General Information of Program of Study

Under this option, course work is substituted for the thesis requirement.

    • A minimum of 30 credits is required for graduation.
    • At least half of these 30 credits must be in the major subject area (MB).
    • Two-thirds of the minimum 30 credits must be at the 5XX-level. (Undergraduate courses at the 4XX-level are allowed but not 3XX-level)
    • Credit in seminar (500), individual problem (570) and internship (576) courses may not exceed 10 credits required.
    • Credit for a Professional Paper (MB 575) may not exceed 6 credits.
    • Course work more than 6 years old cannot be applied toward the program.
    • No more than 3 credits (except thesis credits) can be taken Pass/Fail.
    • Transfer credits – see policy at Transferring Credits

Coursework (subject to change)

All plan B M.S. students are required to take Ethics, BIOB 524 - Ethical Practice of Science, offered each Spring. In addition, students must take at least three courses in the seven areas of the core curriculum with an emphasis of offerings from the Department. See the Table below for the core groups and course opportunities to fulfill the requirements.

 

 

Courses

Semester

Bioinformatics & Advanced Statistics

MB 544 – Advanced Bioinformatics

MB 591(002) – Intro to Programming for Biologists

Any approved graduate level statistics course

Spring

Summer

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Biochemistry

MB 520- Microbial Physiology

BCH 544 - Molecular Biology

MB 527 - Toxicology

Fall

Fall

Spring

Immunology & Cell Biology

MB 525 – Advanced Immunology

IMID 505 – Eukaryotic Gene Regulation

Spring (Even)

Spring (Odd)

Microbial Evolution & Ecology

MB 537 – Advances in Molecular Evolution

MB 515 – Microbial Ecology

MB 591 – Precambrian Biosphere

ERTH 505 – Geomicrobiology

???

Spring (Odd)

Fall (Odd)

Spring (Even)

Genetics

MB 528 – Advanced Genetics

EBIO 566 – Fundamentals of Biofilm Engineering

Spring (Odd)

Fall

Pathogenesis

MB 530 - Virology

MB 505 – Host-Associated Microbiomes

MB 560 – Disease Ecology & Spillover

Fall

Spring

Fall

Scientific

Writing

MB 591(001) – Scientific Proposal Writing

MB 592 – Journal Club

Summer

Spring/Fall

 

Seminar Series and Journal Club

  • Departmental Research Seminar Series
    • All students are required to attend the Departmental Seminar (MB 594) each semester regardless if they are registered in the course. There are limits to the number of MB594 credits allowed in a Graduate Program (3 for Ph.D.). Departmental administrators will register you for these credits.
  • Student Research-in-Progress (RIP) Series
    • All students are required to attend the Student RIP Series, and present starting in their second year.
  • Journal Clubs
    • All students are required to attend one of the MB 592 Journal Club sessions each semester.
    • Prior to each semester, the instructors and topics of the Journal Club sections will be announced. The topics will vary but and can be focused on either environmental or biomedical research topics or synchronize with the Departmental Research Seminar Series schedule.

Plan B Master’s Degree Review and Oral Examination

Plan B Master's Degree students must write a review of a topic in Microbiology or Immunology. The topic will be assigned by the student's Masters Committee, and it will cover a field of Microbiology or Immunology rather than a single research paper. This review should be completed and approved before the end of the 4th semester (excluding summers), and once 2/3’s of the course work has been completed.

The review shall be written using the guidelines found in the instructions to authors for the journal Microbiology and Molecular Biology Reviews or other suitable format with advisor approval.

An oral exam is then scheduled within two weeks of the submission of the review. The review will serve as a focus for questions. However, other questions will be included in the examination to test breadth of comprehension.

If the student fails the examination, at least 2 months must pass before repeating it. A second failure will result in dismissal from the academic program.