Q: Do you provide financial support?
A: Yes, we guarantee full support for all Ph.D. students in our program in the form of teaching associateships, research associateships, and fellowships (provided they remain in good academic standing). For the 2023-2024 academic year the monthly stipend is $2,615/month.
Q: Do you offer conditional admission?
A: No, the department does not offer conditional admission to students. All TOEFL scores must be submitted prior to being admitted to our program.
Q: Do you offer a fee waiver?
A: At this time, we do not offer fee waivers for applicants to either of our programs (Ph.D. or MS)
Q: Do you require the GRE?
A: As long as your cumulative undergraduate GPA is above a 3.0 (or equivalent should your institution use a different scale), you are not required to submit your GRE scores with your application to the Microbiology Ph.D. program.
Q: Do I need a Bachelor's degree in Microbiology to apply?
A: No, you do not need a bachelor's degree specific to Microbiology to apply. However, we do prefer students with a strong scientific background and research experience.
Q: Can I apply to the Ph.D. program if I only have a Bachelor's and no Master's degree?
A: Yes. We do not require applicants to have a Master's degree in order to apply to our program.
Q: Do you have a Master's program?
A: Yes. The department has both a coursework-only MS degree (non-thesis) as well as a thesis MS degree which combines coursework and the opportunity to perform thesis research can in the lab of one of the Microbiology faculty.
Q: How many years does it take to graduate with a Ph.D.?
A: An average student takes between 5 and 6 years to obtain the Ph.D.
Q: How many years does it take to graduate with a MS degree?
A: The MS degree typically requires 2 years. For students already with a strong foundation in Microbiology allowing them to simultaneously take elective courses in addition to the core curriculum, the non-thesis MS degree can be obtained in about 1.5 years.
Q: How many papers do people publish during their graduate training?
A: While you are required to have at least one first-author paper published prior to graduating, on average, students publish three papers in peer-reviewed journals during their progression toward the Ph.D. There is no publication requirement for the MS degree.
Q: What type of positions do students move to after graduation?
About two thirds of our graduates initially take post-doctoral research positions in academia, with the remainder opting for research jobs in industry or the public sector. Recent Microbiology graduates have moved on to:
Academic placements (postdoctoral fellows and assistant professorships)
- Yale
- California Institute of Technology
- University of California, Berkeley
- University of Wisconsin-Madison
- Case Western
- Massachusetts Institute of Technology
- University of Georgia
- Ohio State University
- Duke University
- OSU Wexner Medical Center
- University of Chicago
- Nationwide Children’s Hospital
- Rhodes College
Government agencies and National Labs
- National Science Foundation
- U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
- Pacific Northwest National Laboratory
- Lawrence Berkeley National Lab
- Centers for Disease Control
Commercial companies and institutes
- Exxon Mobil
- Merck & Co
- Gillead Bio Science
- Creative Biolabs
- 3 Bar Biologics
- ThermoFisher
- Sharklet Technologies
- JMI Laboratories