Program Requirements for Ethnomusicology

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Program Requirements for Ethnomusicology

Applicable only to students admitted during the 2014-2015 academic year.

Ethnomusicology

School of the Arts and Architecture

Graduate Degrees

The Department of Ethnomusicology offers the Master of Arts (M.A.) and Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) degrees in Ethnomusicology.

Admissions Requirements

Master’s Degree

Advising

Upon entrance, students are assigned a faculty adviser who guides them through their first year of coursework and program requirements. In the second and subsequent years, students choose a faculty adviser who shares their area of interest or theoretical perspective. The Director of Graduate Studies also acts as an adviser to graduate students. Students must plan their program under the guidance of their adviser and are required to contact their adviser at the beginning of each quarter to obtain approval of their course of study. Students are responsible for checking URSA to be certain their official list of courses is correct.

At the end of each year, students are evaluated by the faculty and provided with a written assessment of their work and progress in the program. These annual evaluations will be taken into consideration when assigning support in the form of fellowships and teaching assistantships.

Areas of Study

The department offers the M.A. degree in Ethnomusicology, with the option of a specialization in systematic musicology.

Foreign Language Requirement

A reading knowledge of one language other than English relevant to the student’s research is required. Students are encouraged to acquire competence in their field language as soon as possible. Students may satisfy the language requirement by (1) passing an examination administered by the department or a language department of the University; (2) completing the fifth quarter in the language with a minimum grade of B, or (3) demonstrating literacy through submission of transcripts or other documents that show coursework or experience in the language. The choice of language and the method of satisfying the requirement must be approved by the Executive Committee or ladder faculty.

Course Requirements

All students. Students are required to complete a minimum of 52 quarter units of upper division and graduate courses (normally 12 courses), of which 36 units (normally eight courses) must be at the graduate level. Of these, six courses constitute a core of required courses: Ethnomusicology 201, 202, 205, 206, 281A, and 282. Six are elective courses, of which a minimum of three must be in the department and a minimum of two must be at the graduate level. Beyond these minimum requirements, students may fill in their electives with upper division courses and courses in other departments.

With respect to the six required courses, here is a student’s likely study plan for the first year:
Fall Quarter: Ethnomusicology 201 and 205
Winter Quarter: Ethnomusicology 206 and 282
Spring Quarter: Ethnomusicology 202 and 281A

Students are strongly encouraged to develop a second area of expertise outside of ethnomusicology or systematic musicology in a discipline or a topic that may aid their research or make them more versatile teachers at the college and university level.

Students must receive the approval of their faculty adviser in planning the elective portion of their program.

Language and performance courses may not be applied toward these requirements, and no more than four units of all types of 500-series courses (596 or 597) may be applied toward the minimum graduate course requirement.

Students may also be required to take extra courses to make up deficiencies. These may include all or part of Ethnomusicology 20A-20B-20C if students have not taken a year of similar surveys or area studies courses at the undergraduate level; appropriate music theory courses determined by the faculty member administering the music theory placement test, if students have inadequate training in music theory; and introductory courses in the social sciences if these are absent from the student’s undergraduate record. These courses must be taken for credit and passed with a letter-grade of B or better (i.e. NOT taken S/U). The sole exception is that in some cases the faculty member administering the music theory placement test may recommend a student audit and do the work for part of an appropriate music theory course, in which case the faculty member will evaluate whether the deficiency has been removed. A graduate student who does not get a grade of B or better in any of the Ethnomusicology 20ABC series may retake the course in question only once. If on the second attempt they still fail to obtain a grade of B or better, they will be automatically dropped from the graduate program.

Students must enroll in a minimum of six quarters of ethnomusicology performance organizations, Ethnomusicology 91A-91Z or 161A-161Z, credits for which are not applied to their degree.

Students in the specialization of systematic musicology. Students are required to complete a minimum of 52 quarter units of upper division and graduate courses (normally 12 courses), of which 36 quarter units (normally eight or nine courses) must be at the graduate level. Of these, three constitute a core of required courses: Ethnomusicology C203, C204, and one of Musicology 245, 250, or 255. Nine are elective courses, of which a minimum of five must be in the department and a minimum of five must be at the graduate level. Beyond these minimum requirements, students may fill in their electives with upper division courses and courses in other departments.

Language and performance courses may not be applied toward this requirement, and no more than four units of 500-series courses (596 or 597) may be applied toward the minimum graduate course requirement. Students must receive the approval of their faculty adviser in planning the elective portion of their program.

Teaching Experience

Not required.

Field Experience

With the exception of Systematic Musicology students, fieldwork is required.

Comprehensive Examination Plan

The comprehensive examination for the ethnomusicology specialization consists of two parts: a research paper of a length, form, and originality to warrant submission to a scholarly journal; and an oral examination on that research paper and on the history, method, and theory of ethnomusicology. A faculty adviser, chosen by the student, advises the student as they write the paper. The adviser and two standing committee members, chosen by the department, administer the oral examination. Each member of this three-person committee grades the examination High Pass, Pass, Low Pass, or Fail. If at least two of the three committee members award one of the passing grades, then the overall result is a pass. If at least two of the three committee members award a Fail, then the overall result is a fail.

In the systematic musicology specialization, the comprehensive examination consists of a research paper supervised by a three-person faculty committee. If the committee’s grade is High Pass or Pass, no oral examination is required. If the grade is Low Pass, an oral examination is required.

For all students a failed examination may be re-taken only once, on a specified date and time during the next regular quarter.

Thesis Plan

None.

Time-to-Degree

For full-time students with no deficiencies upon admission to graduate status, the normal progress toward the degree is as follows:

From graduate admission to completion of required courses and M.A. comprehensive examination, and award of the M.A. degree: 6 quarters.

Doctoral Degree

Upon passing the M.A. examination students may petition the faculty to continue in the Ph.D. program. A petition that is approved allows the student to continue in the Ph.D. program. A petition that is denied by a majority of the ladder faculty can be appealed once for further consideration by the faculty. If a majority of the faculty votes to deny the petition again, that decision is final.

Advising

When a student enters the program, they are assigned a faculty adviser who guides them through their first year of coursework with the assistance of the Director of Graduate Studies. In the second and subsequent years, students choose a faculty adviser. Students must plan their program under the guidance of their adviser and are required to contact their adviser at the beginning of each quarter to obtain approval of their course of study. Students are responsible for checking URSA to be sure their official lists of courses is correct.

Major Fields or Subdisciplines

The department offers the Ph.D. degree in Ethnomusicology, with the option of a specialization in systematic musicology.

Foreign Language Requirement

A reading knowledge of two languages other than English relevant to the student’s research is required. Students may satisfy language requirements by (1) by passing an examination administered by the department or another department of the University, (2) by completing the fifth quarter in the language with a minimum grade of B, or (3) by demonstrating literacy through submission of transcripts that contain records of language courses or other documents that show coursework or experience in the language. The choice of language and the method of satisfying the requirement must be approved by the Executive Committee or ladder faculty.

Course Requirements

Students must take a minimum of 27 quarter units of graduate and upper division courses (normally six to nine courses), including a minimum of three quarters of Ethnomusicology 291, the one-unit departmental colloquium. A minimum of 12 units (normally three courses) must be in the department and a minimum of 16 units (normally four courses) must be graduate level seminars. Beyond these minimum requirements, students may fill in their electives with upper division courses and courses in other departments. Students must obtain the approval of their faculty adviser for the courses they choose.

Students are strongly encouraged to develop a second area of expertise outside ethnomusicology in a discipline or a topic that may aid their research or make them more versatile teachers at the college and university level.

No more than four units of Ethnomusicology 596 may be counted toward the six required courses.

Students must enroll in a minimum of three quarter-length courses of ethnomusicology performance organizations (Ethnomusicology 91A-91Z, 161A-Z), credits for which are not applied to their degree.

All entering students may be required to take additional coursework to make up deficiencies. Often these courses are one or more of the core seminars in the M.A. program or world music/theory courses and do not apply toward degree requirements. Students who hold an M.A. degree in ethnomusicology or a related field from another university may petition to apply previous coursework toward the doctoral course requirements.

Teaching Experience

Not required.

Written and Oral Qualifying Examinations

Academic Senate regulations require all doctoral students to complete and pass University written and oral qualifying examinations prior to doctoral advancement to candidacy. Also, under Senate regulations the University oral qualifying examination is open only to the student and appointed members of the doctoral committee. In addition to University requirements, some graduate programs have other pre-candidacy examination requirements. What follows in this section is how students are required to fulfill all of these requirements for this doctoral program.

When the course and language requirements have been completed, the student submits to the faculty petitions for (1) doctoral dissertation committee; and (2) the qualifying examination topics and examining professors, as detailed below. The doctoral examinations consist of four written qualifying examinations, a detailed dissertation proposal, and the University Oral Qualifying Examination.

The written examinations in ethnomusicology are in the following areas:

(1) History, theory, and method of ethnomusicology;

(2) Music cultures of the world;

(3) A cultural/geographical area or theoretical approach in ethnomusicology or a topic or discipline outside of ethnomusicology;

(4) A second cultural/geographical area or theoretical approach in ethnomusicology or a topic or discipline outside of ethnomusicology.

The written examinations in the systematic musicology specialization are in the following areas:

(1) History, theory, and method in systematic musicology;

(2) One of the theoretical approaches to systematic musicology: psychology, sociology, organology, ethnomusicology, acoustics, or aesthetics;

(3) General western music theory and history;

(4) A topic outside of systematic musicology or another of the theoretical approaches to systematic musicology listed in (2) above.

In both the specialization in ethnomusicology and the specialization in systematic musicology, some examinations may be take-home examinations or papers. Each of the four exams is administered by a faculty member chosen by the student. The examination subjects and the professors must be approved by petition to the Faculty Executive Committee. Each examination is graded by the professor giving the exam, and the student passes or fails each examination based on the evaluation of that professor. It is permissible for one professor to give two out of these four examinations, but there must be a minimum of three professors giving the four examinations. All four examinations must be successfully completed before the student can move on to take the University Oral Qualifying Examination.

Students may re-take any failed examination(s) only once, on a specified date and time during the next regular quarter.

The written examinations are taken within a two-week period, and during this period the dissertation proposal must also be submitted to the members of the doctoral dissertation committee. The University Oral Qualifying Examination is taken between one and three weeks after submission of the written examinations and dissertation proposal. The University Oral Qualifying Examination is primarily a defense of the doctoral dissertation proposal, especially its relation to previous research in the area and to theory and method in ethnomusicology.

Advancement to Candidacy

Students are advanced to candidacy and awarded the Candidate in Philosophy (C.Phil.) degree upon successful completion of the written and oral qualifying examinations.

Doctoral Dissertation

Every doctoral degree program requires the completion of an approved dissertation that demonstrates the student’s ability to perform original, independent research and constitutes a distinct contribution to knowledge in the principal field of study.

Final Oral Examination (Defense of the Dissertation)

Required for all students in the Ph.D. program.

Time-to-Degree

For full-time students with no deficiencies upon admission to graduate status, the normal progress toward the degree is as follows:

(a) From graduate admission to admission to the doctoral program: six quarters.
(b) From graduate admission to written and oral qualifying examinations, approval of the dissertation proposal and advancement to candidacy: 11 quarters.
(c) From advancement to candidacy to final oral examination: seven quarters.
(d) From graduate admission to award of the degree: 18 quarters.

After advancement to candidacy, students in Ethnomusicology normally engage in a year of fieldwork/research and an additional year of writing the dissertation. Students in the specialization of systematic musicology normally complete the dissertation research and writing within two years.

Termination of Graduate Study and Appeal of Termination

University Policy

A student who fails to meet the above requirements may be recommended for termination of graduate study. A graduate student may be disqualified from continuing in the graduate program for a variety of reasons. The most common is failure to maintain the minimum cumulative grade point average (3.00) required by the Academic Senate to remain in good standing (some programs require a higher grade point average). Other examples include failure of examinations, lack of timely progress toward the degree as determined by the dissertation committee, and poor performance in core courses. Probationary students (those with cumulative grade point averages below 3.00) are subject to immediate dismissal upon the recommendation of their department. University guidelines governing termination of graduate students, including the appeal procedure, are outlined in Standards and Procedures for Graduate Study at UCLA.

Special Departmental or Program Policy

None.

Program Requirements for Biological Chemistry

Applicable only to students admitted during the 2014-2015 academic year.

Biological Chemistry

School of Medicine

Graduate Degrees

The Department of Biological Chemistry offers the Master of Science (M.S.) and Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) degrees in Biological Chemistry.

Admissions Requirements

Master’s Degree

Advising

The departmental graduate advisers act as advisers to students in the M.S. program.

Areas of Study

Consult the department.

Foreign Language Requirement

None.

Course Requirements

Students should see course requirements in the Doctoral Degree section below. In addition to the core course requirements, elective courses must be taken to complete the total of nine courses (36 units) required for the degree. No more than two courses (eight units) in the 500 series may be applied toward the total course requirement, and only one (four units) of the two courses may be applied toward the minimum graduate course requirement (20 units) for the degree.

With the consent of the graduate adviser, Biological Chemistry 596, 597, and 598 may be taken if they are appropriate to the program. Biological Chemistry 596 may be graded S/U or letter grade; 597 and 598 are graded S/U only.

Teaching Experience

Not required.

Field Experience

Not required.

Comprehensive Examination Plan

In general, the department prefers students to enter directly into the Ph.D. program, but if a student enters the master’s program, the comprehensive examination plan is preferred. Only in exceptional situations is a student approved for the thesis plan. In either plan the student must pass a departmental written examination. Only course requirements and the written examination are needed to complete the comprehensive examination plan.

Thesis Plan

Every master’s degree thesis plan requires the completion of an approved thesis that demonstrates the student’s ability to perform original, independent research.

In addition to coursework, a written thesis is required. A thesis committee helps the student plan the thesis research, determines the acceptability of the thesis, administers a final examination (if deemed appropriate), and recommends appropriate action on the granting of the degree. In the event of an unacceptable thesis or performance on the final examination (if one is given), the thesis committee determines if it is appropriate for additional time to be granted to rewrite the thesis or to be reexamined.

