How many credit hours are needed for a bhachelor, master, or PhD?

Question

I would like to know how many hours I have to take to get any of these degrees in engineering in a year basically in a semester?

Answer 1

You need somewhere around 120 hours to get a BS.

An Master's degree usually takes one or two years -- depending on the degree. That would be another 30-45 semester hours.

A PhD doesn't work that way. You usually take about two or three years of classes. At the end of your second year you usually take a two day written Preliminary exam. Somewhere near the end of your third year you take an oral exam. Then you write and defend a dissertation. In the sciences a PhD usually takes four or five years. In the liberal arts, it usually takex six to eight years (partly because there aren't enough jobs for them when they get out).

Answer 2

Typically you can find this sort of infomation on the website at the schools. For example, you can go to a program in engineering and check Purdue's site and find out that what they list credit wise will differ greatly from another school such as Rose Hulman or MIT.

It's not quite clear to me what you mean at the end. Are you trying to plan a course of study per credit hour for each semester to attempt to get through the course work as fast as possible? If that's the case then you'd want to take the maximum number of credit hours possible, but be forewarned, you will have little or no free time for work, pleasure, or anything beyond classes and studying. I do know that some students like to balance the schedule to allow for some free time. It's really up to you, though. If you feel that you want to get through the degree process fast, then I'd recommend taking 15 hours, which is not too many and you will not be going crazy as you will have free time, and then utilizing the summer sessions, which are shorter and faster sessions (as you will meet every day of the week for 8 weeks for a few hours each day).

I am going to include a few links for you to peruse:

The Ohio State University
http://www.mse.eng.ohio-state.edu/grad/enrolled_students/degree_reqs/bs_ms_guidelines.html

University of Massachusetts Lowell
http://www.uml.edu/catalog/undergraduate/colleges/engineering/plastics_engineering/five_year.htm

RHIT
http://www.rose-hulman.edu/phoe/department.htm

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I hope these help you out. Good luck.