Advancement to Ph.D. Candidacy

Upon completion of formal course requirements, each student will be required to take a written and oral qualifying examination that will admit the student to the candidacy of the Ph.D. Program. It is often known as “major proposition” or “Senate Qualifying” or “Advancement to Candidacy” exam. Prior to this examination, each student, in consultation with his or her faculty advisors, will establish a dissertation committee of five faculty members. One advisor should have a primarily computational research focus, the other a primarily experimental research focus. One of the two advisors will function as chair of the committee. The committee will consist of three faculty who are affiliated with the Bioinformatics and Systems Biology program. At least two of the five committee members must be from a department other than the committee chair’s department and at least one of these two must be tenured. The thesis advisors will have the major responsibility for the student’s research and dissertation.

At UCSD, the University “Candidacy/Senate” Examination is a requirement for a Graduate Student to complete satisfactorily, once a thesis project has been decided upon. It is strongly recommended except in special circumstances that the student complete this examination prior to the end of the first 3 years in the Program. The format for this examination is consistent with the highest standards held by peer Universities. The Student should write a detailed Candidacy report in the format of NIH grant proposals where it is expected that each Specific Aim will approximately form a Chapter in the dissertation. The Student should ensure that there is initial progress and the research design and methods are spelled out unambiguously. While the size of this document may vary, it is expected to be around 25-30 pages. The project and the report should be interdisciplinary and should have input from both thesis advisors. Any publications/supplementary material may be attached. It is expected that the student will meet at least annually with the Committee to update the members on his/her progress.

• Instructions for Ph.D. Students taking the "Senate" Exam - Advancement to Candidacy