The Department of Chemistry offers graduate programs leading to the M.S. and Ph. D. degrees in the fields of analytical, biochemistry, inorganic, organic, polymer, and physical chemistry as well as chemical physics. The graduate handbook, available from this page provides a listing of all of the requirements for these degrees. The graduate bulletin provides additional detail on graduate work at Marquette University. A good place to begin is with the welcome statement from the departmental chairperson. We are proud of our accomplishments and know that we can serve incoming students very well. Our low student - faculty ratio means that each student receives the attention that is needed to ensure success in graduate school.
The graduate handbook lists all of the requirements for the master's degree and the doctorate in chemistry. In either case the student typically spends the first year taking course work and usually serves as a teaching assistant. At the end of the first semester, the student will typically have chosen an advisor and will spend much of the Christmas period beginning research. During the first summer you will usually work full-time on research. In the second year of graduate study, you will likely take one or two more courses and you are expected to present a seminar on some topic of interest to you during our regular Tuesday student seminar program. This should be a topic which has been of recent interest and a thorough review of the literature is expected. Most students will also be teaching assistants during the second year. The MS student is expected to complete research within two or so years and to defend the thesis either at the end of the second year or at the beginning of the third year.
The majority of students have research positions after the second year. During the fifth semester of graduate work, the student will present the body of research that has been performed to the entire department, again at our Tuesday student seminar series. Typically the PhD degree is awarded after four to six years of work.
Contact muchem@mu.edu for more information or else you may directly contact any faculty member in whose work you are intersted.
