Catalog Navigator : Doctoral Program Degree Requirements

Doctoral Program in Computational and Integrative Biology (CIB)

Entrance Assessment
Prospective students will be assessed according to their undergraduate record as well as their scores on the Graduate Record Exams (GREs). Admission assessment may also include an interview with the Admission Committee, formed by the program director and key faculty members. The Admission Committee will determine the student's baseline competency for the program, and will assign courses to be followed in the first year of the program. The Admission Committee will also assign to each student an adviser, who has to be confirmed or changed by end of first semester. It is anticipated that students will enter the program from a variety of backgrounds with bachelor's or master's degrees in biology, chemistry, computer science, engineering, mathematics, or physics.

Degree Requirements
Students accepted into the program must fulfill the requirements of the CIB program as well as the requirements of the Graduate School-Camden. The CIB doctoral program requirements are as follows:

Completion of a minimum of 30 graduate-level course credits and 40 research credits
Completion of the Ph.D. qualifying exam
Completion and oral defense of a thesis dissertation on original research

More information regarding the Graduate School's minimum degree requirements can be found here.

Required Courses. All CIB students must take the following courses:

56:121:603,604 Center for Computational and Integrative Biology (CCIB) Seminar (at least 4 credits)
56:121:710 Dissertation Research (at least 6 credits)

Students must take at least 3 credits per semester to maintain full-time status.

Essentials Courses. Upon admission to the program, the Admission Committee will determine which, if any, of the essentials courses will be required. Students may receive up to a maximum of 12 credits toward their degree requirements from the essentials courses. The essentials courses are:

56:121:510 Essentials of Biological Chemistry I (3)
56:121:520 Essentials of Biomathematics I (3)
56:121:530 Essentials of Computer Science I (3)
56:121:540 Essentials of Integrative Biology I (3)
56:121:565 Essentials of Biophysics (3)

Elective Courses. The following is a list of approved elective courses. Other courses can be approved as elective courses by a master's student's advisory committee or a Ph.D. student's doctoral committee.

56:121:511 Essentials of Biological Chemistry II (3)
56:121:521 Essentials of Biomathematics II (3)
56:121:531 Essentials of Computer Science II (3)
56:121:541 Essentials of Integrative Biology II (3)
56:115:511,512 Biochemistry I,II (3,3)
56:115:522 Protein Structure and Function (3 )
56:121:620 Laboratory Rotation Practicum (4)
56:120:523 Topics in Quantitative Biology (3)
56:120:503 Estuarine Biology (3)
56:120:505 Marine Biology (4)
56:120:525 Advanced Aquatic Ecology (3)
56:120:513 Population Genetics (3)
56:120:590 Population Ecology (3)
56:120:580 Fungi In Ecosystems (3)
56:120:583 Molecular Mechanisms of Developmental Genetics (3)
56:120:588 Life at Extremes (3)
56:120:512 Mammalian Physiology (3)
56:120:515 Human Genetics (3)
56:120:508 Cell Physiology (4)
56:120:509 Cytogenetics (4)
56:120:510 Cell Ultrastructure and Function (3)
56:120:534 Advanced Cell and Developmental Biology (3)
56:120:516 Immunology (3)
56:120:530 Molecular Carcinogenesis (3)
56:120:529 Molecular Genetics of Microorganisms (4)
56:120:585 Recombinant DNA Technology (3)
56:120:540 Neuroscience (4)
56:120:555-556 Neurobiology (3,3)
56:120:560 Endocrinology (3)
56:120:575 Neurochemistry (3)
56:121:555 Cheminformatics (3)
56:121:560 Biophysics (3)
56:160:514 Molecular Modeling (3)
56:198:541 Parallel and Distributed Computing (3)
56:198:552 Advanced Database Systems (3)
56:198:556 Computer Graphics (3)
56:198:582 Computational Modeling of Biological Systems (3)
56:645:557 Signal Processing (3)
56:645:572 Computational Mathematics II (3)
56:645:562 Mathematical Modeling (3)
56:645:560 Industrial Mathematics (3)
56:645:563 Statistical Reasoning (3)
56:645:558 Theory and Computation in Probability (3)
56:645:585 Mathematical Theory of Probability (3)

Ph.D. Qualifying Exam. The requirements for successful completion of the Ph.D. qualifying exam are as follows:

Demonstration of technical competence in computational biology by achieving a cumulative GPA of 3.2 for six courses (3 credits each)
Completion of an oral exam based on a written proposal of the student's dissertation research administered by the qualifying exam committee
An oral and/or written evaluation of course material may also be included

The students should take the qualifying exam at the beginning of the fourth semester of study. To apply for the exam, the student must complete at least six courses (3 credits each) in the CIB curriculum. The total number of credits needed to apply for the qualifying exam is 25 credits (18 nonresearch + 3 seminar + 4 research). The student must choose a qualifying exam committee comprised of at least three examiners: a committee chair, at least one CCIB faculty member, and one examiner outside Rutgers-Camden. The student must choose or confirm a primary research adviser by the end of the first semester of study and to choose the secondary adviser and the qualifying exam committee no later than the end of the third semester of study. The two advisers should come from complementary disciplines encompassing biological and computational fields. The student must submit the written proposal to the qualifying exam committee no less than two weeks before the date of the oral defense. On the recommendation of the committee, and with the approval of the graduate program director, the student may revise the proposal and resubmit it once. The student advances to degree candidacy upon passing the Ph.D. qualifying exam. In exceptional cases, a student whose GPA falls below 3.2 may be allowed to apply to take the qualifying exam and proceed to degree candidacy at the discretion of the qualifying exam committee. A terminal master's degree may be granted at the discretion of the qualifying exam committee, and with the approval of the program director, for students who do not proceed past the Ph.D. qualifying exam but complete a suitable master's project.

Dissertation. The student must give a public presentation of his or her doctoral research and an oral defense of the dissertation before the doctoral committee, formed following the same rules as the Ph.D. qualifying exam committee. The written manuscript should be presented to the doctoral committee at least one month in advance of the defense. Subsequent to the successful defense of the dissertation, the student is awarded the terminal doctoral degree in computational and integrative biology. More information about dissertation format and submission and how to apply for graduation can be found here.

Financial Support
Typically, support for students in the form of teaching assistantships and graduate assistantships is available for five years.