Course Requirements for the Ph.D. Degree

Course Requirements for the Ph.D. Degree Ryan Askew
  1. General Guidelines 
    Doctoral degree candidates must comply with the Graduate School requirement that the equivalent of at least one continuous academic year of full-time graduate work (9 credits per semester) must be spent in residence at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst.

    A student must earn 15 credits in formal course work.  This requirement must be satisfied by completing the one-year PB core course curriculum (PB I and PB II) plus additional program-related elective courses such as those listed below. A grade of B- or better must be earned in the PB core courses.  In the remaining courses that a student is offering to satisfy degree requirements, a minimum standard for satisfactory work is a 3.0 grade point average.  A student who in any two semesters, consecutive or otherwise, has semester averages of below 2.8 is subject to dismissal. The typical academic load for first year PhD students in PB is:  First semester: PB I (3 credits); PB related elective course (3 credits); Research rotation (2 credits); Seminar (1 credit). Second semester: PB II (2 credits); PB related elective course (3 credits); Rotation (2 credits); Seminar (1 credit); Journal club (1 credit). 
  2. Program-related elective courses for the Plant Biology Graduate Program
    • BIOLOGY 891PB - PB I Topics in Plant Biology Research (fall)
    • BIOCHEM 694A- PB II Topics in Plant Biology Research (spring)
    • BIOCHEM 623 - Advanced General Biochemistry
    • BIOLOGY 510 - Plant Physiology
    • BIOLOGY 514 - Population Genetics
    • BIOLOGY 559 - Cellular and Molecular Biology II
    • BIOLOGY 583 - Advanced Genetics
    • BIOLOGY 621 - Topics in Plant Ecology
    • BIOLOGY 697 - Plant Cell Biology
    • MOLCLBIO 641 - Advanced Cellular Biology 2    
    • MOLCLBIO 642 - Advanced Molecular Biology
    • STOCKSCH 505 - General Plant Pathology
    • STOCKSCH 510 - Mgt & Ecology of Plant Diseases
    • STOCKSCH 523 - Plant Stress Physiology
    • STOCKSCH 525 - Mycology
    • STOCKSCH 535 - Diagnostic Plant Pathology
    • STOCKSCH 555 - Urban Plant Biology
    • STOCKSCH 575 - Environ. Soil Chemistry
    • STOCKSCH 597A - Phyto/Bioremediation
    • STOCKSCH 661 - Intermediate Biometry 
    Other courses may be substituted as PB related electives with permission of the Graduate Operations Committee (GOC).
  3. Journal clubs
    Participation in one journal club is required each semester, not including summer. The exception is the first semester of the first year.  Students may enroll in a journal club offered by another department or graduate program.  Note that some journal clubs require consent of the instructor to enroll. 
  4. Seminars
    Each semester, the Program will sponsor a seminar series.  The seminars are held on Thursdays at 4:00 PM and feature a research talk from an invited speaker. The speakers for the fall series are generally from the Plant Biology Program.  The spring series features invited speakers on current issues in Plant Biology research.  For the spring series, graduate students will have lunch with the speaker on the day of the seminar to discuss the topic.  All students are required to attend the seminars and participate in the discussion sessions and should, therefore, register for 1 credit of BIOLOGY 891B (Seminar Series).