation.
Complete four courses, with at least one from each CSS sub-area.
Complete at least one additional course from any of the three CS sub areas.
Students are expected to have previously completed computer programming, multivariable calculus and linear algebra, and matrix methods or will need to take those courses in addition to the degree requirements.
Up to two elective courses may be 200-level MS&E, CS, EE, or STATS non-seminar courses if approved by the student’s academic advisor or research advisor.
At least six core or elective courses required, with at least four listed or cross-listed in MS&E.
Students may petition other relevant statistics and research methods courses.
Substitutions may be approved by the P&S faculty.
Other MS&E, Economics, Finance, Scientific Computing, or Statistics courses at the MS&E 300-level (or comparable in other departments) may be chosen after consulting with the dissertation advisor.
Complete the course requirements and qualification procedure for one of the six paths.
The qualification procedure is based on depth in an area of the student’s choice and preparation for dissertation research. The qualification process must be completed by the end of May of the student’s second year of graduate study in the department.
The PhD qualification requirements comprise these elements:
Courses and GPA: Students must complete the depth requirements of one of the areas of the MS&E department. (The PhD area course requirements are below). All courses used to satisfy depth requirements must be taken for a letter grade if the letter-graded option is available. Course substitutions may be approved by the doctoral program advisor or the MS&E dissertation advisor on the candidacy form or a request for a graduate course waiver/substitution form. A student must maintain a GPA of at least 3.4 in all courses taken by the student within the department. The GPA is computed based on the nominal number of units for which each course is offered.
Paper(s): A student may choose between two options. The first option involves one paper supervised by a primary faculty advisor and a second faculty reader. This paper should be written in a minimum of two quarters. The second option involves two shorter sequential tutorials with two different faculty advisors. Each tutorial should be completed in one quarter. In both options, the student chooses the faculty advisor(s)/reader with the faculty member’s consent. There must be two faculty members, at least one of whom must be an MS&E faculty member, supervising and evaluating this requirement for advancement to candidacy. The paper/tutorials must be completed before spring quarter of the student’s second year of graduate study in the department if the student’s qualifying exam is during the spring quarter and before the end of May of that year otherwise.
Area Qualification: During the second year, a student must pass an examination in one of the areas of the MS&E department or defense of the written paper(s). The student chooses the area/program in which to take the examination. This area examination is written, oral, or both at the area faculty’s discretion. Most areas offer the qualifying exam only once yearly, usually in the Spring Quarter.
The qualification decision is based on the student’s coursework and grade point average (GPA), on the one or two preliminary papers prepared by the student with close guidance from two faculty members, at least one of whom must be an MS&E faculty member, the student’s performance in an area examination or defense of the written paper(s), and an overall assessment by the faculty of the student’s ability to conduct high-quality research. Considering this evidence, the department faculty vote on advancing the student to candidacy in the department at large.
As administered in this department, the university oral examination is a defense of the dissertation; however, the candidate should be prepared to answer any question raised by any members of the Academic Council who choose to be present. The examining committee consists of the three members of the reading committee as well as a fourth faculty member and an orals chair. The chair must be an Academic Council member and may not be affiliated with either the Department of Management Science and Engineering or any department where the student’s advisor has a regular appointment; emeriti professors are eligible to serve as an orals chair. The student’s advisor is responsible for finding an appropriate orals chair. The university oral examination may be scheduled after the dissertation reading committee has given tentative approval to the dissertation.
The student must be enrolled in the quarter of their oral examination. Students should schedule three hours for the oral examination, which usually consists of a 45-minute public presentation followed by closed-session questioning of the examinee by the committee and committee deliberation. The student must reserve a room and meet with the student services manager to complete the oral examination schedule and pick up other paperwork. This paperwork and an abstract must be delivered to the orals chair at least one week before the oral examination.
Students must complete a PhD dissertation and pass a university oral examination, which is a defense of the dissertation.
Information for rules governing the dissertation format, fees, forms, and deadlines can be found on the Dissertations and Theses website.