Time-to-Degree

Students in the comprehensive examination plan can normally expect to receive the master’s degree after three academic quarters plus a summer (when the written examination is given). This assumes the maintenance of satisfactory progress and the absence of deficiencies upon admission to graduate status. Students in the thesis plan ordinarily require a minimum of six academic quarters (plus one to two summers) to complete the requirements.

Doctoral Degree

Advising

The head of the thesis laboratory automatically becomes the student’s adviser. Upon entering the program, the student is informed of the requirements of the departmental Ph.D. program at a meeting with the graduate committee. A dissertation committee is formed before the end of the second year and its members also act as additional advisers. The student is required to meet with this committee once a year until graduation. Members of the departmental graduate committee are also available to advise students during the Ph.D. program.

Major Fields or Subdisciplines

Consult the department.

Foreign Language Requirement

None.

Course Requirements

Students are required to take Mol Bio 254(Concepts in Molecular Biosciences: sections A, B, C and D) and M234 (Ethics and Accountability in Biomedical Research) and 6 units of 200-level elective courses.

After the first year, students spend most of their time on dissertation research. Ph.D. students are expected to complete Biological Chemistry 596, 597, and/or 599 during quarters in which research (596, 599) or study for written or oral examinations (597) is part of their program. Biological Chemistry 599 is for students who have passed their oral examinations; Biological Chemistry 596 is for those who have not.

Teaching Experience

Students are required to serve as teaching assistants for a total of two quarters, one in the second year and one in the third year. Students can fulfill this requirement in either the departmental medical student laboratory course or an undergraduate course offered in the College of Letters and Science.

Written and Oral Qualifying Examinations

A satisfactory performance in rotations and the first-year courses as judged by the graduate student guidance committee and department faculty is required before students can select their doctoral committee.

The University Oral Qualifying Examination, which must be passed before students can be advanced to candidacy, is administered by a doctoral committee of four faculty members. The purpose is to evaluate students’ ability to formulate and defend two short research proposals. The proposals are submitted in a written form and defended orally. One proposal is an original research proposal that is not directly related to the dissertation research. This proposal also fulfills the requirements for the written examination. The other proposal should discuss the proposed dissertation research. The doctoral committee determines whether students pass the examination and whether reexamination is allowed in case of failure. The examination may be repeated only once. It is expected that the University Oral Qualifying Examination will be completed before the beginning of the third year of graduate work.

Advancement to Candidacy

Students are advanced to candidacy upon successful completion of the written and oral qualifying examinations.

Doctoral Dissertation

Final Oral Examination (Defense of the Dissertation)

Not required for all students in the program. The decision as to whether a defense is required is made by the doctoral committee.

Time-to-Degree

Students can normally expect to receive the Ph.D. degree within five years if satisfactory progress is maintained.

Termination of Graduate Study and Appeal of Termination

University Policy

A student who fails to meet the above requirements may be recommended for termination of graduate study. A graduate student may be disqualified from continuing in the graduate program for a variety of reasons. The most common is failure to maintain the minimum cumulative grade point average (3.00) required by the Academic Senate to remain in good standing (some programs require a higher grade point average). Other examples include failure of examinations, lack of timely progress toward the degree and poor performance in core courses. Probationary students (those with cumulative grade point averages below 3.00) are subject to immediate dismissal upon the recommendation of their department. University guidelines governing termination of graduate students, including the appeal procedure, are outlined in Standards and Procedures for Graduate Study at UCLA.

Special Departmental or Program Policy

Termination may be recommended by the Graduate Student Guidance Committee or a student’s master’s thesis or doctoral dissertation committee. A student may appeal a recommendation for termination to the Graduate Student Guidance Committee or the master’s thesis or doctoral dissertation committee. If the recommendation for termination is upheld, the student may appeal the recommendation to the departmental chair.

Program Requirements for Theater (Theater and Performance Studies)

Applicable only to students admitted during the 2014-2015 academic year.

Theater

School of Theater, Film, and Television

Graduate Degrees

The Department of Theater offers the Master of Fine Arts (M.F.A.) and Master of Arts (M.A.) degrees in Theater, and the Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) degree in Theater and Performance Studies.

Theater and Performance Studies

Doctoral Degree

Admissions Requirements

Advising

In most instances, the chair of the appropriate graduate committee acts as principal adviser to students in the program, although some students may be assigned by the chair to other members of the faculty. Each program has a specific procedure and calendar for assignment of each student’s committee. Students should consult the adviser for this information.

Students meet with their adviser for program planning prior to the beginning of each quarter and again early in each quarter for formal approval of the study list. Students are urged to confer with their adviser as frequently as necessary to discuss program changes, petitions, and other concerns.

Assessment of student academic progress in the program is made by the appropriate committee during the final examination week of each quarter. The adviser then notifies students of problems, when warranted, in writing and assists in planning a solution. Normally, committee recommendations are referred directly to the chair of the department, though in some instances, special problems may be referred to the faculty for recommendation of action to the chair.

Major Fields or Subdisciplines

The Ph.D. student in theater is expected to be knowledgeable regarding theater history and theory, critical methods, theatrical production, and dramatic literature.

Foreign Language Requirement

Mastery of one foreign language approved by the Ph.D. Committee is required and must be demonstrated by one of the following methods: (1) completion of a level 5 course or the equivalent with a minimum grade of C, in any foreign language, (2) passing a UCLA language examination given by a faculty member in any foreign language department, or (3) passing a departmental language examination given by a member of the department’s Graduate Foreign Language Committee. The foreign language requirement may be completed after admission to the Ph.D. program; however, students are encouraged to complete five quarters or three semesters of a foreign language appropriate to Ph.D. research objectives prior to admission. Language courses taken toward fulfillment of the language requirement are not counted toward the degree.

Course Requirements

During the first six quarters (two academic years), students must complete a minimum of 12 graduate courses (200- or 500- level) and Theater 220. Theater 216A, 216B, 216C are required. The remaining nine courses are elective graduate courses, seminars, or tutorials. Of these electives, no more than four may be taken outside the department and no more than two may be tutorials. In addition, the distribution of electives must include at least one each in the areas of Western or non-Western theater study. These electives must augment the required courses so as to constitute a definable area of study associated with the dissertation topic. The dissertation is a historical, critical, analytical, or experimental study of a theater topic. A screening examination is administered during the first week of the Fall Quarter based on a reading list supplied at the time of application. Results of this examination may require the completion of background courses.

Teaching Experience

Teaching experience is encouraged but not required.

Written and Oral Qualifying Examinations

After completion of language and course requirements, students are required to pass a written qualifying examination scheduled for three days followed by one oral examination. Students first constitute an examination committee, which may also serve as the doctoral committee, including the potential dissertation adviser. Students submit a short description of the dissertation project to the Critical Studies Committee for review. Subsequent to this submission, students, in consultation with the Committee and the potential adviser, constitute the proposed Ph.D. examination committee, consisting of a minimum of four professors, of whom at least three must be from the department and at least one must be from another department whose research is relevant to the dissertation topic.

The written examinations concentrate on three subject areas that will inform the dissertation and constitute the main foci of the student’s specialization. These areas may be chosen from: a field of critical theory; a historical period; the performance of a genre, or of social or cultural traditions of a given geographical region. The student, together with the examination committee, prepares a bibliography in each of the three fields, covering the leading concepts, methodologies and examples seminal to the field. Along with the bibliographies, the student also composes a dissertation prospectus of approximately 25-30 pages. The prospectus argues for the topic of the dissertation and for the pertinence of the three fields to the area of the dissertation, and concludes in a brief description of the proposed chapters. Both the prospectus and the bibliographies must be approved by the examination committee at least one quarter prior to scheduling the examinations. The examination questions are derived from these materials.

Each segment of the written examination is dedicated to one of the fields. The written examination is a take-home examination. The writing period for the examination will not exceed one week. The page limit of the examination will not exceed thirty pages. The completed examinations will be distributed to the committee.

Students who pass the written examinations submit a departmentally-approved nomination of doctoral committee to the Graduate Division for approval. Upon approval, the University Oral Qualifying Examination is scheduled. This examination focuses on the materials in the prospectus, including further discussion of the three scholarly fields identified as pertinent to the student.

If the student fails the doctoral examinations, there is one opportunity to retake them.

Advancement to Candidacy

Students are advanced to candidacy and awarded the Candidate in Philosophy (C.Phil.) degree upon successful completion of the written and oral qualifying examinations.

Doctoral Dissertation

Final Oral Examination (Defense of Dissertation)

Not required for all students in the program. The decision as to whether a defense is required is made by the doctoral committee.

Time-to-Degree

The maximum time for completion of degree requirements is 18 quarters, with the following timelines:

From graduate admission to the written and oral qualifying examination: six quarters.

From graduate admission to the approval of the dissertation prospectus: three to six quarters.

From approval of the dissertation prospectus to the oral qualifying examination: one quarter.

From advancement to candidacy to the final oral examination: three quarters.

From graduate admission to the award of the degree: 18 quarters.

Termination of Graduate Study and Appeal of Termination

University Policy

A student who fails to meet the above requirements may be recommended for termination of graduate study. A graduate student may be disqualified from continuing in the graduate program for a variety of reasons. The most common is failure to maintain the minimum cumulative grade point average (3.00) required by the Academic Senate to remain in good standing (some programs require a higher grade point average). Other examples include failure of examinations, lack of timely progress toward the degree and poor performance in core courses. Probationary students (those with cumulative grade point averages below 3.00) are subject to immediate dismissal upon the recommendation of their department. University guidelines governing termination of graduate students, including the appeal procedure, are outlined in Standards and Procedures for Graduate Study at UCLA.

Special Departmental or Program Policy

In addition to the standard reasons outlined above, a student may be recommended for probation/termination whose various creative projects or work in courses in research methodology and history seminars are indicative of insufficient talent, development, imagination or motivation. If a student’s work in this area is found to be insufficient, the student is informed of the recommendation by the appropriate committee and placed on probation by the department. During the following term the student must provide sufficient evidence of improvement to remove the probationary status. If not, the committee recommends termination to the faculty and chair of the department.

A student may appeal a recommendation for termination through the following steps:

(1) The student submits to the departmental chair and the chair of the appropriate committee a written appeal stating the specific causes for reconsideration.

(2) The chair of the committee submits a response to the departmental chair and the student.

(3) The departmental chair appoints an ad hoc committee consisting of three tenured members of the faculty to review the student’s appeal and committee’s response. The ad hoc committee also meets separately with the student and the committee. The ad hoc committee forwards its written recommendation to the departmental chair.

(4) The departmental chair makes the departmental recommendation and informs the student and the Graduate Division of the decision in writing.

(5) A departmental faculty representative may be present at each review hearing within the department.

Program Requirements for Physics and Biology in Medicine

Applicable only to students admitted during the 2014-2015 academic year.

Physics and Biology in Medicine

Interdepartmental Program
School of Medicine

Graduate Degrees

The Physics and Biology in Medicine Program offers the Master of Science (M.S.) and Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) degrees in Physics and Biology in Medicine.

Admissions Requirements

Master’s Degree

Advising

The graduate adviser may be contacted in the program office. The interdepartmental program’s student affairs officer is the adviser regarding the departmental, Graduate Division, and University regulations and procedures.

Entering students are assigned a faculty adviser. Students are expected and encouraged to meet with their adviser quarterly regarding their academic program, particularly at the beginning of each quarter to prepare and approve the study list. Students usually retain this adviser until research work is begun for the master’s or Ph.D. degree, at which time the chair of the thesis or dissertation committee becomes the adviser.

Special problems regarding graduate students are first discussed with the student’s adviser, and, as needed, during quarterly faculty meetings. These problems are brought to the attention of the program director either by the student, the student representative, the instructor or the adviser. If academic progress is satisfactory, oral evaluations are made; if the progress is unsatisfactory, students are informed in writing by the director of the graduate program, who explains possible remedial actions and the consequences of unsatisfactory progress. Progress during the first year of graduate study is evaluated primarily on grades in coursework. When the grade-point average falls below the minimum 3.0, students are put on probation for the following quarter. A substantial improvement must be made at the end of that quarter; otherwise, students are subject to dismissal. If, at the end of the third quarter the grade-point average is still below 3.0, the student is recommended for termination of graduate status.

Areas of Study

Medical imaging, molecular imaging, molecular and cellular oncology, and therapeutic medical physics.

Foreign Language Requirement

None.

Course Requirements

The courses required for the M.S. degree are the four core courses (Biomedical Physics 200A, 204, 205, 216) and two of the following four courses: Biomedical Physics 203, 219, 223, 248; and the six required courses (Biomedical Physics 217, 218, 227, 260A, 260B, 260C), along with any special direction by the graduate adviser.

M.S. and Ph.D. students are required to complete the six core courses with a grade of B or better. M.S. and Ph.D. students are also required to pass all the other required courses and maintain a minimum cumulative grade point average of 3.00.

Biomedical Physics 596 and 598 may be applied toward the degree. Eight units of 500-series courses may be applied toward the total course requirements, four units toward the minimum graduate course requirement.

Teaching Experience

Not required.

Field Experience

Not required.

Comprehensive Examination Plan

Students may pass a comprehensive examination (Plan II) that consists of the materials from the core and required courses. The examination is offered at least once a year, and students have two chances to pass the examination.

Students who plan to continue on the Ph.D. study track may request approval from their faculty adviser for the Ph.D. written specialty examination to be used to satisfy the requirement for the M.S. comprehensive examination (Plan II). Students then receive the M.S. degree, in addition to the Ph.D. degree.

Thesis Plan

Every master’s degree thesis plan requires the completion of an approved thesis that demonstrates the student’s ability to perform original, independent research.

Students satisfy this requirement by writing a thesis (Plan I) based on a research project. After students complete the course requirements, they must choose a faculty member to guide their research and chair the thesis committee.

Time-to-Degree

From graduate admission to conferral of the M.S. degree, normal progress is six to eight quarters of full-time enrollment.

Doctoral Degree

Advising

Entering students are assigned a faculty adviser. The student is expected and encouraged to meet with their adviser quarterly regarding their academic program, particularly at the beginning of each quarter to prepare and approve the study list. Students usually retain this adviser until they begin research work for the Ph.D. degree, at which time the chair of the dissertation committee becomes the adviser.

