Residency. You must be on-campus and enrolled in nine credits for two consecutive semesters (not counting summers).
Credits.You must take a total of 36 credits. The following complex list of restrictions and limits on which courses you can take.
18 of those credits must be Dissertation Credits (899), usually taken in the two semesters of residency.
18 of the credits must be at the 600-800 level (excluding 899). Credit for graduate courses from other departments must be approved by the GPD. Classes taken to satisfy the core requirements count toward these 18 credits.
Independent studies and courses taken pass/fail may together account for no more than 6 of these credits.
Classes with a grade below a C may not be counted toward the PhD degree.
It is not possible to transfer course credits from outside UMass Amherst to satisfy those requirements.
GPA. Your overall grade point average for those 36 credits must be 3.0 or higher.