Degree Requirements

Requirements Biological Sciences Ph.D. Summary 

• Coursework Requirements: because the breadth of interests within the Program in Biological Sciences is diverse, our program is highly flexible. Students must complete 24 credits of didactic courses, with the specific courses taken determined by the student in consultation with their advisor and the Director of Graduate Studies.
• Professional Development: students participate in a series of professional development activities, including the yearly construction and discussion of an individual development plan.
• Qualifying Examination: the qualifying exam is taken in the third year of graduate training after the completion of didactic courses. The qualifying exam is comprised of written and oral components and is designed to assess the student’s knowledge as well as evaluate the student’s ability to formulate hypotheses and design experiments to test those hypotheses. The qualifying exam also provides constructive feedback on the student’s thesis project. Under extenuating circumstances, the DGS may approve delaying the qualifying exam until the fourth year of graduate training.
• Annual Committee Meetings: following successful passage of the qualifying exam, students participate in annual or biannual meetings with their Ph.D. committee. These meetings are designed to enhance each student’s growth in research and the profession.
• Dissertation: a Ph.D. in Biological Sciences is completed after the successful written and oral defense of a thesis that details the student’s research accomplishments and how these novel findings advance their field of research.
• Timeline: the Ph.D. in Biological Sciences is designed to be completed within five to six years, but actual completion time varies.

Requirements for the Ph.D. in Biological Sciences 

• General course requirement: The Ph.D. degree requires 72 hours of credit for graduation, including at least 24 credit hours of formal, didactic coursework, with the remainder earned through dissertation research.
• Incoming IGP and QCB: Credit hours earned in the first-year IGP or QCB programs are counted toward the required 24 hours of formal, didactic coursework. Because of our thematic diversity, the coursework requirements are highly flexible, which allows students and their faculty mentors to design paths that maximize the growth of each student. 
• Required Courses: Therefore, only BSCI 6320 (Graduate Seminar in Biological Sciences) and BSCI 7390 (Special Topics and Advanced Techniques in Biological Sciences) are required of every student
  • BSCI 6320 (Graduate Seminar in Biological Sciences) must be taken Fall and Spring semesters of the second year, and direct entry students also enroll in this course during Fall and Spring semesters of the first year. BSCI 6320 may be taken for credit a maximum of 4 times, with all 4 credits counting toward the 25 didactic credit graduation requirement.
  • BSCI 7390 (Special Topics and Advanced Techniques in Biological Sciences) must be taken in the summer semester of the first year, for 2 credits. With written approval from the DGS, this course may instead be taken in the fall semester of the second year, for 2 credits. BSCI 7390 may also be taken in the fall and/or spring semester of the first year, for 1 credit each time. A maximum of 4 credits of BSCI 7390 may be used to satisfy the 24 didactic credit requirement.
  • BSCI 8999 (Non-candidate Research) and BSCI 9999 (Ph.D. Dissertation Research) are taken in conjunction with the research being conducted in the research laboratory. These courses are graded using a Satisfactory, Low Pass, and Unsatisfactory scale. If a student receives three Unsatisfactory grades, then that student is terminated from the Biological Sciences Ph.D. program.
• Additional Courses: the remaining courses are selected after consultation between the student, the Director of Graduate Studies, and the faculty mentor.
  • Eligible courses are those with a course number of 5000 or above, but they must be either  courses sponsored by the Department of Biological Sciences
  • Courses sponsored by other departments that cover topics relevant to the projected dissertation research.
• Teaching Assistant (TA) Requirement: The Biological Sciences Graduate Program also values teaching, and for that reason, all students are required to serve as a teaching assistant for one semester (usually in year one or year two).
• Additional Requirements: Candidates for the Ph.D. must demonstrate critical thinking, research skills, and proficiency in their discipline.
  • RCR Training: To earn a Ph.D., students must have completed training in Responsible Conduct of Research
  • IDP: Student must have finalized an Individual Development Plan
  • Publication Requirement: Student must have at least one 1st author manuscript accepted for publication in a peer-reviewed scientific journal that results from dissertation research.
  • Committee Meetings: The Ph.D. committee must consist of five Graduate Faculty, three from within the program and at least one from outside the program, and one from a topic outside of the specific discipline. Committees are expected to meet at least once a year after entering Ph.D. candidacy.
•  Transfer Credits: The Biological Sciences program will accept up to six credit hours in non-Vanderbilt graduate courses with a B or better as transfer credits, with approval from the program’s Director of Graduate Studies and the Graduate School. These transfer credits count toward the 24 hours of formal, didactic coursework.

 Research Expectations

The focus and topic for Ph.D. dissertation should be chosen by the student with guidance from their thesis advisor. Students are expected to conduct full-time research under the mentorship of the thesis advisor, with oversight from the PhD committee.