Special problems regarding graduate students are first discussed with the student’s adviser, and, as needed, during quarterly faculty meetings. These problems are brought to the attention of the program director either by the student, the student representative, the instructor or the adviser. If academic progress is satisfactory, oral evaluations are made; if the progress is unsatisfactory, the student is informed in writing by the director of the graduate program, who explains possible remedial action and the consequences of unsatisfactory progress. Progress during the first year of graduate study is based primarily upon grade-point averages. When the grade-point average falls below the minimum 3.0, the student is put on probation for the following quarter. A substantial improvement must be made at the end of that quarter; otherwise, the student is subject to dismissal. If, at the end of the third quarter the grade-point average is still below 3.0, the student is recommended for termination of graduate status.

Progress Update Meeting: This meeting is an informal meeting whose purpose is to review the doctoral student’s progress toward completion of the degree. This meeting may include a review of progress of individual specific aims of the proposed dissertation, timelines and other relevant issues as determined by the student’s doctoral committee. This meeting is required to occur at least annually from the time of advancing to candidacy (passing the first oral qualifying examination) until the final defense. If the time between advancement to candidacy and final defense is less than one year, then this meeting is not required.

All internal members of the doctoral committee are required to be present at this meeting; external members are highly recommended to attend but their presence is not required.

Major Fields or Subdisciplines

Medical imaging, molecular imaging, molecular and cellular oncology, and therapeutic medical physics.

Foreign Language Requirement

None.

Course Requirements

After selecting a specialty, students acquire sufficient knowledge by taking courses recommended for the specialty; these include the core and required courses. These courses form a basis for the Ph.D. written specialty examination. Students must pass all core courses with grades of B (a B- or lower is not acceptable) or better or pass the entire M.S. comprehensive examination.

A more sharply focused curriculum may be advised for students with a medical physics background or with a career objective other than that of a practicing medical physicist. Transfer students can either take the four core courses, or pass the M.S. comprehensive examination. They may also take required or other courses as advised by the program director.

The following specialties are offered:

Medical Imaging. Minimum course requirement of 60 hours. The courses for the medical imaging specialty include the six core courses and six required courses, as well as the medical imaging specialty core courses (Biomedical Physics 209 and 210). A minimum of four elective courses are required from the following two lists: (a) two to four Biomedical Physics elective courses (Biomedical Physics 208A, 211, 214, 215, 222, 225, 229, M230, and 286); and (b) zero to two electives from the following courses outside of the program:

Computer Science (Henry Samueli School of Engineering and Applied Science) 112, 118, 161, 171, 174, 212A, 212B, 214, 215, 241A, 241B, 267A, 268, 270A, M276A, and 276B.

Electrical Engineering (Henry Samueli School of Engineering and Applied Science) 113, 113L, 115A, 115B, 115C, 212A, 213A, 215A, and 230D.

Mathematics (College of Letters and Science) 142, 149, 270A, and 270F.

Microbiology, Immunology, and Molecular Genetics (College of Letters and Science) C234.

Appropriate elective courses are selected by the student and the adviser. Students who wish to pursue a hospital-based career should prepare to be Board Certified after graduation by taking additional clinical courses: Biomedical Physics 200B, 202A-202B-202C, 203, 208A, and 208B.

Molecular Imaging. Minimum course requirement of 60 hours. The molecular imaging specialty includes the core and required courses within the department, graduate courses from physics, engineering, chemistry/biochemistry, biological chemistry, pharmacology, and biomathematics, and research study and seminar courses.

Molecular and Cellular Oncology. Students must demonstrate competence in the subject matter covered in the core courses. Because of the breadth of radiation biology and experimental radiation oncology, it is not feasible to design a single curriculum for all students. Instead, additional coursework is recommended by faculty in accordance with specific needs.

Therapeutic Medical Physics. Students must demonstrate competence in the subject matter covered in the core courses. In addition, students are required to take the three clinical rotations (Biomedical Physics 201, 202A-202B-202C, 203, 207, 208B, 210, and M230, and some advanced mathematics courses. Additional coursework is recommended by faculty in accordance with students’ specific needs.

Teaching Experience

Not required.

Written and Oral Qualifying Examinations

Written Qualifying Examination. The written examination consists of the submission of a written research proposal to an ad hoc committee consisting of more than two faculty members within the specialty area. The research proposal must be written according to the NIH grant application format. The written proposal is then presented orally to the committee for review.

Oral Qualifying Examination. The written specialty examination for admission to the Ph.D. program should be taken by the end of the sixth quarter in residence. Once this examination is passed and students have chosen a research area for the dissertation, within a reasonable time frame agreed on with the dissertation adviser, they form a doctoral committee and schedule the University Oral Qualifying Examination. This examination is based on a proposed dissertation topic. Passing the examination is a requirement for continuance in the doctoral program. The written proposal for the first oral qualifying examination is required to be provided to all committee members at least two weeks prior to the date of the oral defense.

Advancement to Candidacy

Students are advanced to candidacy upon successful completion of the written and oral qualifying examinations.

Doctoral Dissertation

Doctoral Dissertation Manuscript: The body of the dissertation manuscript (which excludes "preliminary pages") should be provided to all committee members a minimum of 3 weeks prior to the Final Oral Examination (Defense of the Dissertation) date.

Final Oral Examination (Defense of the Dissertation)

Required for all students in the program.

Time-to-Degree

It is estimated that full-time students entering the program with no undergraduate deficiencies can complete the Ph.D. degree within five to six years (approximately eighteen quarters).

Termination of Graduate Study and Appeal of Termination

University Policy

A student who fails to meet the above requirements may be recommended for termination of graduate study. A graduate student may be disqualified from continuing in the graduate program for a variety of reasons. The most common is failure to maintain the minimum cumulative grade point average (3.00) required by the Academic Senate to remain in good standing (some programs require a higher grade point average). Other examples include failure of examinations, lack of timely progress toward the degree and poor performance in core courses. Probationary students (those with cumulative grade point averages below 3.00) are subject to immediate dismissal upon the recommendation of their department. University guidelines governing termination of graduate students, including the appeal procedure, are outlined in Standards and Procedures for Graduate Study at UCLA.

Special Departmental or Program Policy

A tentative decision to recommend termination is made in a meeting of the teaching faculty. The student is informed of the decision and given an opportunity to make an appeal before a final decision is reached.

Program Requirements for Bioengineering

Applicable only to students admitted during the 2014-2015 academic year.

Bioengineering

Henry Samueli School of Engineering and Applied Science

Graduate Degrees

The Department of Bioengineering offers the Master of Science (M.S.) and Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) degrees in Bioengineering

Admissions Requirements

Master’s Degree

Advising

Each department or program in the Henry Samueli School of Engineering and Applied Science has a graduate adviser. A current list of graduate advisers may be obtained from the Office of the Associate Dean for Academic and Student Affairs, 6426 Boelter Hall, Henry Samueli School of Engineering and Applied Science. This list is also available from the Department of Bioengineering.

Students are assigned a faculty adviser upon admission to the School. Advisers may be changed upon written request from the student. All faculty in the School serve as advisers.

New students should arrange an appointment as early as possible with the faculty adviser to plan the proposed program of study toward the M.S. degree. Continuing students are required to confer with the adviser during the time of enrollment each quarter so that progress can be assessed and the study list approved.

Based on the quarterly transcripts, student records are reviewed at the end of each quarter by the departmental graduate adviser and Associate Dean for Academic and Student Affairs. Special attention is given if students were admitted provisionally or are on probation. If their progress is unsatisfactory, students are informed of this in writing by the Associate Dean for Academic and Student Affairs.

Students are strongly urged to consult with the program student office staff and/or the Office of Academic and Student Affairs regarding procedures, requirements, and the implementation of policies. In particular, advice should be sought on advancement to candidacy for the M.S. degree, on the procedures for taking Ph.D. preliminary examination for those who choose the comprehensive examination option, on the procedures for filing the thesis for those who choose the thesis option, and on the use of the Filing Fee. Students are also urged to become familiar with the sections on Termination of Graduate Study and Appeal of Termination at the end of this document.

Areas of Study

Field 1: Biomedical Instrumentation (BMI)

This field of emphasis is designed to train bioengineers interested in the applications and development of instrumentation used in medicine and biotechnology. Examples include the use of lasers in surgery and diagnostics, new micro electrical machines for surgery, sensors for detecting and monitoring of disease, microfluidic systems for cell-based diagnostics, new tool development for basic and applied life science research, and controlled drug delivery devices. The principles underlying each instrument and specific clinical or biological needs will be emphasized. Graduates of this program will be targeted principally for employment in academia, government research laboratories, and the biotechnology, medical devices, and biomedical industries.

Field 2: Molecular Cellular Tissue Therapeutics (MCTT)

This field of emphasis covers novel therapeutic development across all biological length scales from molecules to cells to tissues. At the molecular and cellular levels, this area of research encompasses the engineering of biomaterials, ligands, enzymes, protein-protein interactions, intracellular trafficking, biological signal transduction, genetic regulation, cellular metabolism, drug delivery vehicles, and cell-cell interactions, as well as the development of chemical/biological tools to achieve this. At the tissue level, this field encompasses two sub-fields which include biomaterials and tissue engineering. The properties of bone, muscles and tissues, the replacement of natural materials with artificial compatible and functional materials such as polymers, composites, ceramics and metals, and the complex interactions between implants and the body are studied at the tissue level. The emphasis of research is on the fundamental basis for diagnosis, disease treatment, and re-design of molecular, cellular, and tissue functions. In addition to quantitative experiments required to obtain spatial and temporal information, quantitative and integrative modeling approaches at the molecular, cellular, and tissue levels are also included within this field. Although some of the research will remain exclusively at one length scale, research that bridges any two or all three length scales are also an integral part of this field. Graduates of this program will be targeted principally for employment in academia, government research laboratories, and the biotechnology, pharmaceutical, and biomedical industries.

Field 3: Imaging, Informatics and Systems Engineering (IIS)

This field consists of the following four subfields: Biomedical Signal and Image Processing (BSIP), Biosystem Science and Engineering (BSSE), Medical Imaging Informatics (MII), and NeuroEngineering (NE).

Subfield 1: Biosystem Science and Engineering (BSSE)

Graduate study in Biosystem Science and Engineering (BSSE) emphasizes the systems aspects of living processes, as well as their component parts. It is intended for science and engineering students interested in understanding biocontrol, regulation, communication, measurement or visualization of biomedical systems (of aggregate parts – whole systems), for basic or clinical applications. Dynamic systems engineering, mathematical, statistical and multiscale computational modeling and optimization methods – applicable at all biosystem levels – form the theoretical underpinnings of the field. They are the paradigms for exploring the integrative and hierarchical dynamical properties of biomedical systems quantitatively – at molecular, cellular, organ, whole organism or societal levels – and leveraging them in applications. The academic program provides directed interdisciplinary biosystem studies in these areas – as well as quantitative dynamic systems biomodeling methods – integrated with the biology for specialized life science domain studies of interest to the student. Typical research areas include molecular and cellular systems physiology, organ systems physiology, medical, pharmacological and pharmacogenomic system studies; neurosystems, imaging and remote sensing systems, robotics, learning and knowledge-based systems, visualization and virtual clinical environments. The program fosters careers in research and teaching in systems biology/physiology, engineering, medicine, and/or the biomedical sciences, or research and development in the biomedical or pharmaceutical industry.

Subfield 2: Biomedical Signal and Image Processing (BSIP)

The Biomedical Signal and Image Processing (BSIP) graduate program prepares students for a career in the acquisition and analysis of biomedical signals; and enables students to apply quantitative methods applied to extract meaningful information for both clinical and research applications. The BSIP program is premised on the fact that a core set of mathematical and statistical methods are held in common across signal acquisition and imaging modalities and across data analyses regardless of their dimensionality. These include signal transduction, characterization and analysis of noise, transform analysis, feature extraction from time series or images, quantitative image processing and imaging physics. Students in the BSIP program have the opportunity to focus their work over a broad range of modalities including electrophysiology, optical imaging methods, MRI, CT, PET and other tomographic devices and/or on the extraction of image features such as organ morphometry or neurofunctional signals, and detailed anatomic/functional feature extraction. The career opportunities for BSIP trainees include medical instrumentation, engineering positions in medical imaging, and research in the application of advanced engineering skills to the study of anatomy and function.

Subfield 3: Medical Imaging Informatics (MII)

Medical imaging informatics (MII) is the rapidly evolving field that combines biomedical informatics and imaging, developing and adapting core methods in informatics to improve the usage and application of imaging in healthcare. Graduate study in this field encompasses principles from across engineering, computer science, information sciences, and biomedicine. Imaging informatics research concerns itself with the full spectrum of low-level concepts (e.g., image standardization and processing; image feature extraction) to higher-level abstractions (e.g., associating semantic meaning to a region in an image; visualization and fusion of images with other biomedical data) and ultimately, applications and the derivation of new knowledge from imaging. Notably, medical imaging informatics addresses not only the images themselves, but encompasses the associated (clinical) data to understand the context of the imaging study; to document observations; and to correlate and reach new conclusions about a disease and the course of a medical problem. Research foci include distributed medical information architectures and systems; medical image understanding and applications of image processing; medical natural language processing; knowledge engineering and medical decision-support; and medical data visualization. Coursework is geared towards students with science and engineering backgrounds, introducing them to these areas in addition to providing exposure to fundamental biomedical informatics, imaging, and clinical issues. This area encourages interdisciplinary training, with faculty from multiple departments; and emphasizes the practical, translational development and evaluation of tools/applications to support clinical research and care.

Subfield 4: NeuroEngineering (NE)

The NeuroEngineering (NE) subfield is designed to enable students with a background in biological science to develop and execute projects that make use of state-of-the-art technology, including microelectromechanical systems (MEMS), signal processing, and photonics. Students with a background in engineering will develop and execute projects that address problems that have a neuroscientific base, including locomotion and pattern generation, central control of movement, and the processing of sensory information. Trainees will develop the capacity for the multidisciplinary teamwork, in intellectually and socially diverse settings, that will be necessary for new scientific insights and dramatic technological progress in the 21st century. NE students take a curriculum designed to encourage cross-fertilization of neuroscience and engineering. Our goal is for neuroscientists and engineers to speak each others’ language and move comfortably among the intellectual domains of the two fields.

