Biology, Ph.D.
Requirements
All admitted students must be approved by the Committee on Graduate Studies for Biology and the College of Science & Engineering. At minimum, all admitted students are expected to have graduated with a bachelor's degree in biology or related field, maintained overall and science GPAs of at least 3.0, provided three academic letters of reference, identified a Biology Graduate Faculty member to serve as the major advisor, and submitted a statement of purpose that outlines their motivations for seeking a Biology PhD from TCU and research interests.
The requirements for obtaining a PhD in Biology are:
1. Form a committee of at least five academic advisors, including at least one member external to TCU.
2. Pass all qualifying requirements (detailed below) to advance to candidacy.
3. Complete a minimum of 54 hours of coursework at the 50000 level or higher, including:
Biostatistics | ||
Current Research in Biology Seminar
| ||
Graduate Teaching in Biology | ||
Professional Development in Biology | ||
Introduction to Scientific Communications | ||
Skills and Techniques in Biology | ||
Advanced Teaching in Biology | ||
Thesis | 3 | |
Thesis | 3 | |
Teaching Practicum in Biology | ||
Dissertation | 6 | |
Dissertation | 6 | |
Electives | 50000+ level to reach 54 hours minimum |
4. Write and successfully defend, to their committee, a dissertation based upon research conducted under the supervision of the student’s major advisor.
5. Present a Departmental seminar on their dissertation research.
6. Write and submit at least one research article, based on the PhD dissertation research, for publication in a peer-reviewed journal.
Advancing to candidacy
A student’s first attempt to complete each of the activities associated with candidacy must take place in the semesters noted below. Students who have not completed all required activities by the end of their sixth regular semester will be excused from the program. Note, that the temporal requirements below are based on semesters, rather than month, due to differences in the time at which students matriculate into the program. For example, the “end of the 2nd regular semester” will be May for fall starts and December for spring starts. When specific months are mentioned below, the first month is for fall starts and the second for spring starts. For example, “before Oct/Mar 15th” would be October 15th for Fall starts and March 15th for Spring starts. Students who start in the summer are on the same track as students who start in the fall.
1. In the first spring semester, the student writes a proposal on the research they plan to complete for their PhD. The guidelines for the proposal will be supplied as part of the Communication in the Biological Sciences course (BIOL 60133). The student will need to defend the proposal to their PhD committees before October 15th of the following fall. If the student fails to meet committee expectations, they have until the end of the fall to reattempt the proposal and/or defense.
2. All students are expected to have completed the following courses at TCU by the end of their 4th regular semester:
Biostatics | ||
Current Research in Biology Seminar | ||
Graduate Teaching in Biology | ||
Professional Development | ||
Introduction to Scientific Communications | ||
Skills and Techniques in Biology Seminar | ||
Thesis | 3 | |
Thesis | 3 |
3. All students will demonstrate effective teaching by the end of the their 4th regular semester.
4. Students must either: a) complete their MS at TCU or b) write, publicly present, and successfully defend the equivalent of an MS thesis or research publication based on research conducted after matriculation to the biology graduate program at TCU. The latter option must be approved by the student’s committee after the proposal defense (see item one above). The public presentation will be 40-45 minutes in length and must include a discussion of the proposed PhD research. This must be completed by the end of the 4th regular semester.
5. The written final qualifying exam will occur during the student’s 5th regular semester. The nature of the exam, regarding content and mechanism of assessment, will be decided by the dissertation committee and must be approved by the major advisor and COGS before being administered. It will be up to the student to confirm with their major advisor that the committee has compiled the exam and sent it to COGS for approval before scheduling any portion of the exam. The exam is to be completed independently by the student. The exam may be either A) a written proposal centered on a topic slightly removed from the student’s proposed dissertation or B) a written examination consisting of questions submitted by the student’s dissertation committee. The student will receive examination topics in advance. For either option, the student will have no more than five eight-hour days to write the exam. These days could be consecutive or scheduled throughout the semester as the committee and student’s schedules allow. Together, the dissertation committee will decide if the student needs to repeat all or a portion of the qualifying exam and report their scores and conclusions to the student and COGS. Students who fail their qualifying exam are permitted to repeat the exam (or the failed portion of the exam) by the end of March/October in their sixth regular semester. If they do not pass upon their second attempt, they will not proceed in the program.