Second-Year Qualifying Examination

The Bioinformatics Second-Year Qualifying Examination, to be taken before the completion of the student's second year, is designed to examine the student's ability to think analytically and independently about their research project, and whether the student is sufficiently familiar with the literature to develop a meaning full research project. The subject of the exam is the student's current research project — essentially it is a “minor proposition” exam that precedes the “major proposition” or Senate/Advancement to Candidacy Exam described here.

The curriculum committee will appoint three faculty to the qualifying exam committee. The exam must be held before the end of the spring quarter of the second year. It consists of two components; a ten-page project proposal and an oral exam. Two weeks prior to the exam date, the student will submit the ten-page proposal including introduction, hypotheses, preliminary results, and proposed studies to the exam committee. The oral exam is intended to probe the student's ability to defend the project proposal.

Once the student passes the oral and written qualifying examination, the student is deemed to be qualified to advance to their chosen Ph.D. thesis research in Bioinformatics and Systems Biology.