Master's Degree

A Master’s candidate is expected to file a course of study by the end of the first year.  Students must submit a brief description (not more than two pages) of the student’s Master’s research program to the Neuroscience/Veterinary Science Curriculum Committee. At the request of the advisor/mentor, other members of the student’s Master’s Committee, or the Curriculum Committee, the student may be asked to give a brief oral presentation (20 minutes) on his or her project, followed by not more than one hour of questioning by the examiners.  The request for such an examination must be made to the student by October 1^st and can be made even if the student has failed to produce a project proposal.  If it is decided that at this time the student is inadequately prepared to continue their studies, the Curriculum Committee may request the Chair terminate the student from the program. 

A final oral examination is required of all Neuroscience master's candidates. This examination is intended to test the candidate's ability to integrate and interpret material in the major and supporting fields, with emphasis on the work presented in the thesis. The examination is open to the public, is normally one hour in duration, and is limited to two and one-half hours. The exam begins with a seminar-type presentation of the work by the candidate. Details are provided in the WSU Graduate Study Bulletin. Click here for an on-line Finals Scheduling Form for Master's Degree Candidates.

Doctoral Degree

The Preliminary and Final examinations are required by the Graduate School and are described in the Policies and Procedures section of the WSU Graduate Study Bulletin.  The Neuroscience Program requires a Qualifying/Preliminary examination, which includes a written subject-area exam, a written thesis proposal, and an oral examination. 

Combined Qualifying/Preliminary Examination

Prior to this exam, the student must satisfactorily complete the core Neuroscience Program curriculum and be in good academic standing (3.0 overall GPA or better, and a GPA of at least 3.0 for the program courses that have been taken).  In May or June, the chair of the Graduate Curriculum Committee will contact each student scheduled to take the Preliminary Exam and will advise the student of the steps needed to complete the exam. 

The oral portion of the exam, scheduled by the Curriculum Committee, will take place not later than the 5^th week of the student’s fifth semester in the program (if a student enters the program in January, this exam will take place during the student’s fourth semester).  The Ph.D. or MS Program Form must be filed with the Graduate School no later than one semester prior to scheduling the Qualifying/Preliminary Exam.  The Preliminary Examination Scheduling form (see page 41) must be returned to the Graduate School at least ten business days prior to the examination.  In addition, the candidate's written proposal must be distributed to members of the student’s Thesis Committee at least two weeks prior to the oral examination.  A copy of the proposal must be given to the Graduate Program Coordinator in the departmental office and will be made available to all faculty members during the 2-weeks preceding the exam. 

Qualifying/Preliminary Examination Format

1)  Written proposal

A.  The Thesis Proposal is to be written in the accepted National Institutes of Health format (Individual Pre-Doctoral Grant Award). Detailed NIH format instructions can be obtained from the appropriate application forms located in the Office of Grant and Research Development, Neill Hall 419, or it can be down loaded from the NIH website: http://grants1.nih.gov/grants/funding/416/phs416.htm.  The document should be typed in a 12-point font with 0.75 inch margins and no more than 6 lines per inch.  It may not exceed 10 pages (all figures, tables, and references included).  It should include the following: 

Specific Aims.  State the specific purposes of the research proposal and the hypotheses to be tested. 

Background and Significance.  Sketch briefly the background of the proposal.  State concisely the importance of the research described in the proposal by relating the specific aims to broad, long-term objectives. 

Research Design and Methods.  Provide an outline of:

1)   Research design and the procedures to be used to accomplish the specific aims;

2)  Tentative sequence for the investigation;

3)  Statistical procedures by which the data will be analyzed;

4) Any procedures, situations, or materials that may be hazardous to personnel and the precautions to be exercised;

5) A discussion of potential experimental difficulties, together with alternative approaches that could achieve the desired aims. 

Literature Citations.  Each citation must include names of all authors, journal or chapter title, book or journal, volume number, page numbers, and year of publication.

