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2009-2010 FAQ
| This page contains answers to common
questions posed by applicants and students in the IB program. If you
don't find your question here, or if the anwer provided still doesn't
satisfy your query, don't hesitate to contact
Peter H. Niewiarowski (Interim Director, IB). |
The IB program is designed to be completed in 5 years.
Every student is different, and PhD projects can vary widely, even
in traditional programs, so some variation in this amount of time is
not unexpected. Typically, when accepted to the program with support
(stipend and tuition waiver) from the program, a department or from
an advisor's grant, you will be advised as to the length of time
your support is guaranteed. Your advisor, committee, and the program
staff will endeavor to keep your progress on track so that you
finish in a timely manner.
There are three core classes completed by all IB students, no
matter their area of integration:
Each student is also required to take Bioscience Ethics and at
least 4 semesters (distributed over the 5 years) of
Integrated Bioscience Colloquium. Most of these requirements are
satisfied during the first two years in the program. The rest of a
student's curriculum will be filled by
electives
(about three to five 4-credit courses) selected by the student's PhD
committee in consultation with the student. The planning and design
of the student's curriculum is an ongoing process that begins as
soon as the student's research areas take shape (as early as the
first year in the program) and continues through the first three
years. Consequently, each student will have a highly individualized
curriculum. We have put together hypothetical curricula for 3
different kinds of IB students (Biomaterials, Biologically-Inspired
Design, PaleoEcology). If you find yourself interested in these
areas, the examples should serve as guidance about what is possible,
not what is required. Ultimately, your curriculum will be negotiated
by you in coordination with your advisor and PhD committee.
The IB program doesn't have fixed coursework for specific areas.
Although some students may be use to this kind of structure, one of
the innovative aspects of our program is that each student can have
a curriculum tailored to their specific research interests.
Structure is instead provided by active advice and guidance by the
student's interdisciplinary PhD committee. Flexibility provided by
this approach allows students to pursue novel research directions,
including training for emerging areas of bioscience research.
Students admitted to the IB program enter with degrees in various
fields including biology, chemistry, engineering and computer
science. During the course of their classroom study each IB student
will be faced with the challenge of enrolling in one or more classes
outside of their recognized expertise. Program faculty, as well as
PhD committees work closely with IB students to help them meet the
challenge of interdisciplinary study. The most important way in
which this works is that PhD committees and students collaborate in
selecting courses that specifically match their interdisciplinary
research goals. Coursework in 'unfamiliar' territory then ends up
serving as a highly structured way for students to pickup knowledge
and expertise they seek to further there research needs. Taking
courses outside of one's recognized discipline becomes less ominous
when it is motivated by a tangible research goal.
In September 2009, we admitted our third cohort of PhD
students. We now have 26 students enrolled full
time
Please email with a question you would like to see added to the
FAQ. Send your email to
Peter H.
Niewiarowski
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