Foreign Language Requirement

None.

Course Requirements

A minimum of 13 courses (44 units) are required.

For the comprehensive track, at least eleven courses must be from the 200-series, three of which must be Bioengineering 299. It is required that the students take one 495 course. One 100-series course may count towards the total course and unit requirement. No units of 500-series courses may be applied toward the minimum course requirement except for the field of medical imaging informatics where two units of Bioengineering 597A are required.

For the thesis track, at least ten of the 13 must be from the 200-series, three of which must be Bioengineering 299. It is required to have two 598 courses involving work on the thesis and one 495 course.

To remain in good academic standing an M.S. student must maintain an overall grade-point average of 3.0 and a grade-point average of 3.0 in graduate courses.

By the end of the first quarter in residence, students design a course program in consultation with and approved by their faculty adviser.

Field 1: Biomedical Instrumentation (BMI)

Group I: Core Courses on General Concepts. At least three courses from this group are required: Bioengineering C201, C204, C205, C206.

Group II: Field Specific Courses: At least 3 courses from this group are required. Bioengineering CM250A, Electrical Engineering 100, and (Bioengineering CM202 or CM203 or Molecular Cell Development Biology 165A)

Group III: Field Elective Courses. Students may fulfill the remainder of their courses from one of the following three groups:

Microfluidics, MEMS, and Biosensors: Bioengineering CM250L, M260, 282; Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering C216; Chemistry 118, 156; Electrical Engineering 102, 110, 110L; Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering 103, 150A, 150G, M168, 250B, C250G, 250M, 281, M287; Microbiology, Immunology and Molecular Genetics 185A; Molecular, Cellular and Development Biology 165A, 168, M175A-B, M272

Surgical/Imaging Instrumentation: Bioengineering 224A, CM240, C270, C271, 272; Biomathematics M230, Electrical Engineering 176, Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering 171A, 263D

Bionanotechnology & Biophotonics: Bioengineering C270, C271, Chemistry and Biochemistry C240; Electrical Engineering 121B, 128, 150DL, 172, M217, 225, 274; Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering 258A, C287L, M287

Other Electives (Approved on a case-by-case basis)

Field 2: Molecular Cellular Tissue Therapeutics (MCTT)

Group I: Core Courses on General Concepts. At least three courses from this group are required: Bioengineering C201, C204, C205, C206

Group II: Field Specific Courses. At least three courses from this group are required: Bioengineering 100, 110, 120, 176, C278, C283, C285

Group III. Field Elective Courses. Students may fulfill the remainder of their courses from this group: Bioengineering 180, M215, M225, CM240, CM245, C287; Biomathematics 201, M203, M211, 220 M270, M271; Chemistry 153A, 153B, M230B, CM260A, CM260B, C265, 269A, 269D, 277, C281; Materials Science and Engineering 110, 111, 200, 201; Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering 156A, 168; Molecular Cell Development Biology 100, M140, 144, 165A, C222D, 224, M230B, M234; Microbiology, Immunology and Molecular Genetics 185A,CM233; Molecular & Medical Pharmacology M110A, M110B, 203, 211A, 211B, 288; Neuroscience 205; Pathology M237, 294

Other Electives (Approved on a case-by-case basis)

Subfield 1: Biosystem Science and Engineering (BSSE)

Group I: Core Courses on General Concepts.

Two courses from the following group:

Physiology/Molecular, cellular and organ system biology

Either Bioengineering CM202 and CM203 or Physiological Science 166 and Molecular, Cellular, and Developmental Biology 140 or 144 or other approved equivalent approved courses.

Two courses from the following group:

Dynamic biosystems modeling, estimation and optimization

Bioengineering CM286 and either Biomathematics 220 or M296B.

Group II: Subfield Specific and Elective Courses. Three courses from this group are required. These should be chosen in consultation with and in approval of the faculty advisor.

Biomathematics 201, 206, 208A or 208B, 213, M230, Bioengineering C204, C205, C206, M217, CM245, M248, M260, C283, M296D, Chemistry and Biochemistry CM260A, CM260B, Computer Science 161, CM224, 267B, Electrical Engineering 102, 103, 113, 131A, 132A, 136, 141, 142, 210B, 232E, 240B, M240C, 241A, 241C, M242A, 243, CM250A, CM250L, M252, 260A, 260B, Mathematics 134, 136, 151A, 151B, 155, 170A, 170B, 171, Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering 107, 171A, Physiological Science 135, M200.

Group III: Ethics Courses. One course is required from this group: Bioengineering 165EW, Biomathematics M261, Microbiology, Immunology, Molecular Genetics C134, Neuroscience 207.

Subfield 2: Biomedical Signal / Image Processing (BSIP)

Group I: Core Courses on General Concepts. Three courses are required from the following: Bioengineering C201 or CM286, CM202 and CM203, or Physiological Science 166 and Molecular Cell Development Biology 144

Group II: Subfield Specific Courses. At least three courses are required from: Biomedical Physics 205, M219, M248, Electrical Engineering 239AS, 266, Neurobiology M200C, Neuroscience CM272, M287 and one course from the following: Bioengineering 165EW, Biomathematics M261, Microbiology, Immunology and Molecular Genetics C134, Neuroscience 207

Group III: Subfield Elective Courses. Students may fulfill the remainder of their courses from this group: Bioengineering 100, 120, 223A-223B-223C, 224A, M261, Biomedical Physics 210, 217, 218, 222, 227, M230, Biostatistics 238, Computer Science 269, Electrical Engineering 102, 113, 151A-151B, 208A, 210A, CM211A, 212A, 224, 236A, 236B, 273, Mathematics 155, 133, 270A, 270B-270C, 270D-270E, 270F

Subfield 3: Medical Imaging Informatics (MII)

Group I: Core Courses on General Concepts: Bioengineering 220, 221 or CM202 and CM203, 223A, 223B, 223C, 224B, M226, M227, M228

Group II: Subfield Specific Courses. MS comp students are required to take three courses and Ph.D. students are required to take 6 courses from the following four concentrations.

Information networks and data access in medical environment concentration: Computer Science 240B, 241A, 244A, 245A, 246

Computer understanding of text and medical information retrieval concentration: Computer Science 263A, 263B, Information Studies 228, 245, 246, 260, Linguistics 218, 232, Statistics M231

Computer understanding of images concentration: Biomedical Physics 210, 214, M219, 230, M266; Computer Science, M266A, M266B, 276B, Electrical Engineering 211A

Probabilistic modeling and visualization of medical data: Biostatistics M209, M232, M234, M235, M236, Computer Science 241B, 262A, 262B, M262C, Information Studies 272, 277

Group III: Ethics Courses. One course is required from this group: Bioengineering 165EW, Biomathematics M261, Microbiology, Immunology, Molecular Genetics C134, Neuroscience 207

Subfield 4: Neuroengineering

Group I: Core Courses on Concepts. Three courses are required from the following: Bioengineering C201 or CM286 either Bioengineering CM202 and CM203, or Physiological Science 166 and Molecular Cell Development Biology 144

Group II: Subfield Specific Courses. All courses are required from: Bioengineering M260, M261, M284, and one course from the following: Bioengineering 165EW, Biomathematics M261, Microbiology, Immunology, and Molecular Genetics C134, Neuroscience 207.

Group III: Subfield Elective Courses. Two courses from one of the following two concentrations are required:

Electronic engineering concentration: Chemical Engineering CM215, CM225, Electrical Engineering 210A, M214A, 214B, 216B, M250A, M250B, M250L, M252

Neuroscience concentration: Bioengineering C206, M263, Neuroscience M201, M202, 205

Teaching Experience

Not required.

Field Experience

Not required.

Comprehensive Examination Plan

The comprehensive examination plan is available in all fields. The requirements for fulfilling the comprehensive examination requirement varies for each field. Specific details about the comprehensive examination in each field are available from the Graduate Adviser. Students who fail the examination may repeat it once only, subject to the approval of the faculty examination committee. Students who fail the examination twice are not permitted to submit a thesis and are subject to termination. The oral component of the Ph.D. Preliminary Examination is not required for the M.S. degree.

Thesis Plan

Every master’s degree thesis plan requires the completion of an approved thesis that demonstrates the student’s ability to perform original, independent research.

New students who choose this plan are expected to submit the name of the thesis adviser to the Graduate Adviser by the end of their first quarter in residence. The thesis adviser serves as chair of the thesis committee.

A research thesis (eight units of Bioengineering 598) is to be written on a biomedical engineering topic approved by the thesis adviser. The thesis committee consists of the thesis adviser and two other qualified faculty members who are selected from a current list of designated members for the interdepartmental program.

Time-to-Degree

The typical length of time for completion of the M.S. degree under the comprehensive examination plan is one year. The typical length of time for completion of the M.S. degree under the thesis plan is two years.

Doctoral Degree

Advising

Each department in the Henry Samueli School of Engineering and Applied Science has a graduate adviser. A current list of graduate advisers may be obtained from the Office of the Associate Dean for Academic and Student Affairs, 6426 Boelter Hall, Henry Samueli School of Engineering and Applied Science. This list is also available from the Department of Bioengineering.

Students are assigned a faculty adviser upon admission to the School. Advisers may be changed upon written request from the student. All HSSEAS faculty serve as advisers.

New students should arrange an appointment as early as possible with the faculty adviser to plan the proposed program of study toward the Ph.D. degree. Continuing students are required to confer with the adviser during the time of enrollment each quarter so that progress can be assessed and the study list approved.

Students are strongly urged to consult with the departmental student office staff and/or the Office of Academic and Student Affairs regarding procedures, requirements and the implementation of policies. In particular, advice should be sought on advancement to candidacy, on the procedures for taking the Ph.D. written and oral examinations and on the use of the Filing Fee.

Major Fields or Subdisciplines

Biomedical instrumentation; imaging, informatics and systems engineering; molecular cellular tissue therapeutics. See Areas of Study under Master’s Degree for descriptions of all fields.

Foreign Language Requirement

None.

Course Requirements

To complete the Ph.D. degree, all students must fulfill minimum University requirements. Students must pass the Ph.D. Preliminary Examination, the University Oral Qualifying Examination, the Final Oral Examination, and complete the courses in Group I, Group II, and Group III. See Course Requirements under Master’s Degree. Students must maintain a grade-point average of 3.25 or higher for all courses.

Teaching Experience

A minimum of one quarter of teaching experience is required.

Written and Oral Qualifying Examinations

The Ph.D. Preliminary Examination tests a core body of knowledge. The requirements for fulfilling the preliminary examination requirement varies for each field. Specific details about the preliminary examination in each field are available from the Graduate Adviser. Students who fail the examination may repeat it once only, subject to the approval of the faculty examination committee. Students who fail the examination twice are subject to a recommendation for termination.

Within three quarters after passing the Ph.D. Preliminary Examination described above, students are strongly encouraged to take the University Oral Qualifying Examination. The nature and content of the examination are at the discretion of the doctoral committee, but ordinarily include a broad inquiry into the student’s preparation for research. The doctoral committee also reviews the prospectus of the dissertation at the oral qualifying examination.

A doctoral committee consists of a minimum of four qualified UCLA faculty members. Three members, including the chair, are selected from a current list of designated inside members for the interdepartmental program. The outside member must be a qualified UCLA faculty member who does not appear on this list.

Advancement to Candidacy

Students are advanced to candidacy upon successful completion of the written and oral qualifying examinations.

Doctoral Dissertation

Final Oral Examination (Defense of the Dissertation)

Required for all students in the program.

Time-to-Degree

Students are expected to receive their degree within six years (18 quarters) from admission into the program, and must be registered continuously or on approved leave of absence during this period. Students who do not register or take an official leave of absence lose their student status.

Termination of Graduate Study and Appeal of Termination

University Policy

A student who fails to meet the above requirements may be recommended for termination of graduate study. A graduate student may be disqualified from continuing in the graduate program for a variety of reasons. The most common is failure to maintain the minimum cumulative grade point average (3.00) required by the Academic Senate to remain in good standing (some programs require a higher grade point average). Other examples include failure of examinations, lack of timely progress toward the degree and poor performance in core courses. Probationary students (those with cumulative grade point averages below 3.00) are subject to immediate dismissal upon the recommendation of their department. University guidelines governing termination of graduate students, including the appeal procedure, are outlined in Standards and Procedures for Graduate Study at UCLA.

Special Departmental or Program Policy

A recommendation for termination is reviewed by the school’s Associate Dean for Academic and Student Affairs.

Master’s

In addition to the standard reasons noted above, a student may be recommended for termination for

(1) Failure to maintain a grade point average of 3.0 in all courses and in those in the 200 series.

(2) Failure to maintain a grade point average of 3.0 in any two consecutive terms.

(3) Failure of the comprehensive examination.

(4) Failure to complete the thesis to the satisfaction of the committee members.

(5) Failure to maintain satisfactory progress toward the degree within the three-year time limit for completing all degree requirements.

Doctoral

In addition to the standard reasons noted above, a student may be recommended for termination for

(1) Failure to maintain a grade point average of 3.25 in all courses and in any two consecutive quarters.

(2) Failure of the major field written examination.

(3) Failure of the oral preliminary examination.

(4) Failure of a written minor field examination after failure to attain a grade point average of 3.33 in the minor field course work.

(5) Failure of the oral qualifying examination.

(6) Failure of the final oral examination (defense of the dissertation).

(7) Failure to obtain permission to repeat an examination from an examining committee.

(8) Failure to maintain satisfactory progress toward the degree within the specified time limits.

Program Requirements for Molecular Biology

Applicable only to students admitted during the 2014-2015 academic year.

Molecular Biology

Interdepartmental Program
College of Letters and Science

Graduate Degrees

The Molecular Biology Program offers the Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) degree in Molecular Biology.

