A survival guide for incoming MCDB Graduate Students:

A supplement to the MCDB PhD Handbook

click here for a print version of this page

The lowdown - Progression through your degree:

First Year:

• ACCESS courses
• Rotations

Second Year:

• Begin research in thesis lab
• Finish up coursework (if you have any courses left)
• TA fall, winter, or spring quarter
• Write off-topic mini proposal [see below for description]
• Select your committee
• Write on-topic mini proposal [see below for description]
• Hold first committee meeting [see below for description]

As you can see, second year is a crucial year. If you fall behind here, you are hurting your chances to graduate on time!

Third Year:

• Continue research in thesis lab
• TA fall, winter, or spring quarter
• Complete oral qualifying exam by January!!! [see below for description]
  * before September for International Students (everyone should aim for this!)

Fourth Year:

• Continue research in thesis lab
• Complete midstreams toward end of fourth year [see below for description]

Fifth Year:

• Complete research in thesis lab
• Write thesis
• Hold dissertation defense

OK...Info About the Important Stuff:

Off-topic mini-proposal: This is a small proposal (3 pages in length) based on a topic covered in one of your seminar courses. First, choose the topic for which you want to propose a study. Second, contact the professor who lead your seminar group and determine if 1) he/she is willing to evaluate your proposal, and 2) if the topic is appropriate for a mini-proposal. Pick someone who you think will be a critical evaluator...it will help you in the long run! After writing the proposal, give it to Jia, and she will take care of the rest! You'll find out in a couple of weeks if you're good to go, or if you need to fix anything on your proposal to pass.

Selecting a committee: This is simple. The committee is composed of four members: Your PI (the chair of the committee), 2 MCDB faculty, and 1 outside department faculty. Keep in mind, at least two members of your committee must be tenured! Everything else about certifying members, etc, is a bunch of mumbo jumbo administration stuff. All you need to worry about is finding a committee that will be productive, insightful, and will care about your timely graduation!

On-topic mini-proposal: This is an important proposal. Your on-topic mini-proposal covers what you plan to do for your thesis work. It should be about 3 pages, concise, and easy to understand for all of your committee members. You should work with your PI on this, it is not an exam, and you are not expected to make this proposal without consulting your advisor. It may or may not include preliminary data, and it should focus on your specific aims and how you plan to address these aims. Please, please, please get examples from your fellow grad students. It will make your life much less stressful to have an idea what the end product should look like.

First committee meeting: (Also known as pre-committee meeting). Your first committee meeting is a powerpoint presentation of your on-topic mini-proposal. It is meant for your committee to form a cohesive unit and to get a better feeling for your thesis project. They will take this opportunity to evaluate your presentation skills and general knowledge of your project; therefore, be prepared to give a good first impression. At the beginning of the meeting, you will be asked to leave the room, and your advisor will have a quick discussion with your committee members. You will then be asked to reenter the room, and you will give your presentation of your proposed thesis project. At least one week before your first committee meeting, you should have distributed your on-topic mini-proposal to each committee member. After your presentation, you will most likely have a productive discussion about your project and hopefully get a lot of good feedback. If necessary, your committee may ask you to rewrite parts of your on-topic mini proposal if some aspects of it need work.

Oral Qualifying Exam: This is the mama of your qualifying exams. If you are well prepared, it will be cake. If you try to wing it, well....we won't go there. You are required to write a 15 page NIH style proposal on a topic which you are not currently researching. Great places to get topic ideas include journal clubs, weekly seminar series, and conferences. The second half of the exam is the oral requirement. You will give a one-hour powerpoint presentation on your proposal. During this presentation (which only includes you and your committee), you will be asked many questions about your proposal and experiments to verify that you have a good understanding of the topic. Common questions include other ways to address a question, what problems you expect to arise, if so-and-so problem arises, what would you do next, etc. In other words, they want to make sure you can think like a scientist! At the end of the presentation, there is a general question section. Most likely, enough questions will have been asked during your presentation that your committee will already have a good idea about you breadth of your knowledge and will not need to use the general question section. You will then be asked to leave the room, at which point they will determine if you pass or fail. In some cases, the committee will ask you to add a few things to your proposal in order to pass.

Midstreams: Your midstreams occur approximately 6 months to one year before you intend to graduate. There is no written requirement as part of your midstreams; it is only a presentation on the data you have accumulated for your thesis. At this time, your committee will evaluate your progress and help determine what needs to be done in order to graduate. This is not an exam; rather, it is a check-point that allows your committee to help guide you in the remainder of your research.