Student Handbook

A-exam

To qualify as a Ph.D. candidate, each graduate student must pass an “Admission to Candidacy” exam (or A-exam), by the end of the fifth semester. The examiners are the members of the student’s Special Committee and one other faculty member (to be chosen jointly by the student and thesis advisor). The purpose of the exam is to test the student’s level of knowledge and ability to design research strategies.

The examination consists of a written proposal for a research project on a student’s thesis project or on an unrelated project, and the student’s oral defense of the proposal (the actual A-exam). The format of the proposal should be either that of an NSF or an NIH grant request (15 double-spaced pages of text, 12-point type or larger-see below for details). It should explain how the research will answer some important scientific question, or (at least) how the research will rule out some possible answers to an important question. Individual members of the Committee may add special requirements to be included in the proposal; for example, a detailed protocol for mapping a gene involved in the proposal, etc. The major professor is permitted one reading of the proposal prior to submission to the exam Committee. The student must deliver a copy of the completed proposal to each exam Committee member no later than one week before the A-exam. At the A-exam, the Committee will question the student about various aspects of the proposal; but their questions need not be limited to the proposal and should assess the student’s ability to analyze and plan experiments in genetics or development, and their knowledge of genetics or development.

Satisfactory defense of the proposal and related questions at the A-exam leads to admission of the student to candidacy for the Ph.D. Failure of the exam leads to one of the following: A one-time rescheduling of the exam; a decision to terminate the student at the Master’s degree level upon completion of a Master’s thesis; or dismissal from the program (at the discretion of the student’s committee).

As stated above, the A-exam must be taken by the end of a student’s fifth semester in graduate school. To ensure that the exam will be completed within this time frame, students will be asked to set an exam date by the beginning of their fifth semester (September 1). Students who have not set a date by this time will have one set by the Director of Graduate Studies.

Genetics and Development graduate students have the option in their second year to take BioBM838, Methods and Logic II (or SOS, Skills of a Scientist), taught by David Shalloway. This course provides a good preparation for the A-exam because assignments are given in which students write and critique grant proposals relevant to their thesis work. In addition, students are taught analytical and statistical skills and are introduced to career paths that are pursued by many of our graduates.