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PhD Curriculum & Requirements

Core Courses

All Biomedical Sciences (BIMS) PhD students must complete the following required core courses:

  • BIMS 602 (2 hours) Foundations in Biomedical Graduate Education and Research (offered Fall semesters only)
  • STAT 651 (3 hours) Statistics in Research I
  • VMID 686 (1 hour) Scientific Ethics (offered Spring semesters only)

Curricular Training Track Required Courses

All students must also complete the one required course associated with their selected curricular training track:

Biomedical Genomics & Bioinformatics

  • VTPB 613 (3 hours) Mammalian Genomics and Bioinformatics

Diagnostics & Therapeutics

  • VIBS 608 (4 hours) Epidemiology Methods I  or
  • STAT 652 (3 hours) Statistics in Research II

Infection, Immunity & Epidemiology

  • VTMI 649 (3 hours) Immunology  or
  • VIBS 608 (4 hours) Epidemiology Methods I  and/or
  • VIBS 610 (4 hours) Epidemiologic Methods II and Data Analysis

Physiology & Developmental Biology

Required to complete VTPP 610 section 601, Principles of Physiology and a minimum of 3 modules from:

  • VTPP 610 Physiology I  or
  • VTPP 612 Physiology II or
  • VIBS 617 Cell Biology

Electives & Research Hours

The remaining coursework is comprised of electives and research hours. The electives are purposely selected by the student and their graduate advisory committee.

Research hours are course credits given to reflect the student’s time and effort working on their thesis or dissertation research project.

Degree Completion Timeline

The BIMS PhD degree program requires the following minimum number of credit hours of coursework to graduate:

  • 64 semester credit hours (for students who have a master’s or professional degree)
  • 96 semester credit hours

Minimum Full-Time Course Load
Fall and Spring: 9 semester credit hours
Summer: 6 semester credit hours

Students generally complete the PhD requirements in 12 to 15 semesters.

Non-Course Requirements

A research degree consists of more than the coursework and training experience – the student must have acquired the ability to express thoughts clearly and effectively in both oral and written form.

Scholarly contributions are the currency for advancing as a biomedical scientist. To support students in this, the following non-course requirements must be met to be eligible for graduation:

  • Preliminary Examination – successfully pass a preliminary examination with both a written and oral component.
  • Presentation Requirement – present a minimum of one platform or poster presentation at an international, national, regional, or state meeting external to Texas A&M University and related to their field of study during their degree program.
  • Publication Requirement – have a minimum of one first-author or equally contributing lead-author manuscript accepted for publication in a peer-reviewed journal during their degree program.
  • Research Proposal – submit a research proposal that outlines the project for the student’s thesis or dissertation.
  • Dissertation – complete and defend a written dissertation covering the research conducted during the degree program.
  • Final Examination – successfully pass an oral final examination in defense of their thesis or dissertation.