Important Information

​Fee Reduction for Graduate Candidates

Continuous Enrollment Requirement

Students must maintain continuous enrollment from the time they advance to candidacy (upon successful defense of the dissertation proposal) until the defense of their dissertation. Students must register for at least three credit hours every semester, with the exception of summer semesters when the one credit dissertation course is allowed or at other times when the student has obtained permission for one credit dissertation, until their dissertation is approved. Students should also be enrolled in dissertation hours if they are receiving supervision from the dissertation chair while preparing the dissertation proposal.  Students must complete a minimum of 12 semester hours of dissertation research and writing credit.

99 Hour Rule

In accordance with Texas Education Code, Section 54.066, the university will incur a penalty once a doctoral student accumulates 100 or more doctoral semester credit hours. In response, the Texas State University System has a new tuition structure (excessive hours fee) in which a doctoral student will be charged tuition at a rate equivalent to nonresident tuition for all doctoral semester credit hours exceeding 99. Courses taken by a doctoral student at the master’s or undergraduate level will not count towards the 99 hours. If the student is admitted to a doctoral program from the bachelor’s degree, the count begins after 30 hours of graduate coursework. This tuition structure applies to Texas residents as well as out-of-state residents and international students who were eligible to be charged tuition at the resident rate as a result of scholarship and fellowship awards or employment as Graduate Assistants. Students should contact the Ph.D. program director regarding appeals.