Applicable only to students admitted during the 2019-2020 academic year.

Pathology and Laboratory Medicine

School of Medicine

Graduate Degrees

The Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine offers the Master of Science (M.S.) and Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) degrees in Cellular and Molecular Pathology.

Admissions Requirements

Master’s Degree

Advising

Students should consult with their thesis adviser before enrolling in courses each quarter.

Areas of Study

Consult the department.

Foreign Language Requirement

None.

Course Requirements

Students must complete the core courses and the six elective units required for all students in the doctoral program. The minimum total number of units required for the M.S. degree is 36, and the minimum number of graduate units required is 35. Students may apply up to eight units of course work in the 500 series toward the overall unit requirement; four units of course work in the 500 series may be applied toward the graduate unit requirement.

Teaching Experience

Students should consult the department.

Field Experience

Not required.

Capstone 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 be formally advanced to candidacy to receive the master’s degree. Students must execute an original scholarly research project. This project must be approved by a committee of three faculty. Students then must write up the project as a thesis which requires approval of the same committee. The student and the faculty adviser must select two other faculty members for the committee. Members of the committee must be in the department. Students should consult the department for further details.

Time-to-Degree

DEGREE	NORMATIVE TIME TO ATC (Quarters)	NORMATIVE TTD	MAXIMUM TTD
M.S.	9	12	16

Doctoral Degree

Advising

During year one the student is assigned an adviser. In years two and beyond, the faculty member who will guide the dissertation research serves as the student’s research mentor. The doctoral committee, chosen by the student and research mentor, also provides guidance to the student. This committee must be appointed by December 1 during the first quarter following matriculation into the doctoral program. The graduate program adviser is also available for consultation throughout a student’s graduate study.

Major Fields or Subdisciplines

Consult the graduate adviser.

Foreign Language Requirement

None.

Course Requirements

First year course work will be designed to provide a strong foundation in cell and molecular biology. In addition, specialty courses in the student’s area of interest may be taken. The precise course work plan will be formulated in consultation with the graduate advisor and the graduate executive committee.

In addition to these courses, the program core course work requirements are Pathology and Laboratory Medicine M237 and either 1) three approved Pathology and Laboratory Medicine 298 seminars (at least one of which must focus on the mechanism(s) of disease, 2) one approved Pathology and Laboratory Medicine 298 seminar and Pathology and Laboratory Medicine 294, or 3) one approved Pathology and Laboratory Medicine 298 seminar and Pathology and Laboratory Medicine 240. Other course options are possible but must be approved by the graduate program adviser.

Teaching Experience

Two quarters of successful teaching are required for non-STAR and non-MSTP students.

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.

All committee nominations and reconstitutions adhere to the Minimum Standards for Doctoral Committee Constitution.

The written qualifying examination consists of the submission of a written proposal in the form of a National Institute of Health (NIH) grant. This proposal may be on a topic related or unrelated to the general interest of the laboratory. In the former, the proposal must be different from the anticipated dissertation proposal. The University Oral Qualifying Examination consists of an oral defense of the written proposal. The proposal must be submitted and orally defended by June 1 of year three of graduate study. Students who do not pass the examination may retake it six months later.

Following successful completion of the examinations and advancement to candidacy, students are required to meet with their doctoral committee on an annual basis to discuss the progress of their dissertation work. In addition, students are strongly encouraged to attend laboratory meetings in which they discuss their work, and to participate in seminar or journal clubs in their research area.

Advancement to Candidacy

Students are advanced to candidacy 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 Dissertation)

Required for all students in the program.

Time-to-Degree

The expected total time-to-degree for the program is five years (15 quarters).

DEGREE	NORMATIVE TIME TO ATC (Quarters)	NORMATIVE TTD	MAXIMUM TTD
Ph.D.	9	15	24

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

None.