In addition to meeting the requirements of the university and of the College of Agriculture and Natural Resources, students must meet the requirements specified below.
Admission
To be considered for admission students must:
- have completed a Bachelor of Arts or Bachelor of Science degree in agriculture or biological sciences. Applicants not trained in these fields will be considered provided they have a robust academic and/or experiential background. Previous courses in college-level physics, chemistry, mathematics, statistics, and plant science are strongly recommended.
- have maintained a minimum grade-point average of 3.0 on a 4.0 scale during their last two academic years.
- submit scores if they are not native English speakers, for the Test Of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL) or International English Language Testing System (IELTS). For TOEFL, a minimum average score of 80 is required, with minimal subscore of 19 for reading, listening, and speaking, and 22 for writing. For IELTS, a score of 6.5 or higher is required. There is a process for waiving the requirement of test scores for applicants whose first language is not English but meet specific criteria regarding English literacy. Please see The Graduate School guidelines to request a waiver for English language competency.
The willingness of a specific faculty member to serve as Faculty Advisor is not required for application but is required at the time of admission. Provisional admission may be made for language deficiency only.
Requirements for the Doctor of Philosophy Degree in Horticulture
The Doctor of Philosophy degree in Horticulture requires at least 30 credit hours in courses not taken to earn a master’s degree at MSU. At least 16 of these credits must be in courses at the 800 or 900 level, including research (HRT 999). Courses should include at least 3 credit hours of Horticulture Seminar (HRT 894) or another seminar course approved by the student's advisory committee, as well as at least 3 credit hours of 800-level courses in Horticulture with a total of 9 credit hours of 800-level courses in Horticulture recommended, not including HRT 894.
- A minimum of 24 and a maximum of 36 credits hours in Doctoral Dissertation Research (Horticulture 999) is required. All students using University services must be registered each semester for a minimum of 1 credit hour of HRT 999.
- One year of attendance on campus after the first enrollment for doctoral degree credit is required. A year of residence/attendance consists of two semesters, involving completion of at least 3 credits of graduate work each term.
- Graduate students in the Ph.D. program must complete prescribed courses and conduct original research, under the supervision of the Faculty Advisor and the Advisory Committee, on a selected problem related to Horticulture. A review of the literature in the selected area of study and written research proposal should precede the experimental work. The data collected must be analyzed, interpreted, presented, submitted to, and accepted by The Graduate School according to their recommendations/format.
The Department recommends that, at minimum, all Horticulture master's and doctoral students undertake graduate academic course work or equivalent experiential learning related to (1) Production, storage and/or marketing of horticultural crops and (2) Plant growth, development and physiology. In addition, it is recommended that students are trained in approaches and methods in computational/quantitative biology, statistics, scientific communication, and research/analytical techniques. This training can take place while in the Program or from previous education. Other courses relevant to the student's research interests may be chosen in consultation with the guidance committee. An oral qualifying examination may be conducted by the guidance committee shortly after the student begins advanced graduate study to determine his or her qualifications and to provide a basis for developing the program of study. A final oral and/or written examination on courses, research and/or independent work pursued during the program will be conducted at the end of the student's final semester of enrollment.