Doctoral candidates are required to have at least one first author manuscript accepted for publication that is derived from original research performed in the Biological Sciences Graduate Program as a prerequisite for defending the dissertation and completing the degree. Note that this is a minimal requirement and that additional evidence of successful completion of the Ph.D. may be required by the respective Ph.D. committees, where such requirements are subject to a majority vote.

Progress Towards Degree

Selecting the Thesis Advisor

Incoming students will conduct laboratory rotations under the mentorship of Biological Sciences faculty, with each rotation lasting between 4 and 10 weeks, using a uniform schedule with two rotations in the fall semester and two in the spring semester. After the second rotation, the student can either select a thesis advisor or continue to rotate.

First-year graduate students are expected to select a thesis advisor by June 1, but no later than August 15 of the year following matriculation. First year graduate students who enter the Biological Sciences graduate program in the spring semester must select a thesis advisor by January 15 of the following year. The selection must be by mutual agreement of the student and the faculty mentor and must be approved in writing by the DGS. Students who fail to meet this requirement will, barring extenuating circumstances and written approval from the DGS, be terminated from the Biological Sciences Graduate Program. Formalizing the thesis advisor is done using the Graduate School’s “Request to appoint or change adviser” form.

Students that have selected and formalized an advisor but wish to switch to a different advisor should contact the DGS in writing to detail these wishes and formulate a plan.

Qualifying Exam – Timeline, Goals and Overview

The qualifying exam is taken after a student fulfills the departmental course requirements and reaches a minimum of 24 didactic credits in good standing (cumulative GPA of 3.0 or above). All requirements must be completed before October 15 of the third year unless a delay has been granted by written approval from the DGS. The overall goals of the qualifying exam are to:

• Assess the student’s ability to formulate hypotheses and design specific aims to test these hypotheses
• Test the student’s knowledge in scientific literature relevant to the Ph.D. dissertation
• Assess the student’s general knowledge
• Provide training and feedback in the grant writing process
• Form a thesis committee to foster and monitor the student’s continued development

The Ph.D. Committee

The Ph.D. Committee will consist of five members of the university graduate faculty. A minimum of three members of the committee must be faculty in the Department of Biological Sciences, and at least one member must be from outside the department. Additionally, one member must represent a field of research outside of the focus of the proposal. The chair of the examining committee must be a tenured faculty of the Department of Biological Sciences. The student’s advisor serves in the Ph.D. committee but does not actively serve on the examining committee. Nevertheless, the student’s advisor must attend both the pre-examination meeting and the qualifying exam (see below). The committee members, including the advisor, vote for a pass/fail on the qualifying exam. The examining committee should be appointed as early as possible in the second year but no later than the end of the spring semester of the second year. The student and mentor will submit a list of potential committee members to the DGS and indicate a potential chair for the committee. Students should consult with potential members prior to submitting their names. Formalizing the thesis committee is done using the Graduate School’s Kuali Workflow online platform.

Preparation of the Qualifying Examination Specific Aims Page

The student will write the specific aims page of their qualifying exam research proposal at no more than one page. This document should describe the hypotheses to be tested and list the specific aims constructed to test these hypotheses. The general experimental approaches and methodologies to be utilized should be briefly described. The student should discuss the research topic and experimental details with the mentor prior to writing this aims page. The mentor (or other scientists) should read and critique the specific aims page prior to it being distributed to the Ph.D. committee. However, the final product must be written by, and represent the intellectual input of, the student. The specific aims page must be submitted to each member of the examination committee by email at least one week prior to the scheduled pre-examination meeting. Failure to meet this deadline will require rescheduling of the meeting.

The Pre-Examination Meeting

A pre-examination meeting will be held not later than September 1 of the third year unless a delay has been granted by written approval from the DGS. Students will inform the Graduate Program Administrator of the time and place of the meeting at least two weeks prior to the meeting.

The goal of this meeting is to confirm that the student has met the academic requirements for taking the qualifying exam and to determine whether the student’s anticipated research proposal (based on the specifics aims page; see above) will be “defendable” in a qualifying exam. This meeting is not an exam. The meeting will last no more than one hour and will consist of the following sections:

• In the student’s absence, the committee will review the student’s academic progress. The committee chair will obtain the student’s file and transcript from the Graduate Program Administrator prior to the meeting. The mentor will be invited to comment on the student’s progress, including specific strengths and weaknesses.
• The student will give a ten-minute chalk talk (no pre-prepared visuals) that includes a summary of the background and an outline of the proposed thesis work. Questions and discussion from the committee will focus on the proposed aims of the project, including feasibility and scope.
• At the end of the presentation/discussion, the student will be asked to leave the room and the committee chair will poll each committee member as to the suitability of the proposed research plan. Possible outcomes are as follows: approval, approval with revisions, or significant revision of the specific aims page necessitating a second pre-examination meeting. A timeline for completion of any requirements will be established. A brief description of the outcome of the meeting and any suggestions for changes to the specific aims page will be written by the committee chair and distributed by email to the student, the committee, and the Graduate Program Administrator within one week of the pre-examination meeting.