Oral Comprehensive Exam
Within two years of enrollment as a PhD student, every Genetics Program graduate student is required to complete an oral examination of basic topics in genetics and biology conducted by the student's PhD guidance committee, with full participation of the faculty mentor, and with the exam chaired by the Genetics Program Director, Associate Director, or another faculty member who is not on the committee but is designated by the Director. This external faculty member will participate in the questioning and may ask questions on topics he/she feels have not been adequately covered by the committee. The goal of the oral comprehensive exam is to determine if the student has both sufficient
breadth and depth in the field of genetics to proceed with a PhD program. Consult the student handbook to learn more about topics that will be covered in the oral examination and suggestions for studying. (Student Handbook Link)

Research Proposal
Within six months of passing the oral comprehensive examination, the student is required to prepare a written research proposal on the topic of his/her proposed research and then give a seminar to defend the proposed research which will be followed by a period of questioning by the examination committee. More information is available in the graduate student handbook. (Student Handbook Link) Generally, our students have found it very helpful to have other students read their research proposal, and to practice their seminar for other students prior to presenting it to their examination committee.

Example Research Proposal
Achieving the right balance of background information, preliminary data, statement of hypothesis and goals, and description of proposed experiments in a research proposal can be difficult. It can be helpful to see how other students have accomplished this, especially when their proposals were written at a such a relatively early stage in their research. One example of a well-done research proposal is available here as a pdf file. (link to proposal example pdf file). (Download Adobe Acrobat)

Other examples are kept in the Genetics Program Office, and can be checked out and consulted as models for the format and structure of the research proposal. These other proposals focus on different topics and organisms as subjects for the research investigations, so they may be especially helpful to students across the range of genetics represented by our program.