Admissions Requirements

Doctoral Degree

Advising

After entering the Molecular Biology program, the student, in consultation with the dissertation research adviser, convenes a four-member doctoral committee comprised of three members of the program faculty, and one faculty member from outside the MB-IDP. This committee advises the student throughout the remainder of graduate study. The doctoral committee administers the University Oral Qualifying Examination and the final oral examination (defense of the dissertation), and meets yearly with the student to evaluate progress and offer suggestions for the direction of study. Upon advancement to candidacy, the doctoral committee is reconstituted, so as to include the dissertation research advisor as the fifth member. An appointed Molecular Biology Program Graduate Adviser and Ph.D. Committee oversee all academic policies and procedures, and are available for consultation at any time.

The Director(s) of each Home Area functions as its Faculty Graduate Advisor.

Major Fields or Subdisciplines

Graduate Programs in Biosciences is a consortium of Ph.D. programs organized into specialized research groups called Home Areas, which serve as the admissions and training units associated with degree-granting programs. Each participating Ph.D. program is now associated with at least one of the new Home Areas in Graduate Programs in Bioscience.

(1) Biochemistry, Biophysics & Structural Biology

(2) Cell & Developmental Biology

(3) Gene Regulation

(4) Immunity, Microbes, & Molecular Pathogenesis

Foreign Language Requirement

None.

Course Requirements

Students are required to enroll full-time in a minimum of 12 units each quarter throughout graduate study. A grade of B or better must be received in all courses. Any grade less than B will require a repeat of the course, or its equivalent, as per the approval of the Molecular Biology Program Home Area Director.

During the first year of graduate study, students are required to complete all of the following: Molecular Biology 254A, B; Molecular Biology 254C-D or Chem 230B and 230D; Molecular Biology 255 or Biological Chemistry 251 and Molecular Biology 252; one approved elective course of 4-6 units, one research ethics course (MIMG C234 or Chem 203A, or 203B), and three laboratory rotations (one during each ten-week quarter).

MSTP Program students: Students complete required or recommended courses by the end of the first year of graduate study, and three Molecular Biology 298 (or equivalent) courses by the end of the second year. A course on research integrity – Chemistry 203A or 203B or Microbiology, Immunology, and Molecular Genetics C234 (Spring Quarter) – also must be completed in the first year.

STAR Program students: Students complete required or recommended courses by the end of the first year of graduate study, and three Molecular Biology 298 (or equivalent) courses by the end of the second year.

Teaching Experience

Students are required to gain two quarters of teaching experience through service as teaching assistants in undergraduate courses by the end of the fourth year of graduate study. Students who enter the program through the MSTP and STAR Programs may teach but teaching is not a degree requirement.

Written and Oral Qualifying Examinations

Written Qualifying Examination

The written qualifying examination must take place by the end of the first year of doctoral study. In order to be eligible to take the written qualifying examination, students must have achieved at least two passing lab rotation evaluations, as well as at least a B average in all coursework. Students prepare a written research proposal in the format of an NIH R-21 grant proposal, and with a maximum length of six pages, excluding references. The topic and hypotheses for the proposal are to be selected by the student. The topic requires advance approval by the Home Area Director, and may not be a rotation project, or an anticipated dissertation research topic. The student is free to consult with other individuals in formulating the experimental approach. This proposal is submitted to the Student Affairs Office. Proposals are graded by a Home Area faculty committee on a pass or no-pass basis. Students who do not pass the examination are permitted one opportunity to pass, which can take place no later than the end of the next quarter.

Oral Qualifying Examination

The University Oral Qualifying Examination must be completed and passed by the end of Fall Quarter of the third year. Students prepare a written description of the scientific background of their proposed dissertation research project, the specific aims of the project, preliminary findings, and an experimental plan for addressing the specific aims. This dissertation proposal has a maximum length of 10 pages, excluding references, and is submitted to the students’ doctoral committee at least 10 days in advance of the examination. Exclusive of their doctoral committee members, students are free to consult with their thesis advisor, or other individuals in formulating the proposed research. The research proposal must be written according to the NIH grant application format, with a maximum length of 10 pages, excluding references. The examination consists of an oral presentation of the proposal by the student to the committee. The student’s oral presentation and examination are expected to demonstrate: (1) a scholarly understanding of the background of the research proposal; (2) well-designed and testable aims; (3) a critical understanding of the technical applications to be employed in the proposed research; and (4) an understanding of potential experimental outcomes and their interpretation. This examination is graded Pass, Conditional Pass, or Fail. If the doctoral committee decides that the examination reflects performance below the expected mastery of graduate-level content, the committee may vote to give the student a Conditional Pass. At the committee’s discretion, a student who receives Conditional Pass will be required to modify or re-write their research proposal, so as to bring it up to required standards. In the case of a Conditional Pass, the student will be permitted to seek the advice of their committee in modifying or re-writing the proposal. Any required re-write or modification will be submitted to, and reviewed by the doctoral committee. The signed Report on the Oral Qualifying Examination & Request for Advancement to Candidacy will be retained in the Graduate Student Affairs Office until the student has satisfied the doctoral committee’s request for revision or re-write.

MSTP and Star Program students: After passing the written qualifying examinations, students take the University Oral Qualifying Examination in the second year of graduate study.

Advancement to Candidacy

Students are advanced to candidacy upon successful completion of the written and oral qualifying examinations.

Doctoral Dissertation

Final Oral Examination (Defense of the Dissertation)

Required for all students in the program.

Time-to-Degree

Normal progress from matriculation to conferral of the degree is five to six academic years (15 to 18 quarters). Students are expected to file their dissertations by the end of the fifth year of graduate study.

MSTP and Star Program students are expected to file their dissertations by the end of the fourth year of Ph.D. study.

First Year:

Coursework, laboratory rotations, and choice of faculty adviser should be completed by the end of the first year.

The written qualifying examination should be completed by end of the first year of graduate study.

Second through Fifth Years:

In the second year, students complete the remaining Molecular Biology 298 or equivalent courses. Students additionally conduct intensive year-round research under the guidance of the permanent research adviser.

The University Oral Qualifying Examination and advancement to candidacy should be completed and passed by the end of the Fall Quarter of the third year of graduate study.

Program Participation:

Once in the third year, and once in their fifth year of graduate study, students are required to give a 30-minute presentation of their research project at the Molecular Biology IDP student seminar series, held on the second and fourth Wednesday of each month beginning in Winter Quarter of each academic year.

MSTP and STAR Program students are required to give one 30-minute presentation of their research project at the Molecular Biology IDP student seminar series in the third year of graduate study.

All students also are required to attend a minimum of six of the 12 yearly Molecular Biology Program student seminars and two more of the Molecular Biology Institute annual retreats.

Annual Committee Meetings:

Beginning in the latter part of the third year or early in the fourth year, and in each year thereafter until completion of the degree program, students are required to meet annually with their doctoral committee. At each meeting, students give a brief, 30 minute oral presentation of their dissertation research progress to their committee. The purpose of the meeting is to monitor the student’s progress, identify difficulties that may occur as the student progresses toward successful completion of the dissertation and, if necessary, approve changes in the dissertation project. The presentation is not an examination.

Annual Progress Report:

At the end of each year all students are required to submit a brief report (a one-page form is provided) of their time-to-degree progress and research activities indicating the principal research undertaken and any important results, research plans for the next year, conferences attended, seminars given, and publications appearing or manuscripts in preparation.

Termination of Graduate Study and Appeal of Termination

University Policy

A student who fails to meet the above requirements may be recommended for termination of graduate study. A graduate student may be disqualified from continuing in the graduate program for a variety of reasons. The most common is failure to maintain the minimum cumulative grade point average (3.00) required by the Academic Senate to remain in good standing (some programs require a higher grade point average). Other examples include failure of examinations, lack of timely progress toward the degree and poor performance in core courses. Probationary students (those with cumulative grade point averages below 3.00) are subject to immediate dismissal upon the recommendation of their department. University guidelines governing termination of graduate students, including the appeal procedure, are outlined in Standards and Procedures for Graduate Study at UCLA.

Special Departmental or Program Policy

A recommendation for termination is made by the chair of the interdepartmental degree committee, after consultation with the student and the student’s adviser (or the student’s guidance committee). In addition to the standard reasons outlined above, a student may be recommended for termination for failure to participate in required elements of the program, or for unsatisfactory performance. Failure to participate in required elements of the program includes laboratory rotations, student seminar presentations, and annual progress report. Unsatisfactory performance includes failure to pass the departmental written qualifying examination, failure to maintain a rotation or thesis adviser, or failure to complete the doctoral dissertation within eighteen terms of academic residence (see Time-to-degree).

A student may appeal a recommendation for termination to the entire interdepartmental degree committee. In this process, the opinions of other interested faculty members are considered by the committee.

Program Requirements for Civil and Environmental Engineering

Applicable only to students admitted during the 2014-2015 academic year.

Civil and Environmental Engineering

Henry Samueli School of Engineering and Applied Science

Graduate Degrees

The Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering offers the Master of Science (M.S.) and Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) degrees in Civil Engineering.

Admissions Requirements

Master’s Degree

Advising

Each department in the Henry Samueli School of Engineering and Applied Science has a graduate adviser. A current list of graduate advisers can be obtained from the Office of the Associate Dean for Academic and Student Affairs, 6426 Boelter Hall, Henry Samueli School of Engineering and Applied Science.

Students are assigned a faculty adviser upon admission to the department. Advisers may be changed upon written request from the student. All HSSEAS faculty serve as advisers.

Provisionally admitted students meet with the program adviser upon matriculation to plan a course of study to remove any deficiencies.

New students should arrange an appointment as early as possible with their faculty adviser to plan the proposed program of study toward the M.S. degree. Continuing students are required to confer with the adviser during the time of enrollment each quarter so that progress can be assessed and the study list approved.

Based on the quarterly transcripts, student records are reviewed at the end of each quarter by the departmental graduate adviser and the Associate Dean for Academic and Student Affairs. Special attention is given if students were admitted provisionally or are on probation. If their progress is unsatisfactory, students are informed of this in writing by the Associate Dean for Academic and Student Affairs.

Students are strongly urged to consult with the departmental student office staff and/or the Office of Academic and Student Affairs regarding procedures, requirements and implementation of policies. In particular, advice should be sought on advancement to candidacy for the M.S. degree, and on the use of the Filing Fee.

Areas of Study

Civil Engineering Materials; Environmental and Water Resources Engineering; Geotechnical Engineering; Structural Mechanics; and Structural/Earthquake Engineering.

Foreign Language Requirement

None.

Course Requirements

There are two plans of study that lead to the M.S. degree, the comprehensive examination and thesis plans. For both plans, at least nine courses are required, a majority of which must be in the Civil and Environmental Engineering Department. At least five of the courses must be at the 200-level. In the thesis plan, seven of the nine must be formal 100- or 200-series courses. The remaining two may be 598 courses involving work on the thesis. In the comprehensive examination plan, 500-series courses may not be applied toward the nine-course requirement. A minimum 3.0 grade-point average is required in all coursework and in all 200-level coursework.

Each major field has a set of required preparatory courses which are normally completed during undergraduate studies. Equivalent courses taken at other institutions can satisfy the preparatory course requirements. The preparatory courses cannot be used to satisfy course requirements for the master’s degree. Courses for the master’s degree must be selected in accordance with the lists of required graduate courses and elective courses for each major field listed below.

Undergraduate Courses. No lower division courses may be applied toward graduate degrees. In addition, the following upper division courses are not applicable toward graduate degrees: Chemical Engineering 102A, 199; Civil and Environmental Engineering 106A, 108, 199; Computer Science M152A, 152B, M171L, 199; Electrical Engineering 100, 101, 102, 103, 110L, M116L, 199; Materials Science and Engineering 110, 120, 130, 131, 131L, 132, 140, 141L, 150, 160, 161L, 199; Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering 102, 103, 105A, 105D, 199.

Civil Engineering Materials

Required Undergraduate Preparatory Courses. General chemistry and physics with laboratory exercises, multivariate calculus, linear algebra and differential equations, introductory thermodynamics. Other undergraduate preparation could include Civil and Environmental Engineering C104, 120, 121, 135A, 140L, 142 and Materials Science and Engineering 104.

Required Graduate Courses. Two courses must be selected from Civil and Environmental Engineering C204, 226, 253, 258A, 261B, M262A, 263A, 266, 267.

Other Elective Courses. Remaining courses (at least two) must be selected from; Chemical Engineering 102A, 102B, 200, C219, 223, 230, 270; Chemistry and Biochemistry 103, 110A, 110B, 113A, C213B, C215A through C215D, C223A, C223B, 225, C226A, C275, 276B, 277; Civil and Environmental Engineering 110, M135C, 153, 154, 155, 157B, 157C, 163, M166, 220, 224, 226, M230A/B/C, 235A/B/C, 242, 243A/B, 254A, 258A, 261; Conservation of Archaeological and Ethnographic Materials M210, M215, M216, M250; Materials Science and Engineering 110, C111, 130, 131, 200, 201, 210, C211, 270; Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering 101, 105A, 131AL, 133A, 156A, C232A, 256F, 261A, 261B, 296A, 296B; Statistics: 201A.

Environmental and Water Resources Engineering

Required Preparatory Courses. Chemistry and Biochemistry 20A, 20B, 20L; Mathematics 32A 32B, 33A, 33B; Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering 103, 105A; Civil and Environmental Engineering 151 or 153; Physics 1A/4AL, 1B.

Environmental Engineering Option:

Required Graduate Courses (4). Civil and Environmental Engineering 254A, 255A, 255B, 266.

One (1) of the following: Civil and Environmental Engineering 250A or 250B or 250C or 250D.

Any four (4) of the following: Civil and Environmental Engineering M165, 226, 251C, 251D, 252, 253, 254A, 255A, 255B, 258A, 260, 263A, 263B, 266 or other elective courses approved by the student’s academic adviser and the graduate adviser.

Hydrology and Water Resources Engineering option:

Required Graduate Courses (4): Civil and Environmental Engineering 250A, 250B, 250C, 250D.

One (1) of the following: Civil and Environmental Engineering 254A or 255A or 255B.

Any four (4) of the following: Civil and Environmental Engineering 152, 157A, 157L, M165, 226, 251C, 251D, 252, 253, 254A, 255A, 255B, 258A, 260, 263A, 263B, 266 or other elective courses approved by the student’s academic adviser and the graduate adviser.

