Ph.D. Degree

While the Graduate School requires no minimum number of credits for a doctoral program, all doctoral students need to take a minimum of 18 course credits to prepare for the comprehensive exams and to achieve mastery of the subject. On average, doctoral students may take a minimum of two years of coursework to build their knowledge before taking the comprehensive exam.

Doctoral comprehensive exam include both written and oral examination. Your advisor will forward a memo to the GPD recommending members of the Examination/Advisory Committee. This committee may or may not be the same as dissertation committee. Each member of examination committee will give the student a pass/fail grade.

A minimum of 18 course credits is required before the comprehensive exam. However, your advisor and committee may recommend taking more course credits, based on your research project.

• Required courses Global challenges in Agriculture and the Environment (STOCKSCH 650) (3 credits). While biometry is not a required course, it is strongly recommended that Ph.D. candidates take at least one biometry/statistic course such as Public Health 640 or Statistics 501 or other similar course.
• The remainder 15 course credits should be graduate-level courses (500-800 level) in major field defined as Plant & Soil Science and Environmental Science, determined primarily by advisor and thesis committee.
• No Pass/Fail grading in major field is allowed.
• Dissertation is 10 - 18 credits.
• See the list of available graduate-level courses in the appendix.
• Up to 6 credits with ≥ B grade and advisor’s approval can be transferred from other universities.