Admission Requirements
Upon acceptance to the program, students will be notified of any curricular pre-requisites that must be completed as perceived by their advisor/committee. Extra programmatic requirements (physics, organic chemistry and calculus) will be determined by the student’s major professor. All basic requirements must be remedied by the end of the student’s first year.
Graduate School Requirements
There are a number of general Graduate School regulations and requirement for the Master’s Degree that are described on the Graduate School website. The student’s program is governed by the rules in the Graduate School’s Academic Policies & Procedures issued the year in which the student enrolled in the graduate program.
Research Requirement
The Master’s degree is a RESEARCH degree. The most important requirement is that a student must make an original, publishable contribution to their field of study. M.S. students are encouraged, but not required, to have submitted or published one primary or coauthored manuscript in a peer-revived journal before graduation.
Annual Progress Reports
Students must file a signed Annual Progress Report by June 1st every year of their tenure in the Biological Sciences Graduate Program. The student, major professor and all members of the M.S. Advisory Committee are all required to sign the Report, and all have the opportunity to make comments on the Report. Students must file these yearly Reports with the Biological Sciences Graduate Program Director.
Students who do not file a completed Annual Progress Report in any year are not making satisfactory progress and will become ineligible for departmental aid and University-wide financial aid (RAs, PAs, TAs, Fellowships) and risk dismissal from the Biological Sciences Graduate Program.