A Master’s degree program shall be completed within 3 years. For the Master of Arts degree in the Plant Biology Graduate Program, there are two options for requirements.

For the Thesis option, 24 hours of coursework plus BIO 698A & 698B Thesis which counts for 6 hours for a total of 30 hours. For a Master’s with Report option, BIO 398R must be taken and counts for 3 hours, in addition to 27 hours of coursework, for a total of 30 hours.

A minimum of 15 hours of coursework in Plant Biology is required. Research courses (BIO 182, 282 and 382) cannot be used to fill this requirement. The student can use no more than one seminar course to fulfill the 15 hour requirement.

Six hours of work acceptable for graduate credit must be outside the major area Plant Biology.

Additionally, all first year students must take 3 hours of Foundatios of Plant Biology.  This is a core course for first-semester students.

No more than 9 hours of senior level college courses may be counted toward the Master’s degree, no more than 6 of these can be in Plant Biology or the minor area; thus courses with middle digits of 8 or 9 should be chosen where possible.

Twenty percent of the credits for the Master’s degree can be taken pass/fail, but the department prefers letter grades.

Students must be full time to receive support. Course loads for a full-time student are 9 hours per long semester and 3 hours for summer session.

The Graduate School requires a B average in both major and minor areas. The Program does not count C grades toward fulfilling the requirements, but such grades will appear on the student’s record and must be balanced with an A grade in order to achieve the proper average. Should a student receive a second C grade, his performance will be considered by the faculty and recommendations made as to whether he should continue in the graduate program.