Academic Policies

Registration

The responsibility for being properly registered rests first with the student and secondarily with the Advisor. A student may register for coursework or research or both. In the case of research, the number of credits shall be determined by the amount of time devoted to the investigation, with 1 credit representing the approximate equivalent of one week of full-time work.

An M.S. candidate is required to register continuously but is not required to register for the final semester in order to graduate or in order to make minor revisions to the thesis and/or take a final examination for the degree.

A candidate for the Ph.D. degree is required to register continuously for each semester from the time the comprehensive examination is passed until the thesis is accepted by the Dissertation committee, regardless of whether work is being done on the thesis during this interval.

If all degree requirements (including thesis defense and thesis submission) are completed prior to the beginning of the semester in which the student will be graduating, then the student is not required to register for that semester. For example, if a student is planning to graduate at the end of fall semester, then he/she must either complete all degree requirements two days prior to the first day of fall classes, or register for the appropriate number of credits for the fall semester. Courses to meet continuous registration requirements are:

• ABE 600/610—If a student does not need to maintain full-time status, he/she should register for the appropriate number of thesis credits (determined in consultation with Advisor) which 21 accurately reflects the amount of research being done on the thesis. ABE 600 is for students who will be on campus; ABE 610 is for students who will be off campus.
• ABE 601/611—This special registration may be used only by Ph.D. students starting with the semester after the Comprehensive Examination is passed. If a student must maintain full-time status for an assistantship, fellowship, bank loan deferment, etc., ABE 601 would be an appropriate registration. ABE 611 is the appropriate course for a part-time Ph.D. student. To register for ABE 601, students must be devoting their degree efforts entirely to thesis research/writing.

International Students—International students must satisfy additional registration requirements set by the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) and others. Further information can be found at: http://global.psu.edu.

Graduate Assistants—Graduate assistants must be enrolled at Penn State as graduate students. More specifically, since assistantships are provided as aids to completion of advanced degrees, assistants are expected to enroll for credit loads each semester that fall within the limits indicated in the table below. Maximum limits on permissible credit loads help ensure that the student can give appropriate attention both to academic progress and assistantship responsibilities.

Graduate assistants whose credit loads equal or exceed the minimum indicated in the table, and whose assistantship activities are directly related to their degree objectives, are considered by the Graduate School to be engaged in full-time academic work.

Dropping Courses

Each graduate student must maintain full-time registration throughout each semester or summer session in order to continue receiving assistantship support. Each request to drop a course must be approved by the Advisor.

A student receiving tuition remission must recognize that if he/she drops a course, the tuition already paid out of the departmental allocation is lost and can never be recovered. Excessive dropping of courses will mean that tuition support may not be available in the future.

Normal Academic Progress

Students are expected to complete the minimum credit requirement each semester and maintain an acceptable academic grade point average (3.00 minimum). Students who fall below these standards will be considered to be on academic probation. If a student remains below these standards for two consecutive semesters, his/her enrollment may be terminated.

Each student has the responsibility to submit a Progress Report form each January and July to the Graduate Program Chair. The report must have the Advisor's comments and signature and must be submitted on time if the graduate student is continuing in the next semester (or summer session). If a student receives unsatisfactory evaluations in two consecutive progress reports, his/her enrollment in the graduate program may be terminated; subject to a meeting between his/her advisor, the Graduate Program Chair, and the Department Head. If the student and/or the advisor fails to submit a report on time or does not submit it, his/her assistantship may be terminated, unless there is an extenuating circumstance that must be discussed, in advance, with the Graduate Studies Committee Chair and the Graduate Program Head.

Advisory and Dissertation Committee Responsibilities

Each Advisory and Dissertation committee has the following responsibilities:

• Review and approve the graduate student's plan of study.
• Consult with and advise the graduate student on research approach, techniques, findings, and reports.
• Review and approve the graduate student's thesis research project proposal before substantial steps are implemented to do the research.
• Review the graduate student’s thesis and suggest improvements.
• Monitor and evaluate the student’s progress in meeting course and research requirements for the degree.
• Conduct required examinations for the candidate’s degree program. For the M.S. degree, the required examination is the Final Oral Examination. For the Ph.D. degree, the required examinations are the Comprehensive and Final Oral Examinations.