B.   It is expected that the student will submit this proposal to the appropriate NIH institute for an F31 grant, assuming the content area fits within the area of Institutes that fund F31s (currently these are NIDA, NINDS, NIMH, NIAAA), the Poncin Scholarship (May 1 deadline), and/or another appropriate outside funding agency during the year following the Preliminary Examination. 

C.  It should be noted that this proposal is not a contract and may be changed by the student and his/her advisor, in consultation with the student’s Thesis Committee, at any time during the student’s course of study. 

2)   Written Exam

During the 1^st or 2^nd week of the Fall semester of the 3rd year, the student will be given a 9-hour written exam consisting of five (5) questions developed by the faculty in the Neuroscience Program.  The Graduate Curriculum Committee will solicit these questions from the faculty and will select the questions to be used in the exam.  All students in a given cohort will answer the same questions.  The individual faculty member who wrote each question will then evaluate the answers given by the student. 

3)   Oral Examination

A.  The Curriculum Committee will select from the Neuroscience graduate faculty an examination committee for each individual student to consist of at least two (2) members of the faculty who are not members of the student’s Thesis Committee.  The members of this committee will be given a copy of the student’s responses to the written Preliminary Exam questions and the comments of the grader.  The members of this committee, along with the candidate’s Thesis Committee, will participate in the oral examination of the candidate.  Other Neuroscience Program faculty are also encouraged to participate.

B.   The oral exam will be scheduled by the Graduate Curriculum Committee in consultation with all participants.  The departmental secretary will be informed of the schedule and the student’s name, title of thesis proposal, time, date, and room number for the exam publicized to the members of the Neuroscience faculty at least two weeks prior to the exam date.

C.  The oral exam will consist of the student's brief (20-30 min) presentation of the written proposal (open to the public), followed immediately by an oral examination by the student’s examination committee and any other Program faculty who wish to participate.  The oral examination (2.5 hour maximum duration) can focus on the student’s proposal, answers to the written questions, or any other general topic the student should be expected to explain.

D.  All Neuroscience Program faculty in attendance will vote to pass or fail the student using official graduate school ballots.  The pass criterion is specified by the Graduate School.

     The minimum number of positive votes required to pass a candidate is 75%.

E. In the event a student fails the oral exam, the student’s advisor and a member of the student’s examination committee will forward a written description of the reasons for the failure to the Graduate Curriculum Committee.  The Graduate Curriculum Committee will examine the reasons for the failure in the context of the student’s entire record and will recommend a course of action to the Department Chair.  The student may be given an opportunity to retake the exam, or the student will be dropped as a Ph.D. candidate from the Neuroscience Program (a terminal M.S. degree would be possible).  At least three months must elapse between the failed examination and the re-examination.  It is up to the Graduate Curriculum Committee to decide which portions of the exam, in addition to the oral exam, must be retaken (i.e., another written exam and/or another proposal).  A student who has failed a preliminary examination is not eligible for the departmental stipends until the failure is made up.  In accordance with Graduate School rules, the preliminary examination may be attempted only twice.  Thus, failure upon re-examination will result in termination of enrollment in the WSU Graduate School. 

Doctoral Final Examination

The Final Examination is primarily a defense of the dissertation, but it may also cover the general fields of knowledge pertinent to neuroscience.  Policies and procedures for this exam are outlined in the Graduate Bulletin.  The examination time and place are published in the WSU Week/Calendar and announced to the neuroscience faculty via a memorandum.  The exam begins with a seminar-type presentation of the work by the candidate. The seminar is open to the public.  Graduate Faculty in attendance are invited to question the candidate.  After this phase of the examination, the Thesis Committee and members of the graduate faculty, regardless of department, adjourn to discuss the candidate's performance and to vote.  The candidate may be questioned further during this second phase of the examination.  Students need at least 75% positive votes to successfully pass the Thesis defense (see letter “D” above).

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