School of Health Sciences - Medical Physics Graduate Program - Ph.D. Plan of Study

Graduate Core Curriculum for the Ph.D. Degree in Medical Physics

+ HSCI 312, BIOL 301 and BIOL 302 are required for students not having had equivalent coursework. The 4 credit hour course BMS 510 (Gross Anatomy), which is offered alternate years in the summer semester, may be substituted for the 6 credit hours that comprise the BIOL 301 and BIOL 302 courses.

Students entering the medical physics graduate program are expected to be proficient in at least one programming language, usually C or Fortran, and the UNIX or Linux operating system. They are also expected to have completed a course in differential equations and one in modern physics. Students can be accepted on to the program conditionally without this pre-requisite knowledge but must complete the relevant coursework and achieve a grade A or B before formal acceptance in to the program. A total of 90 residency hours is required for the Ph.D. degree. These residency hours may be any combination of course credit hours or research credit hours. Up to 30 hours may be credited for an M.S. degree upon recommendation of the Ph.D. graduate student's advisory committee and this may include all required coursework and the clinical internship if the equivalent has recently been taken. No more than 6 credit hours of coursework at the 300 or 400 level is allowed to form part of the student's Ph.D. degree plan of study.

The student is required to complete 6 credit hours of clinical internship and give one internship presentation. This internship is available any semester. However, the student's advisory committee may waive the internship requirement and approve substitute additional coursework in lieu of a 6 credit hour clinical internship. All required coursework must be completed prior to a student beginning an internship unless special permission is received from the School Head. The internship is designed to give the student practical experience in a clinical setting at an approved site. It is performed under the supervision of a faculty member of the School of Health Sciences or under co-supervision with a faculty member and another instructor approved by the student's advisory committee. The faculty supervisor in consultation with any co-supervisor performs a competency based grading for the internship.

Completion of the Ph.D. thesis is a major requirement for this degree.

Graduate courses taken while registered as a graduate student at Purdue University may be considered for fulfilling the plan of study requirements only if the student has received grades of C or better. For courses at the 300 or 400 level taken as a graduate student or courses that represent either undergraduate or graduate excess credit or transfer credit, grades of B or better are required for fulfilling plan of study requirements.

Semester and year requirements are effective for the new student: Fall 2004
Approved by the Graduate Curriculum Committee August 4, 2004
Approved by the Faculty Committee August 13, 2004
Approved by Health Sciences faculty September 2, 2005.