A two-thirds majority vote from the Advisory or Dissertation committee members is required to approve the plan of study and research proposal, pass examinations, and approve the thesis.

Plan of Study

A plan of study is required so that no student proceeds without advice and guidance on earning an advanced degree. The graduate student, in close consultation with the Advisor, is expected to develop a tentative plan of study by the end of the first semester. The plan of study is to be submitted for approval to the Advisory or Dissertation committee by early in the second semester for an M.S. student and within one month after completing the Qualifying Examination for a Ph.D. student. An electronic copy of the approved plan of study is to be submitted to the Graduate Program Coordinator for placement in the student's file.

The plan of study for a Ph.D. student is to include all course credits and thesis research credits to be completed (or already completed) after the B.S. degree. If any course credits or thesis research credits were earned at another institution, then the institution should be identified on the plan of study.

Each plan of study is unique to the individual student and should be tailored to meet his/her career goals and objectives. The plan should be reasonably cohesive and concentrate in an area or interrelated areas of study. Since a plan of study is developed quite early, a student may modify his/her plan with approval by the Advisor and the Advisory or Dissertation committee.

Statistical Consulting Services

The Statistical Consulting Center is an educational and service unit in Penn State’s Department of Statistics. Faculty, staff, and graduate and undergraduate students from Statistics, Computer Science/ Engineering, and Management Science/Information Services provide advice, project management, data management, and statistical analysis for the University and private research community. The Center provides walk-in, short term, and longer-term consulting services to graduate students, staff and faculty. Short-term services include two free consultation meetings; whereas longer-term services are on an arranged-fee basis.

It is recommended that each student consult with the Statistical Consulting Service during the planning of experiments and prior to data collection, to ensure that adequate consideration has been given to statistical analysis.

Thesis Guidelines and Specifications

A degree candidate must demonstrate ability to do independent research and competence in scholarly exposition by the preparation of a thesis on a topic related to the major subject. The thesis should represent a significant contribution to knowledge, be presented in a scholarly manner, reveal an ability on the part of the candidate to do independent research of high quality and indicate considerable experience in using a variety of research techniques. In conformance with the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act, students are hereby notified that their thesis and other research work may be made publicly available through libraries and other means.

The thesis is to be developed by the student with the supervision, support and critique of the Advisor. The draft thesis is to be submitted first to the Advisor. The student and the Advisor may agree to prior review of the thesis, either section-by-section or in its entirety, or both. After the thesis has been approved by the Advisor, the student distributes a copy to each member of the Advisory or Dissertation committee. This draft should be complete in every respect including figures, tables and bibliography; the content and style should be correct and polished.

Graduate students should allow a minimum of five working days before the Final Oral Exam for Advisory or Dissertation committee members to review the thesis. Some members may require more time. Time for thesis reviews can often be reduced considerably if the graduate student notifies the committee members in advance of the date when copies will be submitted for review.

Acknowledgments. A student is highly encouraged to acknowledge the funding source(s) in the acknowledgments section of the thesis. In all cases, the Penn State College of Agricultural Sciences should be recognized for the contributions it has made to the student’s thesis research activities. If the student or the student’s research is additionally supported by a contract or grant activity, then it is highly appropriate to acknowledge the source of the external support. An example appropriate statement to acknowledge the support is “Thank you to for providing financial support from the Penn State College of Agricultural Sciences throughout my graduate study” or, more simply, “The support received from the Penn State College of Agricultural Sciences is gratefully acknowledged.”

Units. All theses contents must be in SI Units. Customary units may be included in parentheses for special applications.

Thesis Typing. The Graduate School offers the thesis template. The thesis is to be completed at the student’s expense. Departmental computers may be used for thesis preparation under the following conditions:

• The equipment may be used only by the student.
• The student will readily relinquish the use of the equipment when needed by students or others for extension, research, or teaching purposes.
• The printers are not to be used for multiple copies.

Submission of Thesis. The thesis must meet the Graduate School's format and other requirements. The Office of Theses and Dissertations publishes a “Thesis Guide” and provides thesis writers workshops several times each semester. In addition to Graduate School requirements, the student must provide an electronic copy to the Thesis Office and his/her Advisor.

