To get a PhD in petroleum engineering, you need to successfully complete several steps in a specific order, most of them related to your education. Find a college or university that offers a bachelor's degree in petroleum engineering or chemical engineering, apply to it, and complete the bachelor's degree program with excellent grades. An internship with a energy production company or a firm that handles some aspect of petroleum engineering, manufacturing, or extraction may also be required. Take the Graduate Record Exam (GRE), and then apply for either a program that confers a master's or a PhD in petroleum engineering. If you choose a program that offers a master's degree only, you will then have to apply to a separate PhD program.
The first step toward a PhD in petroleum engineering is to find a college or university that offers a bachelor's degree in a related field of engineering or in the petroleum field itself. The selection of the institution is extremely important to your chances of eventually being accepted into a PhD program in petroleum engineering as such programs are highly selective and only accept a small percentage of applicants who apply. Look for an institution with at least modest rates of matriculation to post-graduate institutions, but be realistic given your own academic record. Apply for the schools that you have the best chance of getting admitted to.
Once you are accepted into a bachelor's degree program, put all of your effort into passing your lower division and upper division courses with the highest grades possible. Universities that offer a PhD in petroleum engineering receive numerous applications from prospective candidates. The higher your grades, the more likely your application is to stand out. Your lower division coursework is important to your overall grade point average, but it is vitally important to strive for high grades in all of your upper division courses that deal with your major in chemical or petroleum engineering.
While you complete your bachelor's degree program, you may want to apply for an internship with an energy companies. The internship will likely take place during the summer or winter break in between academic terms, and you will usually only qualify for the internship after you have completed a specific number of engineering courses. This means that internship is likely to take place during the final year of your bachelor's degree program.
When you have completed the bachelor's degree program, you will most likely have to take the GRE general subject exam in order to qualify for the graduate schools that you apply to. Once you complete the GRE, you can either apply directly to a PhD in petroleum engineering program or you can apply to a master's in engineering program first. Applying for a master's degree prior to the PhD may be advantageous if you need to make your academic transcripts more competitive for a PhD program.
