Plant Sciences B.S.-to-Ph.D. Program


Admission requirements:



The candidate must meet the requirements for the NDSU "Presidential Doctoral Graduate Fellowships", with one exception as noted below:

  1. B.S degree with an overall cumulative GPA of 3.00 or better, and a cumulative GPA of 3.25 (B or better) for the discipline courses.

  2. A Graduate Record Examination composite score (V/Q/A) of 1800 or better. (Note: The Presidential Fellowships lists a minimum GRE of 1600 but the actually awardees have been substantially above the 1800 score required herein).

  3. If the NDSU Presidential Fellowship admission requirements are upgraded in the future, the intent is that the enhanced requirements shall be automatically accepted by the Plant Sciences Department, unless a specific faculty decision is made to the contrary.
General B.S.-to- Ph.D. program requirements:

  1. The requirements for courses, including professional development and seminars, and total credits will be the same as for all departmental Ph.D. candidates. Also, limits for total credits per semester are the same as for students on assistantships.

  2. The candidate must maintain a cumulative GPA of 3.25 or better. This requirement matches the Presidential Doctoral Graduate Fellowship requirements.

  3. The Ph.D. written preliminary exams and oral examinations are the same as for current Ph.D. candidates.

  4. An additional requirement is that the candidate must submit a manuscript to a refereed scientific journal no later than the end of the fifth semester of the graduate program. The journal choice must be accepted by the student's graduate committee. The student must successfully defend the paper before their graduate committee before submission to the journal. The review by the graduate committee will serve as the departmental review. This paper will be one chapter of the final Ph.D. thesis. "Semester" for purposes of this requirement means the fall and spring semesters and does not include summer sessions.
    (Rationale: Plant Sciences disciplines do not have a history of postdoctoral study after the Ph.D. degree and very few university plant science disciplines award a B.S.-to-Ph.D. degree. The understanding of data analysis, summarization, presentation and discussion learned by writing two theses is an integral component of the skills developed by a student in a traditional M.S.-plus-Ph.D. program. This manuscript requirement will help assure that students pursing a B.S.-to-Ph.D. program will have skills comparable to the traditional M.S.-plus-Ph.D. student. Also, a manuscript published prior to graduation will be beneficial to any student whether they are seeking permanent employment immediately after graduation or are pursuing a postdoctoral studies position.)

  5. Students who do not maintain the above requirements may be considered as candidates for the M.S. degree but must fulfill all requirements for a M.S. program.

    Approved by PLSC Faculty, June 7, 2001.