During your first year, plan to take the core course sequence:

• PB 795-003
• PB 513
• Either PB 570 or PB 503

In addition to these required courses, you must take any courses deemed important by your advisory committee. It is important that you choose and meet with your committee by the end of your first year, because many graduate course are offered only in alternate years. Any delays in forming a committee will not remove the responsibility of completing courses deemed important for your degree program.

Our program recently moved from using a Graduate Plan of Work to a Degree Audit to plan and track student completion of required courses. The student is responsible for building their degree audit, which will be a combination of program requirements and courses that your committee recommends. You should visit the Degree Planning pages on the Graduate School website. The Graduate Planner will guide you through adding courses to your Degree Audit. You will also see a Build an Advisory Committee page and that is where you enter your committee members. If you have any questions about this process, contact the DGP or GSC.

Curriculum

The graduate curriculum provides a basic introduction to the two sub-disciplines within our department: ecology and biodiversity, and cellular and molecular biology. Graduate students design their research project and coursework in collaboration with their major advisor and advisory committee. We encourage interdisciplinary education, and some students elect to work under the joint supervision of faculty in plant biology and other related departments. Faculty who are associate members of plant biology can also serve as a major advisor for plant biology graduate students.

Course Number	Course Title	Hours
PB 795-003	Functional Plant Biology	3*
PB 513	Plant Anatomy Laboratory	2*
PB 570 or PB 503	Plant Functional Ecology or Systematic Botany	3* or 4*
PB 824	Plant Biology Colloquium	3
ST 511	Statistics for Experimental Biology Majors or an equivalent advanced undergraduate course is required	3*
PHI 816	Graduate level ethics course of students choosing (PHI 816 is what is typically taken) and approved by her/his committee.	1

Other Plant Biology Courses

Course requirements for our plant biology programs include taking one additional PB course at the 500 level or above. Students involved in teaching sections of laboratory courses must sign up for credit in either PB 685 (master’s students) or PB 885 (doctoral students). In most semesters, M.S. and Ph.D. students will also be enrolled in research hours (PB 693 for M.S. and PB 893 for Ph.D.). M.R. students do not take thesis credit hours (PB 695/696/699). Other students should consult with the director of graduate programs before including thesis credit hours (PB 695/696/699 or 895/896/899) on their GPOW.

Courses Other than Plant Biology

Students may take additional courses in other departments to fulfill the minimum degree requirements and should be select these courses in consultation with their advisory committee.

General Degree Requirements

M.R. Requirements

M.R. degree students complete the required PB courses and other courses for 36 total credit hours (at the 500 level or above); 18 hours must be for a letter-grade. They must also complete a project (and register for 6 hours of PB 693 related to the project) and pass a comprehensive oral exam on general plant biology.

M.S. Requirements

M.S. degree students complete the required PB courses and other courses for 30 total credit hours (at the 500 level or above); 18 hours must be for a letter-grade. They must also complete and defend a thesis.

Ph.D. Requirements

Ph.D. degree students complete the required PB courses and other courses for 72 total credit hours (at the 500 level or above). They must also pass a written and oral preliminary exam, and defend a dissertation.

Graduate Minor

Graduate students in other degree programs may obtain a minor in plant biology after declaring the minor to the director of graduate programs and adding the Plant Biology minor plan to their Degree Audit submitted to the NC State Graduate School.