Applicable only to students admitted during the 2012-2013 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.

Admission

Program Name

Biological Chemistry

Applicants may apply to the PhD program through UCLA Access to Programs in the Molecular and Cellular Life Sciences.

Address

310 BSRB
Box 951737
Los Angeles, CA 90095-1737 

Phone

(310) 825-2762 

Email

phpham@mednet.ucla.edu  

Leading to the degree of

M.S., Ph.D.

The department admits only applicants whose objective is the Ph.D., although students may be awarded the M.S. en route to the doctorate. 

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

All graduate students must take the first-year ACCESS curriculum. 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

At the end of the first year of the ACCESS Program, students enter a laboratory for their Ph.D. studies. The head of the laboratory automatically becomes the student's adviser. At this time 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 four didactic courses: Biological Chemistry CM248, CM253, and one of Biological Chemistry CM267A, or M267B,or Microbiology, Immunology and Molecular Genetics M229, or Neurobiology M200B and one additional four- to six-unit graduate-level course selected according to the student's preference. Three of these courses are taken in the first year as part of the ACCESS Program, which also requires two three-unit seminar courses and Microbiology, Immunology and Molecular Genetics CM234.

First-year students must arrange for at least three rotations in the laboratories of different faculty members to help in the selection of a research adviser through the ACCESS Program.

After the first year, students spend most of their time on dissertation research. In addition to the general course requirements listed above, 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 admitted through the ACCESS Program 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

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.

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

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)

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.