(Advisors and the Advisory or Dissertation committee may require additional copies, perhaps in bound or other formats. The cost of any additional copies required by the sponsor of the research project will be covered by the project funds.)

Graduate Seminar

A graduate student must present a departmental seminar at the termination of each degree program, based on his/her thesis project. Seminars should be scheduled through the Seminar Chair, be during the regular seminar time slot, and be after the Final Exam or at least as close to the end of the degree program as is practical.

Graduate students must attend all department seminars each semester unless they have course conflicts and are encouraged to suggest topics and speakers to the seminar committee. Seminar attendance after passing the Final Oral Exam is optional.

If a student has a regularly scheduled course during the seminar period, then the student must inform the instructor of ABE 590 (Colloquium) and the Graduate Administrative Assistant at the beginning of the semester prior to the first scheduled seminar. A student may miss up to three seminars per semester without any penalty. If the number of missed seminars exceeds three, this absence will be noted on the student’s progress report and the department may withdraw funds for travel to conferences and/or other departmental support. No remedial action will be required if the student provides evidence of attending seminars elsewhere at PSU; equal in number to the missed seminars during the same semester.

Participation in Departmental Activities

All graduate students are invited and encouraged to attend department meetings, retreats, seminars, socials, and all other activities. However, at the discretion of the Department Head, some departmental activities may be for only the faculty.

Graduate students are also invited and encouraged to become involved with departmental committees. Graduate students may not serve on the Graduate Applications Subcommittee to avoid any possible conflict of interests. Graduate student members of committees shall have full voting rights.

Student Organizations

The Agricultural and Biological Engineering Graduate Student Council (ABEGSC) is the department’s graduate student organization. This group holds meetings and events on a regular basis. Each graduate student is highly encouraged to proactively participate in the ABEGSC. In addition, there are several student organizations responding to the needs of graduate students. The largest group is the Graduate Student Association (GSA), which is a university-wide group consisting of representatives from each department. GSA provides a liaison between ABE graduate students and University Administration and acts as both a lobbying group for student issues (such as insurance and taxes) and as a social organization providing such opportunities as happy hours and the summer rental of garden plots. The Engineering Graduate Student Council (EGSC) performs a similar function by providing a communication link to the College of Engineering. EGSC often sponsors panel discussions and brownbag lunches while also having input on various college advisory committees. Representatives for both of these groups are elected from within the department near the end of each spring semester.

The diversity among graduate students is reflected by the number of ethnic and social groups available to students. Among the many groups are: Friends of India (FOI), Women in Science and Engineering (WISE), and the Black Caucus. The Penn State Outing Club has many divisions including canoeing, hiking, biking, skiing, and equestrian.

Post-Graduation Employment

Assistance finding employment is available at the department, College, and University levels. The Agricultural Sciences Careers Fair is held each fall and attracts about 50 employers. University-wide career fairs are held each September and April in Bryce Jordan Center. Career Services provides assistance in the following areas:

• Drop-In & Career Counseling
• Nittany Lion Career Network
• Job Search and Career Fairs
• Workshops & Events
• Career Information Center
• Education Credentials Services

Student Petitions

A graduate student has the right to submit a petition concerning any academic and/or administrative policy related to the graduate degree program. The following summarizes the petition process:

1. Student completes the petition form in consultation with their advisor.
2. Student submits the petition to the graduate program coordinator. If the petition details a known approved action, coordinator forwards to director of graduate studies and department head with recommendation of approval/rejection based on known policy. If the petition is new, the coordinator forwards to the director of graduate studies and graduate studies committee for review, discussion and vote. The director of graduate studies provides a summary of discussion, vote and recommendation to the department head.
3. Department head approves or denies the petition with reason(s) and returns to the graduate studies committee.
4. Coordinator returns petition to student, advisor and graduate studies administrative assistant with results.

Note: If any member of the graduate studies committee or department head is in a conflict of interest (e.g., is an advisor of the student) a suitable replacement may be identified for voting if necessary.

In all cases, a petition must be submitted as early as possible so that the student has time to develop alternative plans if the petition is denied. Problems that develop between a student and member(s) of the Advisory or Dissertation committee can be arbitrated on a confidential basis by the Department Head and/or Dean of the Graduate School, as appropriate.