Environmental and Water Resources Engineering option:

Required Graduate Courses (4): Two of the following: Civil and Environmental Engineering 254A, 255A, 255B, 266 and two of the following: Civil and Environmental Engineering 250A or 250B, or 250C or 250D.

Any five (5) of the following: Civil and Environmental Engineering 152, 157A ,157L, 165, 226, 251C, 251D, 252, 253, 254A, 255A, 255B, 258A, 260, 263A, 263B, 266 or other elective courses approved by the student’s academic adviser and the graduate adviser.

Geotechnical Engineering

Required Preparatory Courses. Civil and Environmental Engineering 108, 120, 121.

Required Graduate Courses. Civil and Environmental Engineering 220, 221, 223, 224.

Major Elective Courses. Minimum of three courses must be selected from Civil and Environmental Engineering 123,128L, 222, 225, 226, 227, 245.

Other Elective Courses. Remaining courses may be selected from the following: general Civil and Environmental Engineering 110, 129L, Earth and Space Sciences 135, 136A, 136B, 136C, 139, 222; Environmental Engineering: Civil and Environmental Engineering 153, 164; Hydrology and Water Resources Engineering: Civil and Environmental Engineering 250B and 251B; Structural Mechanics: Civil and Environmental Engineering M230A; Structural/Earthquake Engineering: Civil and Environmental Engineering 135A, 135B, 137, 142, 235A, 235B, 235C, 243A, 243B, 246, 247.

Structural Mechanics

Required Preparatory Courses. Civil and Environmental Engineering 130, 135A, 135B.

Required Graduate Courses. Civil and Environmental Engineering 232, 235A, 235B, 236, M237A.

Elective Courses. Undergraduate – maximum of two courses from Civil and Environmental Engineering M135C, 137, 137L; Graduate: Civil and Environmental Engineering M230A, M230B, M230C, 233, 235C, 238, 246, 247, Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering 269B.

Structural/Earthquake Engineering

Required Preparatory Courses. Civil and Environmental Engineering 135A, 135B, and 141 (or 142).

Required Graduate Courses. Civil and Environmental Engineering 235A and 246 and at least three courses from Civil and Environmental Engineering 235B, 241, 243A, 245, 247.

Elective Courses. Undergraduate – no more than two courses from Civil and Environmental Engineering 125, M135C, 137, 143 and either 141 or 142. Geotechnical Area: Civil and Environmental Engineering 220, 221, 222, 223, 225, 227. General Graduate: Civil and Environmental Engineering M230A, M230B, M230C, 232, 233, 235B, 235C, 236, M237A, 238, 241, 243A, 243B, 245, 247, Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering 269B.

Students may petition the department for permission to pursue programs of study which differ from the above norms.

Teaching Experience

Not required.

Field Experience

Not required.

Comprehensive Examination Plan

In addition to the course requirements, under the comprehensive examination plan there is a comprehensive written examination covering the subject matter contained in the program of study. The examination is administered by a comprehensive examination committee, which may conduct an oral examination in addition to the written examination. In case of failure, the examination may be repeated once with the consent of the graduate adviser.

Thesis Plan

Every master’s degree thesis plan requires the completion of an approved thesis that demonstrates the student’s ability to perform original, independent research.

In addition to the course requirements, under the thesis plan students are required to write a thesis on a research topic in civil and environmental engineering supervised by the thesis adviser. A thesis committee reviews and approves the thesis. No oral examination is required.

Time-to-Degree

The average duration for full-time students in the M.S. program is three quarters. The maximum time allowed for completing the M.S. degree is three years from the time of admission to the M.S. program in the School.

Doctoral Degree

Advising

Students are assigned a faculty adviser upon admission to the department. Advisers may be changed upon written request from the student. All HSSEAS faculty serve as advisers.

Students are strongly urged to consult with the departmental student office staff and/or the Office of Academic and Student Affairs regarding procedures, requirements and the implementation of policies. In particular, advice should be sought on the procedures for taking Ph.D. written and oral examinations, and on the use of the Filing Fee.

Major Fields or Subdisciplines

Civil Engineering Materials; Environmental Engineering; Geotechnical Engineering; Hydrology and Water Resources Engineering; Structures (includes Structural Mechanics and Structural/Earthquake Engineering).

Foreign Language Requirement

None.

Course Requirements

There is no formal course requirement for the Ph.D. degree, and one may theoretically substitute coursework by examinations. Normally, however, the student takes courses to acquire the knowledge needed for the written preliminary examinations. The basic program of study for the Ph.D. degree is built around one major field and one super-minor field or two minor fields. The major field has a scope corresponding to a body of knowledge contained in a detailed Ph.D. field syllabus available on request from the department office. A super-minor field is comprised of a body of knowledge equivalent to five courses, at least three of which are at the graduate level. When two minor fields are selected, each minor field is normally comprised of a body of knowledge equivalent to three courses, at least two of which are at the graduate level. The minimum acceptable grade point average for the minor fields is 3.33 and no individual grade counting toward the minor can be below. If the student fails to satisfy the minor field requirements through coursework, a minor field examination may be taken (once only). The minor fields are chosen to support the major field and are usually subsets of other major fields.

For information on completing the Engineer degree, see Engineering Schoolwide Programs.

Teaching Experience

Not required.

Written and Oral Qualifying Examinations

After mastering the body of knowledge defined in the major field, the student takes a written preliminary examination in the major field. This preliminary examination should be completed within the first two years of full-time enrollment in the Ph.D. program. Students may not take an examination more than twice.

After passing the preliminary examination and substantially completing all minor field coursework, the student is eligible to take the University Oral Qualifying Examination. The nature and content of the examination are at the discretion of the doctoral committee but ordinarily include a broad inquiry into the student’s preparation for research. The doctoral committee also reviews the prospectus of the dissertation at the oral qualifying examination.

Students nominate a doctoral committee prior to taking the University Oral Qualifying Examination. The doctoral committee consists of a minimum of four members. Three members, including the chair, must hold appointments at UCLA in the student’s major department in the School of Engineering and Applied Science. The outside member must be a UCLA faculty member outside the student’s major department.

Advancement to Candidacy

Students are advanced to candidacy upon successful completion of the written preliminary and oral qualifying examinations.

Doctoral Dissertation

Final Oral Examination (Defense of Dissertation)

Required for all students in the program.

Time-to-Degree

From admission to graduate status (includes M.S. degree) to award of the Ph.D. degree: 18 quarters (normative time to degree).

Termination of Graduate Study and Appeal of Termination

University Policy

A student who fails to meet the above requirements may be recommended for termination of graduate study. A graduate student may be disqualified from continuing in the graduate program for a variety of reasons. The most common is failure to maintain the minimum cumulative grade point average (3.00) required by the Academic Senate to remain in good standing (some programs require a higher grade point average). Other examples include failure of examinations, lack of timely progress toward the degree and poor performance in core courses. Probationary students (those with cumulative grade point averages below 3.00) are subject to immediate dismissal upon the recommendation of their department. University guidelines governing termination of graduate students, including the appeal procedure, are outlined in Standards and Procedures for Graduate Study at UCLA.

Special Departmental or Program Policy

A recommendation for termination is reviewed by the school’s Associate Dean for Academic and Student Affairs.

Master’s

In addition to the standard reasons noted above, a student may be recommended for termination for

(1) Failure to maintain a grade point average of 3.0 in all courses and in those in the 200 series.

(2) Failure to maintain a grade point average of 3.0 in any two consecutive terms.

(3) Failure of the comprehensive examination.

(4) Failure to complete the thesis to the satisfaction of the committee members.

(5) Failure to maintain satisfactory progress toward the degree within the three-year time limit for completing all degree requirements.

Doctoral

In addition to the standard reasons noted above, a student may be recommended for termination for

(1) Failure to maintain a grade point average of 3.25 in all courses and in any two consecutive quarters.

(2) Failure of the major field written preliminary examination.

(3) Failure to maintain a minimum grade point average of 3.33 in the minor field course work.

(4) Failure of the oral qualifying examination.

(5) Failure of the final oral examination (defense of the dissertation).

(6) Failure to obtain permission to repeat an examination from an examining committee.

(7) Failure to maintain satisfactory progress toward the degree within the specified time limits.

Program Requirements for Psychology

Applicable only to students admitted during the 2014-2015 academic year.

Psychology

College of Letters and Science

Graduate Degrees

The Department of Psychology offers the Master of Arts (M.A.) and Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) degrees in Psychology.

Admissions Requirements

Master’s Degree

Advising

See under Doctoral Degree.

Areas of Study

Not applicable.

Foreign Language Requirement

None.

Course Requirements

Requirements for the M.A. degree are nine graduate courses (36 units), including Psychology 250A-250B-250C (or a course substitute approved by the department), 251B-251C (research project must be completed), and at least three of the four required core courses (students should refer to Doctoral Degree Course Requirements for further details). One 596 course (four units) may be applied as an elective. Courses in the 400 series may not be applied. If applicable, all undergraduate deficiencies must be cleared before the M.A. degree is awarded. Students that have earned a previous Master’s Degree in Psychology or a related field are not permitted to earn a duplicate Master’s Degree in the same field at UCLA.

Teaching Experience

Not required.

Field Experience

Not required.

Comprehensive Examination Plan

Doctoral students should consult the department for details on the master’s comprehensive examination.

Thesis Plan

None.

Time-to-Degree

Doctoral students typically receive the master’s degree by the end of their fourth quarter in residence.

Doctoral Degree

Advising

Upon admission to graduate status, each student is assigned an adviser on the basis of the student’s interests as indicated in the application. Students are required to meet with their adviser each quarter, to receive approval of their enrollment plan. Students who would like to change advisers may request to do so. Students are evaluated quarterly while satisfying core program requirements, a period of time expected to span over six quarters. The evaluations are conducted by the Graduate Evaluation Committee and students are notified in writing as to whether they are making satisfactory progress in the program.

Major Fields or Subdisciplines

Students are required to obtain a thorough background in research methodology and psychological theory. Major specialized training is available in the following areas of psychology: behavioral neuroscience; clinical; cognitive; cognitive neuroscience; developmental; health; learning and behavior; quantitative; or social psychology. Students admitted in either the behavioral neuroscience or cognitive areas may take the program in cognitive neuroscience. The course requirements for the cognitive neuroscience program serve as a combined major and minor. Students who select this option remain in their area of admission for administrative purposes. Students admitted in the Cognitive Area may take the program in Computational Cognition. The course requirements for Computational Cognition serve as a combined major and minor. Student who select this option remain in the Cognitive Area for administrative purposes. Students may also receive specialized training in community psychology, culture, brain and development, experimental psychopathology, and political psychology.

Foreign Language Requirement

None.

Course Requirements

Students should refer to the Psychology Handbook available on the departmental web site for additional information on courses that can be applied toward the program requirements listed below.

General Core Course Requirements

The core program includes a research sequence (Psychology 251A-251B-251C), a statistics sequence (Psychology 250A-250B-250C (or a course substitute approved by the department)), and three or four additional core courses. Psychology 250A, 250B and 250C must be completed in the first year; Psychology 251A-251B-251C must be completed by the end of the Fall Quarter of the second year. The three or four additional core courses must be completed within the first six quarters in residence. Two core courses are selected from the student’s major area, and two courses are selected from two separate areas outside the student’s major. Core courses can be applied toward major or minor area requirements.

Students must enroll in one independent study course each quarter, beginning with Psychology 251A in the Winter Quarter of the first year. Students may select from the following independent study courses: Psychology 251A, 251B, 251C, 596, 597, 599. In addition to Psychology 251C in the second year, each year at least one of these courses must be a research-oriented individual study course, i.e., Psychology 596 or 599.

Major Area Course Requirements

Courses applied toward the major must be passed with a grade of B- or better.

Behavioral Neuroscience. Neuroscience M203 and either Neuroscience M202 or Psychology M117A. Students interested in molecular biology generally take option 1 and minor in neuroscience. All majors take eight units from the Psychology 205 series, three quarters of Psychology 212, and two behavioral neuroscience seminars approved by the department.

Clinical. Psychology 270A-270B-270C, 271A-271B-271C, 271D, 273A-273B-273C, 277, 289A-289B-289C, and two advanced clinical courses. Students who wish to apply Psychology 298 courses toward this requirement must obtain departmental consent.

Psychology 287 may not be applied toward fulfillment of the Advanced Seminar Requirement.

Practicum and Internship Requirements for Clinical Students

(1) At least 400 hours of approved, supervised pre-internship practicum (Psychology 401) are required, of which 150 hours must involve direct clinical service and 75 hours must be formal scheduled supervision. These hours are usually completed during the second through fourth years. All advanced students working with clients must enroll in Psychology 401 (one to four units). All students must take a second‐year practicum in the Psychology Clinic, as well as a practicum in the third year and/or fourth years in approved practicum sites outside of the department.

All clinical training must be approved by the Director of Clinical Training while students are enrolled in the program and students are discouraged from making independent arrangements for clinical training and are prohibited from providing direct clinical services in clinical settings not expressly approved by the DCT, including private practice psychological assistantships.

(2) The equivalent of one-year’s full-time supervised internship (Psychology 451) in an acceptable setting approved by the faculty, is required. This is usually taken in the fifth year or sixth year. Students must enroll in at least 12 units of coursework while on internship, at least 8 units must be in Psych 451. Students should contact the department for further information on internship, enrollment, and registration requirements.

In exceptional cases, a student who has completed at least nine months of an approved internship may petition to file the dissertation and receive the Ph.D. degree if the student has (1) completed all academic requirements; (2) passed the final oral examination; (3) received doctoral committee approval to file the dissertation; (4) provided evidence of satisfactory completion of at least nine months of an internship approved by the faculty; and (5) obtained approval from the clinical area chair. If the petition is approved, it is with the clear understanding of the student and the department that the remaining months of internship that are required by the American Psychological Association will be completed as outlined in the internship contract. Such petitions are considered to be exceptions rather than the rule. Documentation of subsequent internship completion will be provided by the Director of Clinical Training.

Cognitive. Psychology 260A-260B and four additional cognitive area courses approved by the department.

Cognitive Neuroscience. The following course requirements satisfy both major and minor area requirements in cognitive neuroscience: 8 units of Psychology 205 (overlaps with core course requirements), Neuroscience M203, three quarters of Psychology 212, and Psychology 260A-260B, Two courses (8 units total) in the BNS area approved by the department are also required. Four courses in the cognitive area approved by the department are also required, including at least one core course and one seminar..

