A: A student must have a grade point average of at least 3.0 (based on a 4.0 system) on all undergraduate work, or a 3.0 average or above on the last 60 hours of undergraduate coursework. Also, the sum of a student's verbal and quantitative GRE scores must be at least 302. A GRE score is required for all students, except those graduating with a B.S. from the University of Arkansas.

A: The first step is getting accepted by the Graduate and International Admissions Office. All students apply through the Graduate and International Admissions Office, whether domestic or international. Apply online at https://application.uark.edu/. Do not send application materials to the Department of Electrical Engineering. The Graduate and International Admissions Office evaluate a student to determine if he or she meets admission requirements. If all requirements are met, the application is forwarded to the Electrical Engineering Department.

A: Application deadlines are published on the International Admissions website. International students may need to apply much sooner than the deadline to allow enough time to receive a visa.

A: In addition to the Graduate and International Admissions requirements, the Department of Electrical Engineering requires a resume, a statement of purpose, and three letters of recommendation. All of these requirements should be uploaded in your Student Center.

A: The statement of purpose is a one or two-page document which explains why you want to pursue an M.S. or Ph.D. It should also describe the research areas in which you would like to specialize. The research areas pages of this website describe common specialty areas and list the faculty doing research in each area.

A: The Letters of Recommendation for an applicant should be professional in nature. A LOR will directly relate to one’s potential to succeed in graduate studies and their professional future in the field. The letter may be written by anyone who can attest to your:

• skills in the field of study
• research skills
• practical applications of the work
• work ethic
• capacity for success

This may be a previous professor, an employer, etc. It should be someone who is in a good position to evaluate your attributes in the above areas and your specific skill set.

A: You can make changes in your Student Center in UAConnect.

A: No, LORs and the GRE are not required if you received your BSEE from the University of Arkansas, Fayetteville.  Non-BSEE applicants are required to submit letters of recommeendation and a GRE score.

A: No. In fact, the Graduate School will not accept any transcript evaluations other than their own. Send all of the required documents, including all transcripts, to the Graduate School.

A: Applicants seeking regular admission whose native language is not English must submit minimum satisfactory scores on either the TOEFL or the IELTS. No other measures of English proficiency are accepted by the University of Arkansas for the purpose of gaining admission. For more information visit International Admissions English Proficiency Requirements.

A: If you’ve graduated from a university in the United States, or a university whose primary language is English, we can waive the TOEFL exam requirement.

A: We receive your application from the Graduate School. A complete application takes a few weeks for us to process. Delays occur when information is missing from your application. You may contact the department about your application at eleggrad@uark.edu.

A: Yes, you can defer one time, by one semester. In order to do so, you need to send an e-mail to Graduate and International Admissions and to the Electrical Engineering Department. You may defer either before or after your admission is completed.

A: The graduate committee votes on each applicant that comes through our department. Unfortunately, we have more applicants than we can accept and meeting requirements does not guarantee admission. Therefore, the graduate committee must choose which applications to accept and which to reject.

A:  There are two areas of study offered in a 100% online program.  They are Power Electronics and Control Systems.  For more information about the online M.S.E.E. program, please visit Online Master of Science in Electrical Engineering.

A:  If you do not have a B.S.E.E. the Graduate Committee will evaluate your background knowledge.  Deficiency courses are available, and they will not count toward the M.S.E.E.  You will have to submit additional documents as part of the application process, and expect it to take longer.

A:  University of Arkansas B.S.E.E. graduates are exempt from the GRE requirement.  For all others, a GRE waiver may be granted if the following three (3) criteria have been met. 

1. The student has passed an equivalent exam (like the Fundamentals of Engineering); and 
2. The student has a B.S.E.E. from an engineering program accredited by the Engineering Accreditation Commission of ABET; or already completed a graduate degree in an engineering related field; and 
3. The student has at least one year of professional working experience after completing a baccalaureate degree. 

A:  No.  An Engineering Technology degree does not meet the requirement for admission to the M.S.E.E. program.  There are important differences between an Engineering degree and an Engineering Technology degree.  The junior and senior year level courses of a Bachelor of Science in Engineering program are theory and design based, rather than application based, as found in the courses in an Engineering Technology degree.  To learn more about the difference between Engineering and Engineering Technology degrees, visit the ABET website.

A: Fill out an Application for Graduate Assistantship and upload it in your Student Center in UAConnect.

