School of Plant, Environmental & Soil Sciences, Ph.D.

(PPESS)

The departmental-level academic course plan for each student will be developed in consultation with and approved by the student’s graduate advisory committee. The committee will include the student’s major professor and at least two additional members of the graduate faculty, plus a Graduate School Dean’s Representative, such that the LSU Graduate School’s requirements for graduate committees are satisfied.

A dissertation is a requirement for the proposed degree. A minimum of 51 hours of credit at the graduate level must be earned including a maximum of nine hours of credit for the dissertation for a total of 60 hours credit. The curricular requirements include:

• At least 24 hours credit must be 7000 or above (not including dissertation credits)
• At least two hours credit from seminar class AGRO 7001  (one proposal seminar and one exit seminar are required). One seminar class may be substituted with a seminar presented in the minor department if a minor is being undertaken.

Approximately half way through the student’s doctoral program, he/she will be required to pass qualifying exams en route to becoming a candidate for the PhD. The qualifying exams may include written and/or oral examinations at the discretion of the graduate committee and in accordance with Graduate School guidelines. On becoming a candidate for the PhD, students must pass a comprehensive oral examination in defense of their dissertation. Students are strongly encouraged to publish manuscript(s) from their doctoral research in appropriate peer-reviewed, scholarly journals.