Computational Cognition. The following course requirements satisfy both major and minor area requirements for cognitive area students who elect the major area track in computation cognition: Psychology 260A-260B, two cognitive area core courses, Statistics 200A, and four psychology courses to be approved by the department.

Developmental. Two of the following courses: Psychology 240A, 240B, 240C. Three quarters of 241, and two additional developmental area courses approved by the department.

Health Psychology. Psychology 215A, 215B, 218, six quarters of Psychology 425, and two additional courses approved by the department. One quarter of Psychology 425 must be taken simultaneously with Psychology 215A.

Learning and Behavior. Four learning and behavior courses approved by the department, and enrollment in Psychology 201 is required each quarter the course is offered.

Quantitative. Four quantitative area courses and several additional courses in Psychology, Education, Statistics or Biostatistics approved by the department.

Social. Two quarters of Psychology 226A-226B-226C during the first year and three additional quarters in years two and three. Students also must complete five area courses approved by the department.

Minor Area Course Requirements

Students must select one minor area. Courses applied toward the minor must be passed with a grade of B- or better. Students may minor in any of the areas listed under Major Fields or Sub-Disciplines, with the exception of clinical, as well as in political psychology or diversity science. Students may petition for individualized minors or a minor in experimental psychopathology. Training is also available in community psychology.

The minor is normally satisfied by taking three to four specified courses as indicated below. In planning a minor, students should note that minor area courses cannot be selected from among those that could satisfy the major area requirements, unless approved by the department. Other options are also available; students should see departmental bulletins for further details. The following is a list of courses required to complete the standard departmental minors.

Behavioral Neuroscience. All behavioral neuroscience minors must take four units of Psychology 205 and eight additional units of behavioral neuroscience and/or neuroscience courses approved by the department.

Cognitive. Three cognitive courses approved by the department, two of which must be from Psychology 259 through 266.

Computational Cognition. Two courses in computational methods and one course in statistics. Course selection must be approved by the department.

Culture, Brain and Development. Psychology M247, one course in culture, one course in development, and one course on the brain. Course selection must be approved by the department.

Developmental. Two courses in Psychology 240A, 240B or 240C and one additional developmental area course approved by the department.

Diversity Science. Psychology 295 and two additional courses approved by the department.

Experimental Psychopathology. Four courses petitioned and approved by the clinical area.

Health Psychology. Psychology 215A, two quarters of 425 and two additional health psychology courses (four units) on relevant topics approved by the health psychology faculty and the department.

Human-Computer Interaction. Psychology 298 (special topic is Introduction to User Interface Design), and two additional courses in Psychology, Information Studies and/or Design | Media Arts. Course selection must be approved by the department.

Learning and Behavior. Two courses from Psychology 200A, 200B or 200C and one additional learning and behavior course approved by the department.

Quantitative. Three quantitative area courses approved by the department.

Political Psychology. Students should see the Psychology Handbook for details.

Social. Psychology 220A, 220B, and one additional social area course approved by the department.

Teaching Experience

All students are required to take Psychology 495 during the first year of the graduate program.

Written and Oral Qualifying Examinations

The qualifying examination generally consists of three separate segments. The first is an examination administered by the major area, which examines in breadth the student’s knowledge of the major field. The second segment is an individualized examination, required by the behavioral neuroscience, clinical, health, and quantitative areas. The individualized examination examines the student’s in-depth knowledge of the area of specialization. The third segment is the University Oral Qualifying Examination. All Ph.D. requirements must be completed before students are allowed to take the University Oral Qualifying Examination. The oral qualifying examination must be taken by the end of the fourth year in residence. Students should contact the department to obtain qualifying examination guidelines for each area.

Advancement to Candidacy

Students are advanced to candidacy and awarded the Candidate in Philosophy (Cipher.) degree upon successful completion of the written and oral qualifying examinations.

Doctoral Dissertation

Final Oral Examination (Defense of the Dissertation)

Required for all students in the program.

Time-to-Degree

The normative time-to-degree for doctoral requirements is six years. Students are required to complete various stages of the program as follows:

Core Program: No later than the sixth quarter at the end of the second year of the program.

Coursework Requirements: Prior to taking the University Oral Qualifying Examination.

Comprehensive Examinations: Students should refer to individual area guidelines, available from the Graduate Program Coordinator.

University Oral Qualifying Examination: Must be completed no later than Spring Quarter of the fourth year of the graduate program.

Final Oral Examination: Must be completed within three years of passing the University Oral Qualifying Examination.

Degree Requirement Completion: All requirements form the Ph.D. degree, including the filing of the dissertation must be completed within six calendar years of the date of admission to the graduate program.

Termination of Graduate Study and Appeal of Termination

University Policy

A student who fails to meet the above requirements may be recommended for termination of graduate study. A graduate student may be disqualified from continuing in the graduate program for a variety of reasons. The most common is failure to maintain the minimum cumulative grade point average (3.00) required by the Academic Senate to remain in good standing (some programs require a higher grade point average). Other examples include failure of examinations, lack of timely progress toward the degree and poor performance in core courses. Probationary students (those with cumulative grade point averages below 3.00) are subject to immediate dismissal upon the recommendation of their department. University guidelines governing termination of graduate students, including the appeal procedure, are outlined in Standards and Procedures for Graduate Study at UCLA.

Special Departmental or Program Policy

In addition to the standard reasons noted above, a student may be recommended for termination who receives two grades of B- or one grade lower than B- in the core program or who does not meet the time requirements for completion of the core program. Such cases are considered by the Graduate Evaluation Committee. If it is approved by the departmental chair, a recommendation for termination is made to the Graduate Division by the Vice Chair of Graduate Studies.

Area committees also may recommend that a student be terminated. Grounds for a recommendation for termination include: a pattern of unsatisfactory performance in other course work; failure of a qualifying examination; substantial violations of professional or ethical standards as those standards are defined by law or by the Ethical Principles of Psychologists of the American Psychological Association (adopted January 24, 1981; American Psychologist, 1981, 36, 633-638); or, for clinical students, inadequate professional skills. A recommendation for termination also may be initiated by the Graduate Studies Committee for insufficient progress toward the Ph.D. degree, as evidenced by a failure to obtain the degree within seven calendar years following matriculation or three years following advancement to candidacy. These recommendations are evaluated by the Graduate Studies Committee. If approved by the departmental chair, a recommendation for termination is made to the Graduate Division by the vice chair of Graduate Studies.

Students are informed by the Vice Chair for Graduate Studies when actions concerning them are under consideration by the Graduate Studies committee. A student may appeal a recommendation for termination to the departmental chair.

Program Requirements for Geography

Applicable only to students admitted during the 2014-2015 academic year.

Geography

College of Letters and Science

Graduate Degrees

The Department of Geography offers the Master of Arts (M.A.) and Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) degrees in Geography.

Admissions Requirements

Master’s Degree

Advising

The interim adviser assists in the design of the student’s program. By the end of the first year, the student forms a guidance committee chaired by a faculty adviser. The guidance committee consists of two or three departmental faculty members who are appropriate to supervise the student’s proposed course of study. At a time agreed upon by the student and the guidance committee, an official master’s thesis committee is appointed. This three-person committee, at least two members of which must be faculty from the department, is responsible for the student’s course of study thereafter and for supervising the preparation of the M.A. thesis.

Every Spring Quarter the departmental faculty hold a review of all of the department’s graduate students. The purpose of the Spring Review is twofold: first, to provide the faculty with an opportunity to assess the progress toward the degree of every student; and second, to provide every student with that assessment. The student’s interim advisor or committee chair has the primary responsibility for setting forth the necessary information for the assessment. Other members of the student’s committee, instructors in courses the student has taken, and other faculty may contribute to the appraisal. After discussion, the faculty assess whether the student’s progress as Satisfactory, With Reservations, or Unsatisfactory. The interim advisor or committee chair and the graduate adviser inform the student by letter of the appraisal. In extreme cases, the results of this review may determine whether or not the student is permitted to proceed toward the degree.

Areas of Study

Students commonly specialize in one or more areas of geographical knowledge, such as: geomorphology, climatology, biogeography, geographic representation, economic, political, social, cultural, historical, population, and urban geography. At the M.A. level students emphasize at least one specialized area. However, because geographical knowledge and its associated research questions frequently transcend disciplinary and subdisciplinary boundaries, students, in consultation with faculty, are expected to refine and deepen their research interests further, within, across, and beyond research and teaching areas.

Foreign Language Requirement

None.

Course Requirements

Students must complete at least seven courses, in addition to the two required graduate core courses and the research group seminars, for a minimum of 9 courses (36 units) required for the degree; of this minimum, seven courses (28 units) must be graduate level. One 500-series course may be applied toward the minimum course requirement for the M.A. degree but not toward the minimum graduate course requirement. The core courses (Geography 297A and 298A) must be completed within two years and with a grade of B or better in each. Each student must in every term of residence enroll in one of the two research group seminars, either Geography C296A or 296E, but these do not count toward the minimum 9-course requirement. Quarterly course enrollment plans should be approved by the student’s committee chair.

Individual Study Courses. The following rules pertain to individual study courses (Geography 199, 596, 597, 598, 599):

(1) Before enrolling in one of these courses, students must consult with the responsible faculty member and work out a program of study and consultation.
(2) All 500-series courses must be taken for S/U grading only.
(3) Students may enroll in Geography 597, 598, or 599 as often as required.

Teaching Courses. Geography 375 and 495 may not be applied toward course requirements for the M.A. degree.

Teaching Experience

Not required.

Field Experience

Not required.

Comprehensive Examination Plan

None.

Thesis Plan

Every master’s degree thesis plan requires the completion of an approved thesis that demonstrates the student’s ability to perform original, independent research.

Students must present a thesis based on original research. Selection of a thesis topic, development of a thesis proposal, and conduct of the investigation proceed under the supervision of the student’s M.A. committee. The thesis proposal consists of a description of the problem to be researched and the proposed methods of research, a preliminary outline, an assessment of the originality and significance of the project, and a timeline describing the anticipated time of completion of the various stages of the study. The entire thesis project must be carried out in close consultation with all members of the thesis committee. The thesis is expected to be no more than 20,000 words in length, exclusive of appendices and bibliography. In exceptional circumstances the limit may be waived with the agreement of the Graduate Adviser.

To ensure progress, each student is required to finalize a thesis title by the first day of Week 4 of the third quarter following enrollment in the program (normally Spring Quarter). The thesis proposal must have the approval of the student’s committee by the end of the eighth week of the same quarter and be reported at Spring Review. Failure to meet these deadlines results in a "reservations" report and the establishment of a second deadline; failure to meet this deadline may result in a recommendation for termination of graduate status. A first draft of the thesis is required by the end of the fifth week of the fifth quarter following admissions to the program (normally Winter Quarter). Students are encouraged to file the completed thesis as soon as possible thereafter.

Time-to-Degree

The M.A. degree should be completed within two calendar years of admission to the program. Failure to show timely progress toward the degree may result in a departmental recommendation for termination from the graduate program.

Doctoral Degree

Advising

In the first quarter of residence and in consultation with the graduate adviser, students must form a guidance committee chaired by their interim adviser. This guidance committee consists of three members of the departmental faculty. As their work develops, students are permitted to change interim advisers or other committee members, as long as the faculty selected to serve are appropriate to the student’s objectives and plans and all involved are kept properly informed. The guidance committee sets, administers, and assesses the written qualifying examination. Upon successful completion of this examination the student formally creates an official doctoral committee. The doctoral committee consists of three departmental faculty and one faculty member from another department. This committee oversees the formulation of the dissertation proposal, conducts the oral qualifying examination, supervises the dissertation research and writing, and when required, conducts the final oral examination (defense of the dissertation).

Every Spring Quarter the departmental faculty hold a review of all of its graduate students. The purpose of the Spring Review is twofold: first, to provide the faculty with an opportunity to assess the progress toward the degree of every student; and second, to provide every student with that assessment. The student’s interim adviser or committee chair has the primary responsibility in setting forth the necessary information for the assessment. Other members of the student’s committee, instructors in courses the student has taken, and other faculty may contribute to the appraisal. After discussion, the faculty assess the student’s progress as Satisfactory, With Reservations, or Unsatisfactory. The interim adviser or committee chair and the graduate adviser inform the student by letter of the appraisal. In extreme cases, the results of this review may determine whether or not the student is permitted to proceed toward the degree.

Major Fields or Subdisciplines

Students commonly specialize in one or more areas of geographical knowledge, such as: geomorphology, climatology, biogeography, geographic representation, economic, political, social, cultural, historical, population, and urban geography. However, because geographical knowledge and its associated research questions frequently transcend disciplinary and subdisciplinary boundaries, students are expected to refine and deepen their research interests further, in consultation with faculty, within, across, and beyond research and teaching areas.

Foreign Language Requirement

None.

Course Requirements

Students must, within two years and with a grade of B or better in each, successfully complete the required graduate core courses (if they were not already completed at the M.A. level). At least three graduate geography courses, in addition to completed M.A. coursework (excluding core courses, and Geography 375, 495, and courses in the 500 series), are required, as are three upper division or graduate courses in one or two fields (outside of geography) allied to the student’s major research area or subdisciplinary specialization, subject to approval of the guidance committee. The allied-field requirement must be met before the student takes the oral qualifying examination. Each student must in every term of residence enroll in one of the two research group seminars, either Geography C296A or 296E. Quarterly course enrollment plans should be approved by the student’s adviser.

Individual Study Courses. The following rules pertain to individual study courses (Geography 199, 596, 597, 598, 599):

Teaching Courses. Geography 375 and 495 may not be applied toward course requirements for the Ph.D. degree.

Teaching Experience

Not required.

Written and Oral Qualifying Examinations

The goal of the written examinations is to ensure that students develop a command of literature in two subdisciplines or fields of geography and that they are adequately prepared to carry out their dissertation research. Command of that literature is demonstrated through the completion of field statements. Each of the two statements consists of a substantial document prepared over the course of three months. A third practical examination, significantly shorter in length and produced over a shorter timeframe, assesses the ability of the student to develop a research strategy around a particular geographical problem. The three papers are to be completed no later than the student’s sixth term of residence. In case of failure, the student may make one more attempt, but no sooner than three months nor longer than one year after the first examination.