A: Teaching or research assistantships are very rare for MS students in their first semester. Once you are here it is easier to find an assistantship in the EE department or in another department on campus. EE assistantships are at the discretion of the faculty, and they always receive more requests than they have resources to grant. That being said, you may try. My advice is to go to the Research page of the Electrical Engineering website and look up your area of interest. Study the professors and their work, then chose one or two you would like to work with. Send them an e-mail to introduce yourself. Tell them why you want to work with them and what you can bring to their team. Include your resume.

A: Electronic copy is fine, and it needs to be sent to gradinfo@uark.edu.

A: Tuition and fees information is on the Treasurer's Office website. There is also a tool to estimate your tuition and fees.

A: Yes, both the Graduate School and the department conduct a New Student Orientation the week before classes begin.

A: No, the student must find his or her own advisor. To find an adviser you should begin by visiting the Research page of our website. Look at the professors who conduct research in your area of interest and the work that they do. Choose one you would like to work with and send him or her an e-mail. Introduce yourself, explain why you want to work with him, and tell him what skills you can bring to his research team.

A: M.S.E.E. students may be admitted without an advisor, but Ph.D. students must have an advisor before they may be admitted.

A: Once you have an advisor, then you should form the rest of your advisory committee. Your adviser may suggest two other members, or if you know who you want on your committee you may suggest them. Once you and your adviser have selected two other members, send them an e-mail and ask them if they will agree to serve on your advisory committee. (The committee rates your final comprehensive exam or defense.) Once you have their permission, fill out the MS or Ph.D. Committee form.

A: The department does not have set plans of courses and the student decides, with advisor and committee approval, which courses to take. Courses available for graduate credit are listed in the graduate catalog. The student completes a written schedule for study form in his/her first semester to plan the courses for the degree plan.

A: Ph.D. students cannot transfer courses. Your advisor and committee will evaluate the work you did in you Masters and decide how much of it they will count towards your Ph.D. The hours required for the Ph.D. will be reduced by that amount.

A: Candidates for the Master of Science degree who present a thesis are required to complete a minimum of 24 semester hours of graded course work and 6 semester hours of thesis. 

• Candidates for the Master of Science degree who do not present a thesis are required to complete a minimum of 30 semester hours of graded course work.
• Course work presented for the Master of Science must include a minimum of 15 semester hours at the 5000- or 6000-level. At least 15 (21 for non-thesis option) hours of the student's graduate course work must be electrical engineering courses.

A: The following is a summary of the degree requirements for the Ph.D. degree. See the Electrical Engineering section of the Graduate Catalog for a more complete description.

If the student does not have an M.S. degree, a minimum of 36 hours of course work (excluding dissertation hours) beyond the bachelor’s degree must be presented in the Ph.D. program. If the student has an M.S. degree, a minimum of 36 hours of course work (excluding thesis and dissertation hours) must be presented in the combined M.S. and Ph.D. programs.

• The course work specified above must include a minimum of 30 hours of course work at the 5000 and 6000 levels, and at least 24 of these 5000- and 6000-level hours must be in electrical engineering.
• The course work specified above must include GRSD 5003 or MEPH 5383.
• The doctoral program must include at least 72 hours of course work and thesis or dissertation hours. A maximum of six of these hours may be thesis hours. The remaining hours that are not course work must be dissertation hours. The Graduate School requires a minimum of 18 hours of dissertation for graduation.

A: If you are an International Student who is a GA, your advisor must email Dr. Pat Koski. If you are an International Student who is NOT a GA, you must contact the ISS office at 575-5003. If you are NOT an International Student, your advisor must email Dr. Pat Koski.

A: The MSEE comprehensive oral exam will follow the standardized format listed below. The entire exam will last about 45‐60 minutes. The exam consists of two parts: 

1. Student PowerPoint presentation outlining (approximately ten minutes in duration):

• Previous education: institution, major, special projects completed
• Professional work experience (company, location, job title, brief description)
• List the courses taken as part of the MSEE program including the course number, title, instructor, term and grade.
• One or two slides describing how the MSEE program and curriculum would apply to your professional work (either at present job position or how the MSEE would in the future).

2. The committee will ask several questions of the student covering the student’s coursework.

A: The department requires an electronic copy of your thesis/dissertation. If you or your major professor want a copy (or copies) of your thesis/dissertation bound, the department will send that off for binding for you. You will need to provide the printed thesis/dissertation and pay for the binding cost for those copies.

A: No, because the grade of the incomplete course will affect the final grade.

A: You need to email the Electrical Engineering department and the Graduate School to let them know. You also need to contact the Registrar's Office and defer your graduation.