The Industrial and Systems Engineering department offers three graduate degrees - the MISE, the MS and the PhD.  There is also a dual degree MISE/MBA program.  The MISE is a 30 credit non thesis program whereas the MS requires a 6 hour thesis.  All graduate degrees require a set of five core courses.  University requirements for graduate degrees can be found in the Bulletin.

The MS degree requires 30 credit hours (up to 6 of which can be thesis research (INSY 7990)) plus at least one hour of Seminar (INSY 79507956).  The graduate core  contributes 15 of these hours.  The thesis is supervised by an advisor and committee (total of at least three faculty members) and the final thesis defense and examination is administered by this committee.  Students are responsible for selecting an advisor and, together with the advisor, developing the thesis idea and plan.  Students typically select an advisor after the first or second semester of coursework and the student and advisor together select the additional committee members.

The MISE degree requires 30 credit hours plus one hour of Seminar (INSY 7950/7956).  The graduate core  contributes 15 of these hours.  The MISE degree has a project option and an exam option. 

Project Option -  An MISE student may elect to include 3-credit hours of project (INSY 7980/7986) supervised by an advisor and committee (total of at least three faculty members) and the final examination associated with this project and the rest of the student's academic MISE program is administered by this committee.  The student may pass or fail this examination.  If the student fails, with the committee's permission, the student may retake the examination one further time.  Students are responsible for selecting an advisor and, together with the advisor, developing the project plan.  Students typically select an advisor after the first or second semester of coursework and the student and advisor together select the additional committee members.

Exam Option - An MISE student may elect to omit the project and take a proctored written examination of approximately 1/2 day duration which covers the core ISE MISE course work.  In this case, the student will include an additional 3 credit hour elective in his/her program instead of the 3 credit hour project.  The examination will be administered (questions set and graded) by three or more ISE faculty members, who determine the outcome (pass/fail).  If a student fails the examination, he/she may retake the examination one further time at the next time it is offered.  Outreach students can take their final examination on campus or at their location under the supervision of a proctor.  The MISE examinations for the non project option will be held at least twice a calendar year - once during the Fall semester and once during the Spring semester.  Additional details and schedule for the exam option are available here.

The PhD degree requires a minimum of 60 credit hours plus at least one hour of Seminar (INSY 7950/7956).  The graduate core  contributes 15 of these hours.  PhD students complete a research-based dissertation supervised by an advisor and committee (total of at least three faculty members plus an outside reader) and the proposal and final defense of this dissertation are administered by this committee.  

INSY Graduate Core  

MISE Exam Details

Auburn University Bulletin