Ph.D. in Horticulture Program of Study

72 credits are required for completion of a PhD degree. This may include 30 credits from a completed Plan A Master’s program.

Required:  Hort 792 – Seminar.  PhD students must register twice and present twice. First presentation should be done in year 2 of the graduate program and will be a proposal type seminar (~20 min). The second presentation will be a full seminar (~40 min) and should be done at the end of the student’s graduate program to align with the Ph.D. defense.

Highly encouraged:  HORT 680A1 – Topics in Horticulture (offered in Fall) and HORT 500 – Graduate Student Professional Development (offered in Spring).  Ideally students should take both courses in the first year of their program. HORT 500 should be taken prior to giving an oral presentation in HORT 792

All PhD students are expected to gain teaching experience in a lecture or laboratory course for at least one semester.  This requirement may be met through experience as a GTA or by enrolling in HORT 798 “Supervised College Teaching”. International students may satisfy this requirement through registration in a teaching seminar. For students pursuing academic positions, completion of the Graduate Teaching Certificate is recommended.

Remaining credits: Remaining credit requirements can be made up with any combination of approved 300, 400, 500, 600, and 700 level courses. Students cannot take more than 12 credits of approved 300 and 400 level courses (not including courses taken in a previous Master’s program). At least 21 credits must be in 500 or higher-level courses of which at least 12 must be regular lecture courses.