Preparation of the dissertation proposal follows successful completion of the written qualifying examination. The dissertation proposal must specify: the research question, describing in some detail the problem to be studied, its scientific background, an outline of the subject matter; the proposed methods of research; the degree of originality involved; and a timetable for completion of the degree. The dissertation proposal is written in consultation with the official doctoral committee and should be no more than 12,000 words in length. Once the proposal is accepted, significant changes in the project title must be approved by the committee. Committee members should receive the dissertation proposal at least one month before the oral qualifying examination.

The University Oral Qualifying Examination is conducted by the appointed doctoral committee and focuses on the dissertation proposal. The maximum length of time permitted between written and oral examinations is six months. Oral examinations will normally be scheduled no later than the end of the quarter following completion of the written examinations. After successfully completing the oral qualifying examination, the student is eligible for advancement to candidacy. In instances of failure, the oral qualifying examination may be repeated once. Students have one year to repeat the examination.

Advancement to Candidacy

Students are advanced to candidacy and awarded the Candidate in Philosophy (C.Phil.) degree upon successful completion of the written and oral qualifying examinations.

Doctoral Dissertation

Final Oral Examination

Required for all students in the program.

Time-to-Degree

Students are expected to complete the Ph.D. degree within four years. Seven calendar years is the maximum time permitted for completion of the degree. Failure to show timely progress toward the degree may result in a departmental recommendation for termination from the graduate program.

Termination of Graduate Study and Appeal of Termination

University Policy

A student who fails to meet the above requirements may be recommended for termination of graduate study. A graduate student may be disqualified from continuing in the graduate program for a variety of reasons. The most common is failure to maintain the minimum cumulative grade point average (3.00) required by the Academic Senate to remain in good standing (some programs require a higher grade point average). Other examples include failure of examinations, lack of timely progress toward the degree and poor performance in core courses. Probationary students (those with cumulative grade point averages below 3.00) are subject to immediate dismissal upon the recommendation of their department. University guidelines governing termination of graduate students, including the appeal procedure, are outlined in Standards and Procedures for Graduate Study at UCLA.

Special Departmental or Program Policy

The decision to recommend termination is made by a vote of the faculty in a formal meeting. Appeal of recommendation of termination is made to the faculty in a formal meeting.

Program Requirements for Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Languages and Cultures

Applicable only to students admitted during the 2014-2015 academic year.

Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Languages and Cultures

College of Letters and Science

Graduate Degrees

The Department of Slavic, East European and Eurasian Languages and Cultures offers the Master of Arts (M.A.) and Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) degrees in Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Languages and Cultures.

Admissions Requirements

Master’s Degree

Advising

Students must meet with the graduate adviser at the beginning of each quarter for consultation about their programs and progress toward the degree. Students who wish to enroll in Slavic 596 and 597 must obtain prior permission from the instructor with whom they plan to work before the graduate adviser can include the course on the study list. Only after the graduate adviser and the student agree on a program of study for the quarter may the student enroll through MyUCLA.

All graduate students in the department receive a written evaluation of their progress each year.

Areas of Study

Candidates for the M.A. degree choose a specialization in either literature or linguistics, with Russian as the principal language and literature.

Foreign Language Requirement

Demonstrated proficiency in two foreign languages is required for the M.A. degree: (1) Students must pass a departmental Russian language proficiency examination which tests ability to translate from Russian to English and vice versa. This examination may be retaken each quarter until a pass grade is achieved, within the time limits for completion of the M.A. degree, and must be passed before the M.A. comprehensive examination; (2) Students must demonstrate an ability to read scholarly literature in either French or German by one of the following methods: (a) passing the departmental reading examination, or (b) completing course 5 at UCLA in one of the languages with a grade of B or better (equivalent university-level coursework in French or German taken within two years of admission may satisfy this requirement at the discretion of the graduate adviser). Either the French or the German requirement should be satisfied no later than the sixth quarter. The Russian, French, and German examinations are offered at the beginning of each quarter.

Course Requirements

A minimum of 36 (linguistics track) or 40 units (literature track) is required for the degree.

Slavic 201 and Russian 220A are required of all M.A. students.

Literature students must also take Slavic 200A, Russian 211A-211B, 212A-212B, 213A-213B, and an additional four units of 200-level coursework in Russian language and literature.

Linguistics students must also take Slavic 200B and 202, Russian 204 and 220B, and Linguistics 200A-200B-200C.

Students may be required to take one or more courses from Russian 201A-201B-201C if it is determined that their level of competence in Russian requires remedial work in order to handle other courses in the program.

Courses in the 500 series may not be applied toward the M.A. course requirements.

Students with M.A. degrees from other institutions must pass the M.A. comprehensive examination in order to be admitted to the doctoral program. Students whose degree is in Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Languages and Cultures and who are continuing in the same area of specialization (literature or linguistics) should take the examination within three quarters following matriculation. Courses should be selected to fill in lacunae as determined by the requirements of the M.A. program of this department. All lacunae must be filled before admission to the doctoral examinations.

Students with M.A. degrees in disciplines other than that of their planned specialization, or students who do not have a M.A. degree but who have taken graduate-level courses equivalent to those required at UCLA for a M.A. degree, must complete the required number of course units. Course substitutions may be made with the permission of the graduate adviser. Independent study courses (500-level) may not be used as substitutes.

Teaching Experience

Not required.

Field Experience

Not required.

Comprehensive Examination Plan

Applications for advancement to candidacy must be submitted no later than the second week of the quarter in which the M.A. examinations are to be taken and are accepted only if students have passed the Russian Language Proficiency Examination and satisfied the research paper requirement.

The research paper is a work of original scholarship approximately 7000 words in length. It should be written and formatted with a view to potential submission to a scholarly journal in the field (Slavic Review, Slavic and East European Journal, Russian Review, etc.). It may originate in a class paper, but should in any case have the sanction of a faculty mentor. It is due on the last day of classes of the tenth week of the quarter prior to the one in which the student wishes to take the M.A. examinations (this will normally be week 10 of the Winter Quarter in the second year of instruction). It must have the approval of both the faculty mentor and two additional faculty members in order for the student to be admitted to the M.A. examinations in the following quarter.

M.A. examinations are offered at the end of each quarter. After students have declared their intention to take the examination in a given quarter, a committee consisting of three members is appointed by the chair. The examination has two parts — written and oral — and is based on coursework and the departmental reading list. The oral part may be conducted partly in Russian.

The student’s combined performance in the written and oral examinations is graded high pass, pass, or fail. A grade of high pass or pass is necessary to receive the M.A. degree; the grade of high pass is necessary to enter the Ph.D. program. Examinations may be repeated once; there is a six-month limit on retaking examinations graded pass and a one-year limit on examinations graded fail.

Thesis Plan

None.

Time-to-Degree

From admission to conferral of the degree should not exceed six quarters.

Doctoral Degree

Advising

Students continue to the Ph.D. program after (1) passing the department’s M.A. examination with a grade of high pass; (2) demonstrating a reading knowledge of both French and German; and (3) demonstrating proficiency in modern Slavic languages other than Russian as follows: applicants to the literature area must complete one year of the language of their second Slavic literature; applicants to the linguistics area must acquire competence in a Slavic language other than Russian equivalent to two years of study of that language, or competence in two non-Russian Slavic languages equivalent to a one-year competence in both. The requirement may be fulfilled by taking these courses in the department or by demonstrating proficiency acquired extramurally. A non-Slavic language may, with the approval of the student’s faculty adviser, be substituted for one year of this requirement if it is germane to the area of the student’s specialization (for example, Lithuanian in the case of students with a Balto-Slavic specialization).

Following completion of the above requirements and obtaining permission to begin doctoral study, students choose their adviser from among the ladder faculty.

Students must meet with the graduate adviser at the beginning of each quarter for consultation about their programs and progress toward the degree. Students who wish to enroll in Slavic 596, 597 and 599 must obtain prior permission from the instructor with whom they plan to work before the graduate adviser can include the course on the study list. Only after the graduate adviser and the student agree on a program of study for the quarter, may the student enroll through MyUCLA.

All the department’s graduate students receive a written evaluation of their progress each year.

Major Fields or Subdisciplines

Doctoral students choose a specialization in either literature or linguistics, with Russian usually as the principal language and literature. By special arrangement doctoral students may specialize in a language or literature other than Russian. Students in linguistics are expected to select dissertation topics within the following broad areas of specialization: (1) history of the Russian language; (2) Baltic and Slavic linguistics: comparison and reconstruction; (3) metrics and verse theory; 4) area and typological aspects of Slavic language history and development.

Students may create an optional sub-specialty at the Ph.D. level that consists of at least four courses approved by the graduate adviser. The courses come from graduate offerings in one or more departments or programs. These include the following departments or programs: Anthropology; Applied Linguistics; Art History, Classics, Comparative Literature, English, Film, History, Indo-European Studies, language and literature departments (French, Germanic Languages, etc.), Linguistics, Music, Philosophy, Psychology, Theater, and Women’s Studies. The courses also may come from graduate offerings within this department (students in linguistics choose from courses in literature and students in literature choose from courses in linguistics).

Foreign Language Requirement

Proficiency in both French and German is required for the Ph.D. degree. Proficiency in one of the languages is satisfied by the method of fulfillment selected and approved prior to the award of the M.A. degree. Proficiency in the second language is demonstrated by the inclusion of text in that language on the bibliographies prepared for the Ph.D. examinations. Familiarity with said texts must be attested to by the faculty member designated as chair of the doctoral committee. Proof that the student has satisfied the language requirement must be submitted in the form of an affidavit from the doctoral committee chair submitted to the Graduate Division.

With departmental consent, students specializing in linguistics may substitute a reading knowledge in another language important to the study of Slavic linguistics (Finnish, Hungarian, Lithuanian, Latvian, Romanian, or a Turkic language relevant to East or South Slavic historical linguistics). A reading knowledge of two such languages may, by the same procedure, be substituted for the French or (more rarely) German requirement.

Course Requirements

Before the formation of a doctoral committee, students must be officially admitted to the doctoral program and have taken the following required courses:

Students whose specialization is linguistics must take one 200-level literature course in the department and four additional 200-level courses as approved by the student’s adviser. These four courses may include offerings in other departments and programs, e.g., the Department of Linguistics, the Indo-European Studies Program, or other language departments such as Germanic Languages or Near Eastern Languages and Literatures.

Students whose specialization is literature must take two courses from Slavic 230A-230B-230C, Russian 204, Russian 214, and three advanced literature courses or seminars. Students are also advised to acquire a sound general knowledge of modern Western European literature.

Teaching Experience

Although teaching experience is not a formal requirement for the degree, students are expected to serve as a teaching assistant during their graduate study.

Written and Oral Qualifying Examinations

All students are expected to have a sound general knowledge of both Slavic philology and Russian literary history.

Written Examinations

Students in linguistics take two three-hour written examinations. In the first examination students are examined in the general area of the proposed dissertation research. In the second examination students are examined in comparative Slavic linguistics, the history of Russian, and the history and structure of a second Slavic language.

Students in literature must take a series of four written examinations on Russian literature, one on a Slavic literature other than Russian, one on a school of literary theory, and one on the prospective dissertation topic. Students make up an appropriate reading list for each with members of their doctoral committee. Each of four periods of Russian literature — early literature, the 18th century, the 19th century, and the 20th century — must be represented by a field. The examination in a Slavic literature other than Russian tests students’ knowledge of the history of the literature and familiarity with representative works. Each examination is one hour in length; the seven examinations are taken over the course of a single week.

Oral Examination

Students who receive a grade of pass on the written examinations are admitted to a two-hour University Oral Qualifying Examination, which is designed to test the fields of major interest and general background, and which typically includes discussion of the dissertation topic.

After considering students’ overall performance in both the oral and written examinations, the committee assigns a cumulative grade. A pass grade entitles students to write a dissertation. At the committee’s discretion, students may be required to retake any or all portions of the Ph.D. examinations within one calendar year after the first attempt.

Within one quarter after passing the qualifying examinations, students must submit a prospectus and commence writing the dissertation.

Formal Lecture.

Students are required to deliver a formal lecture in the California Slavic Colloquium no later than two calendar years after advancement to candidacy.

Advancement to Candidacy

Students are advanced to candidacy and awarded the Candidate in Philosophy (C.Phil.) degree upon successful completion of the written and oral qualifying examinations.

Doctoral Dissertation

Final Oral Examination (Defense of the Dissertation)

Not required for all students in the program. The decision as to whether a defense is required is made by the doctoral committee.

Time-to-Degree

Normative progress toward completion of the degree program is defined as follows: six academic quarters from matriculation in graduate study to the award of the M.A. degree; six academic quarters from the award of the M.A. degree to advancement to candidacy for the Ph.D. degree; and six academic quarters from advancement to candidacy for the Ph.D. degree to completion of the dissertation and award of the Ph.D. degree. For teaching and research assistants, the program may take slightly longer.

Termination of Graduate Study and Appeal of Termination

University Policy

A student who fails to meet the above requirements may be recommended for termination of graduate study. A graduate student may be disqualified from continuing in the graduate program for a variety of reasons. The most common is failure to maintain the minimum cumulative grade point average (3.00) required by the Academic Senate to remain in good standing (some programs require a higher grade point average). Other examples include failure of examinations, lack of timely progress toward the degree and poor performance in core courses. Probationary students (those with cumulative grade point averages below 3.00) are subject to immediate dismissal upon the recommendation of their department. University guidelines governing termination of graduate students, including the appeal procedure, are outlined in Standards and Procedures for Graduate Study at UCLA.

Special Departmental or Program Policy

In addition to the standard reasons outlined above, a student may be recommended for termination for failure to pass the master’s comprehensive examination with a high pass. A recommendation for termination based on any reason other than this, failure of a Ph.D. qualifying examination or low grade point average, must be recommended by the departmental Admissions and Support Committee. A student may appeal a recommendation for termination to the departmental chair.

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Physics and Biology in Medicine

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Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Languages and Cultures

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