Department of Microbiology
Qualifying Exam Guidelines
- In the first few weeks of September of their second year, Microbiology
graduate students will pick a topic for their qualifying exam proposition. Students should choose their own
topic by consulting with faculty, research mentors, or senior students. Examples of previous proposals can be viewed by contacting Debbie Sirles. The topics may not include
those currently pursued in your lab or proposed in your mentor's grants. However, they may
be related to ongoing studies and in particular may be in an area that
mentors feel will be valuable to their student's actual dissertation
research.
- Students will submit a one page abstract (1 inch margins, 12 pt.
Arial or Helvetica) to Debbie Sirles (BBRB 258) by the date specified on the exam timetable. The hypothesis and specific aims should be clearly
stated in the abstract. Mentors are not allowed to help their students
in the exam process, but students may discuss their topic with other
students, postdocs and faculty, as they develop their hypothesis.
The abstract must be certified by the mentor and approved by three
faculty members prior to submission. At least
one of the faculty members must be in the Microbiology Department and the others
should be in the Joint Health Sciences departments unless otherwise approved
by the proposition coordinator. Abstract approval forms can be downloaded
here.
- The faculty members who have signed the abstract will be among the pool of faculty
from which the proposition coordinator will choose the student's proposition
committee. The proposition coordinator may recruit other faculty as needed to serve on the proposition
committee.
- Within one week of submission of the signed abstract, the proposition
coordinator will inform the students as to whether their abstracts have been
approved. In the case of a disapproved abstract, the student will have one
week to submit a revised version using guidance from the proposition
committee and other faculty.
- Once the abstract is approved, the students will have three weeks to
write a NRSA-style application to fully develop their proposal. Students
should follow the
NRSA guidelines with respect to format and style. (Also see the NIH RO1 sample proposal.) An electronic copy of the completed proposal
is then submitted to Debbie Sirles. Faculty reviewers will
have one to two weeks to assess the proposals and provide a brief
critique that identifies only "fatal flaws" and any major deficiencies. If the proposal has been deemed acceptable, the students will then schedule their oral defense. Students will receive a copy of their critique one week before their oral defense. Students will be expected to address these criticisms in the oral exam - no
revisions of the written proposal before the oral exam will be required.
- For their oral defense,
students will give a 30 minute presentation highlighting the salient points
of their proposal. If significant flaws were identified in the student's
proposition, these must be addressed during this presentation. A question
and answer period covering technical and conceptual aspects of the proposal
as well as related and general basic science topics will follow.
- The exam committee will determine pass, conditional pass or fail based
on the written proposition and the student's performance in the oral exam.
A conditional pass may be rectified in a number of ways, including
re-writing all or part of the proposal, re-defending the oral exam or taking
additional coursework. The requirement to clear a conditional pass of the
exam is at the discretion of the examining committee.
- Students who fail the exam or do not satisfactorily meet the
requirements for a conditional pass will be given one more opportunity in
the spring to repeat the process. The same topic or a new topic will be
chosen, based on the advice of the proposition coordinator and committee.
At least one new faculty member will be added to the proposition committee
for a student who is repeating the qualifying exam to aid in a fair
evaluation of the exam. A second failure means expulsion from the
Microbiology graduate program.
- Students who do not participate in the qualifying exam in the fall cycle
will do so in the spring of the second year. The only students exempt from
the fall cycle will be those retaking CMB courses during the fall semester.
Revised August 2007
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