Students entering the Ph.D. program immediately after a Bachelor’s degree are required to take a
minimum of 72 hours of graduate-level course work (may be more depending on individual
degree plans), while students entering the Ph.D. program after the Master’s Degree are required
to take a minimum of 42 additional hours (may be more depending on individual degree plans).

The Ph.D. degree requires the entire Foundation Core (5 hours), 12 credit hours from at least 3 of
the core groups, 7 organized elective courses [incoming w/o Master’s] or 4 organized elective
courses [students w/ previous Master’s in related field, such as biology, chemistry, or
environmental science], as well as 12 hours of dissertation research. Organized electives do not
include special problems credit hours or research credit hours, and may be selected from the core
groups as electives or from non-core options as agreed upon by the student's advising committee.

  • The degree plan should be completed by the end of the student's second semester.
  • Core requirements should be completed by the end of the 2nd year (doesn't mean it can't extend
    beyond, but student's eligibility for TA etc., may become jeopardized).
  • Comprehensive Exam and Proposal should be completed no later than 3.5 year upon entry (i.e.,
    you have 18 mos. post completion of coursework to complete both qualifiers and proposal).
  • In total, a student should complete all coursework, qualifiers and proposal within 3.5 y of entry
    into the program.
  • The Comprehensive Exam and Proposal represent separate entities. The oral exam can include the
    student's proposed research but is not contingent on him/her having completed the proposal. In
    other words, the oral is open-ended - depending on performance of written exams, general
    questions or research-related questions.
  • Comprehensive exams include both a written section and a separate oral component. Both should
    be completed within a defined ~2 week period, with the student deciding how he/she wishes to
    space the 2 exams out over the defined period.
  • The proposal may be drafted any time but formal submission cannot be completed (i.e., signed off
    on by all committee members) until a student has completed the Comprehensive Exam. The
    proposal shall consist of a written document and whether it is to include a presentation by the
    student (for his/her committee or the academic public) shall be left to the discretion of the
    student's adviser and committee
  • Failure to meet these requirements may result probation and/or expulsion from the ES program by
    the EC.

Annual Review
At the end of each Spring Semester the ES graduate review committee will meet with students to
assess their progress through the program. Review information will be used to guide progress
and to make recommendations regarding teaching assistant funding (which is ultimately
determined through the Department of Biological Science).