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Ph.D. Program
Personalized Learning Plan (PLP)
The concept of a PLP is to tailor educational experiences to meet individual needs. Courses are selected in consultation with the student's supervisor, dissertation committee, and the Graduate Adviser to ensure adequate breadth and depth.
Students take placement tests on physiology, cell/molecular biology, probability, and computer programming (student's choice of MATLAB, Mathematica, or Labview). Placements tests are offered at the start of the fall and spring terms. Students who do not pass a given placement test are guided by the Graduate Advisor in the selection of an appropriate undergraduate course to strengthen this aspect of their training.
Credit hour requirements:
- 26 credit hours (approximately 8 technical 3-credit hour courses + 2 seminar 1-credit hour courses) of graduate coursework, of which five courses (3-credit courses, 15 credits total) MUST be as follows:
- A graduate level course in the biological or clinical sciences;
- A graduate level course in basic or applied mathematics: a course in statistics is encouraged to meet this requirement, but another mathematics topic may be approved in some circumstances;
- A graduate level course in technical area #1;
- A graduate level course in technical area #2; and
- A graduate level course in technical area #3
All eight of the technical courses must be taken for a letter grade.
Qualifying Exam
Students must pass a qualifying exam, typically at the end of their first year. This is required for students to continue in the PhD program. This exam has both written and oral components. Detailed instructions for the qualifying exam are available at the graduate office and are provided to students in advance.
Dissertation Proposal
Students who pass the qualifying exam, must also pass a dissertation proposal before they can be admitted to doctoral candidacy. Students must identify a doctoral dissertation committee of at least five faculty members in consultation with their supervisor and the graduate adviser. This proposal exam includes both a written and an oral component. The written component involves submitting an NSF or NIH style proposal (maximum 15 pages) to the students dissertation committee two weeks prior to defending it orally to the same committee. The proposal exam typically takes places by the end of the second year or beginning of the third year.
Teaching Assistant (TA) Requirements
All PhD students are expected to TA two long semesters during their tenure at UT. We recommend that students serve sometime in their first and third years, but the timing of this service will depend on the needs of the department and the advice of the student's research supervisor.
Ph.D. students, as long as they are in good standing with the program and their supervisor, are provided full financial support, either as a Graduate Research Assistant, Teaching Assistant, or through one of the many fellowships available to students.
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