Steps to Completion of a Graduate Program
in the School of Biology

Deadline for completion

Activity required

2 semesters

Select a faculty advisor from among the faculty of the School of Biology.

Choose a committee with at least 3 Biology faculty.

3 semesters

Fill out a Program of Study form in consultation with your committee and submit to the Chair of the School of Biology.

4 semesters

For the Ph.D. degree, take the written part of the Comprehensive Exam, normally offered at the end of the Spring semester.

6 semesters

For the Ph.D. degree, after you have passed the written part, arrange to take the oral part of the Comprehensive Exam with your committee. This must be done within 7 months of passing the written part.

Fill out and submit the Request for Approval of Master’s Thesis Topic or Request for Admission to Ph.D. Candidacy form. For the Ph.D., this should be done at the oral exam. For the M.S. it should be done midway through the thesis research.

For the Ph.D. degree, write up some part of your research as a scientific paper and submit it to a refereed journal.

Register for BIOL 8001 and present a departmental seminar about your research about one year prior to graduation.

Obtain an equivalent of least 2 credit hours of laboratory teaching experience as a graduate teaching assistant within your first four years.

Write the thesis. Get a copy of the “Manual For Graduate Theses” from the Office of Graduate Studies.

Determine final committee membership for the thesis defense. The committee must include a professional scientist from outside the School of Biology and must total 5 for Ph.D. For the M.S. only 3 committee members are required. Obtain approval for final committee membership from the Chair of the School of Biology.

Submit a Petition for Degree form to the Registrar by the semester preceding graduation.

The thesis advisor of PhD candidates should notify the Office of Graduate Studies and Research of scheduled thesis defense, including date, time, location, title of thesis, and members of the committee. This should be done “at least 15 working days” before the scheduled defense.

Make the thesis available to committee members and all faculty of the School of Biology at least 7 days prior to the scheduled defense.

Defend the thesis.

7 years after passing comps

Submit required forms 2 weeks prior to commencement. See the Manual For Graduate Theses for a list of forms.