Programs

This degree is intended for students with superior mathematical ability. It emphasizes a solid mathematical foundation and promotes creative scholarship in mathematics and its many related disciplines.

Requirements:

1. Program of Study for the Ph.D. Every graduate student must fill out a program of study (POS). The POS must be approved by a five member supervisory committee and the graduate director. The form is now submitted electronically. Please contact Debbie Olson at debbie.olson@asu.edu for more information.
   
   A minimum of 84 credit hours is required after admission to the Doctoral Program:
   • 12(and only 12) credit hours of dissertation (799).
   • 72 credit hours of coursework and/or research(792)

   Up to 30 credit hours of graduate course work may be transferred from a previous master's degree.

   Transfer of credit from Masters' program:
   
   • Up to 30 credit hours of graduate work from a Master's program may be used for the Ph.D. POS, with a maximum of six master's thesis credit hours. (The Master's thesis and corresponding credit hours must have been used to complete the Master's program).
   • Graduate courses receiving grades "B" or above may be transferred. Courses with grades pass, credit, or satisfactory may not be transferred.


2. Written Qualifier Examinations: Please see Written Qualifier Examination Structure and the Academic Progress Policy for a timeline.


3. Written Comprehensive Examination: The written comprehensive exam is a four hour exam that covers material from two or three 500-level graduate courses. The exam content must be approved by the student's supervisory committee. Some pre-approved syllabi can be found at (website). If new topics are to be included on the exam, they must be submitted for Graduate Committee approval as soon as possible, and at least three months before the exam. Non-mathematics courses may be used for part of the exam.
   
   A student may try the same or different (approved) comprehensive exam if he/she did not obtain a Ph.D. level pass. A sutdent who has failed the comprehensive exam twice at the Ph.D. level must withdraw from the Ph.D. program. Under special circumstances the student may transfer to the master's program.


4. Oral Comprehensive Examination, Dissertation Prospectus (pdf): This exam tests the student's mastery of his/her chosen field of research and specialization.


5. Oral Defense of the Dissertation: After the dissertation has been completed, the advisor should notify the graduate chair that the student is ready for the final oral defense. A suitable external examiner will be selected by the graduate chair and the supervisor. A copy of the dissertation will be sent to the external examiner at least one month before the scheduled date of the final oral defense. If all the comments in the external examiner's report have been addressed, the final oral defense proceeds as scheduled. The final copy of the dissertation must be reviewed by the supervisory committee and the Graduate College at least three weeks before the degree conferral date. It must also be sent for format approval at this time.

Admission Requirements for the Ph.D. in Mathematics Concentration in Computational Biosciences:

Students must satisfy the admission requirements of the Graduate Program in the Department of Mathematics and Statistics and those of the Computational Biosciences Masters degree program. Students who have already completed the ASU Computational Biosciences Professional Science Masters degree will be expected to satisfactorily complete courses in advanced calculus and linear algebra in order to meet the requirements for admission to the Ph.D. in Mathematics. Students who did not complete the Computational Biosciences Master's degree at ASU will be subject to both sets of requirements.

Requirements for the Concentration in Computational Biosciences:

A standard doctoral degree program at ASU comprises 84 hours of study, of which at least 24 hours are for research study and dissertation, and of which 30 hours may be transferred  from an appropriate masters degree.

Students must  satisfy core components of the Computational Biosciences concentration as follows:

1. CBS 520 (4 hours) Computational Modeling in Biosciences or MAT 420 (3 hours) Scientifc Computing
   
   CBS 521 (4 hours) Case studies in Computational Biosciences or MAT 451 (3 hours) Mathematical Modeling or other appropriate modeling course as approved by their thesis committee.
   
   CBS 530 (4 hours) Introduction to Structural and Molecular Biology
   
   An advanced level course in statistics (3 hours) (recommended STP 530)
   An advancesd level course in experimental design (3 hours) recommended STP 531)
   
   
2. Satisfactorily complete (total minimum GPA 3.75 on these courses)  12 hours of graduate study in mathematics. These  courses are to be chosen as two 6 hour sequences selected from the following qualifier sequences in the Department of Mathematics and Statistics:
   

   Mathematical Biology, Numerical Analysis, Differential Equations, Statistics, and Discrete Mathematics.

3. Take 12 hours of elective graduate credit in School of Life Sciences.
   
   
4. At least 6 hours must be in graduate courses offered by the Department of Mathematics and Statistics, with labels MAT or STP and numbered 500 or above, and based on which the student will take a written comprehensive exam.
   
   
5. All courses, including remaining electives, must be approved as acceptable by the faculty advisory committee for the doctoral degree.
   
   
6. A sample program of study is attached (pdf). Please observe that this is only an example, each student should meet with their advisor and supervisory committee in order to determine the appropriate selection of courses that will meet the requirements of the CBS degree program.
   
   
7. Students will be regarded as making satisfactory progress provided that they complete requirements of either item 1 or item 2 after one year in the program. They must complete  requirements or both items 1 and 2 before entering their third year of study in the program. They should their program of study by the end of the second year of study.
   
   
8. Stipends: Students who have completed either item 1 or item 2 will be moved from level 4 to level 3 for funding, and those who have completed items 1 and 2 will progress one more level. Students will not progress to the final level of funding until completing their comprehensive exam requirements. (This is consistent with the stipend levels for all other students in the doctoral program in mathematics, see the assistantship page for more information.)

1. PhD students (from MA degree in mathematics):

   Year 1 & 2 : PhD pass on both qualifier sequences by end of semester 4.
   Year 3: Written comprehensive exam passed by end of semester 6.
   Year 4 & 5: Defend Thesis (i.e., finish) by end of semester 10.

All students:

• A program of study (POS) must be filed by the end of Semester 3.
• All students must maintain a GPA of at least 3.00.
• Exams must be attempted until satisfactorily passed at every opportunity.
• All international students must pass the SPEAK test within their first two semesters at ASU to be considered for TA support.
• An extra PhD year is granted ONLY if the advisor guarantees the student will finish.
• A student entering with an MA degree from a non-mathematics MA or MS degree may follow the guidelines for a PhD entering from a BS degree.
• Part time students are expected to take on average 2/3 of the course load of full time students. Their academic progress timeline will be scaled accordingly. Students interested in part time enrollment should discuss the academic progress timeline with the graduate director upon admission.