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BIOD 998—DISSERTATION PROPOSAL

BIOD 998 is only for PhD students.

Students register for 998 to work on their dissertation proposal.  They must first have passed the Doctoral Qualifying Exam in the previous semester.

To be eligible to register for 998 you must have in your departmental file an approved Program of Study and have passed the Qualifying Exam.   You should also have finished your coursework, and begun to form a doctoral dissertation committee.  See "Committee Formation" information on the previous web page.

Registration for 998 is done with an Individualized Section Form, printed from the Registrar’s website under “forms”.  List the number of credits you wish to register for.  Any adjustments in number of credits must be done by the student with another individualized section form, within the add/drop deadlines listed on the Academic Calendar found on the Registrar’s website.  Submit the individualized section form by fax, mail, email attachment or in person to the Biodefense Program Coordinator in the PIA  Dept. office (room 201, Robinson-A bldg., Fairfax campus).

You may be registering for multiple semesters of 998, depending upon how far along you are on committee formation and topic choice.  Six to nine credits of propoosal are recommended for Biodefense students.  Each semester’s registration should reflect what is outlined in your Program of Study regarding the number of credits and the semesters.  Check the university catalog for the term you were admitted for further information.

If you need more time to work on your proposal than anticipated, you should know that you do not have to be registered in BIOD 998 each semester to continue working on your proposal.  However, we have found that students who are not registered in the term do not have access to their GMU email account, and do not have library privileges.

Work closely with your committee as you are formulating your proposal.  You should meet with each member a minimum of two times each semester.  The credits for each semester are not complete until your full committee has approved your written proposal, and it has passed a review by the program director, department Chair, and Dean.  In the meantime, you will receive grades of “IP” for “In Progress”. 

When you are ready, schedule a proposal defense with your committee.  All committee members are to attend the proposal defense.  Once your committee approves your proposal, get their signatures on the Proposal Approval form, and send or bring both the signed form and the final approved proposal to the PIA office, attention Biodefense Program Coordinator (room 201, Robinson-A bldg., Fairfax campus).   The coordinator will pass these on to the program director and to the department chair.  If they approve, the coordinator will forward the form and proposal to the Dean’s office for review and approval.

Once the Dean approves it, your dissertation director will post an “S” (Satisfactory) grade for the current semester and change your previous IP grades to S with Change of Grade forms.  (Faculty can obtain these forms from the Registrar’s office.)

Your dissertation proposal must be approved in writing by all committee members in the semester prior to the semester you wish to register for Dissertation Research (BIOD 999) credits.  You will not be able to have your proposal approved and begin 999 credits in the same semester.