The successful completion of the Doctor of Philosophy degree requires the development in the student of scholarly ability of a very high order. This degree emphasizes research in the various disciplines represented in the College of Human Medicine. The departments of the college which offer programs leading to this degree are Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Microbiology and Molecular Genetics, Pharmacology and Toxicology, and Physiology.
In addition to meeting the requirements of the University as described in the Graduate Education section of this catalog, students must meet the requirements specified below.
Admission
Admission may be granted to a student who has a record acceptable to the department and to the college. A master's degree in an appropriate subject–matter field may be required, but the completion of a master's degree is not a guarantee of admission. Some of the departments require applicants to submit Graduate Record Examination scores. Normally, an average of 3.00 in all previous academic work is required for admission to regular status. Admission to provisional status may be used to indicate incomplete records, incomplete interpretation of available records, grade point average below 3.00 but with additional evidence of good capacity, or minor deficiencies in subject–matter training. Those units of the college which offer Doctor of Philosophy degree programs are shared departments responsible to the College of Human Medicine and to other colleges such as Natural Science and Veterinary Medicine. Whether a student's program is administratively associated with the College of Human Medicine depends on the character of the proposed program, the nature of the student's career aspirations and the college of the student's mentor. A student accepted by a given department for admission to the graduate program may be identified with the College of Human Medicine upon recommendation of the chairperson of that department and the concurrence of the appropriate deans. This recommendation is contingent on the relevance of the student's program and/or career aspirations to the field of human medicine.
Academic Standards
In the College of Human Medicine the minimum standards of academic performance for a doctoral candidate are:
- A 3.00 average in all academic work is required for graduation.
- Grades of 2.0 or lower in no more than three courses required for graduation.