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Current Wildlife Ecology Graduate Student Information

If you have any questions regarding the Wildlife Ecology graduate degree requirements please contact the Student Services Coordinator, Sara Rodock (email or 608-262-9926).

The Graduate School is the administrative unit for over 170 graduate programs of study at UW-Madison.  Applicants and students must satisfy the requirements of both the Graduate School and the Department for admission, progress, and completion of degrees.  For information regarding the Graduate School’s Academic Policies and Procedures please visit the websites below:

• The Graduate School’s home page
• The Graduate School’s forms page
• Index to the Graduate School Academic Guidelines

Forms

Listed below are links to some forms that Wildlife Ecology Graduate Students may need.

• The Graduate School’s forms (takes you to the Graduate School’s website)
• MS thesis advisor approval page template [ms_advisor_approval_page.doc]
• MS and PhD external committee member request from [external_committee_member.doc]
• Wildlife Ecology worksheets

MS Requirements

Enrollment

The department requires all funded students to be enrolled full time.  For MS students this means 8 credits in the fall and spring term and 2 credits in the summer term.  Students funded by another department should check with the payroll and benefits coordinator of that department to see what that department requires for enrollment.  Unfunded students should follow the Graduate School’s rules on enrollment..

Graduate Committee

You must form a three-person Graduate Committee that will supervise your degree program. That committee must be composed of your major professor, another graduate faculty member in the department, and a graduate faculty member from outside the department. You and your major professor should select committee members and convene a meeting to outline the anticipated course of the degree program as soon as possible after you have enrolled.  If you would like to request to have a non tenure or tenure-track faculty member server on your committee you can do so with the MS and PhD external committee member request form.

Degree Requirements

All Wildlife Ecology MS students are required to meet the following requirements

• Entry Seminar: all MS students are required to hold an entry seminar that outlines your proposed research program; often this seminar is followed by a meeting with your Graduate Committee to discuss your plans.
• Minimum Course Requirements: you must take, for credit, all courses on the department's list of Minimum Course Requirements that have not been completed prior to entering the program; your major professor will review these requirements with you soon after you are accepted into the program.
• Graduate Seminars: you must enroll in at least two graduate seminars (preferably Forest & Wildlife Ecology 875 Special Topics or 961 Wildlife Seminar) during your program; the exact seminars you will take can be worked out with your graduate committee.
• Minimum Credit Requirement: the Graduate School requires all MS students to complete at least 16 credits of graduate-level coursework at UW-Madison, courses that count towards the minimum credit requirement must meet the following criteria
• the courses must be numbered 300 or higher
•  you must maintain an overall GPA of at least 3.0
• you cannot transfer credits from another institution to meet this requirement
• graduate-level credits taken to remedy deficiencies in the department's minimum course requirements can count
• Other Course Requirements: the exact courses you take to meet the missing minimum course requirements and other courses necessary for you to take will be determined in consultation with your major professor and your graduate committee
• Exit Seminar: you must present an exit seminar, typically this seminar is given just prior to the final oral examination
• Thesis: you must submit and defend a thesis that is based on original research undertaken as part of your degree program, you should check with your advisor for specific details regarding your final oral examination

Finishing Your MS

Early in the semester in which you intend to graduate you will receive an email asking you to notify the Student Services Coordinator (Sara) of your intention to graduate (for summer graduates this will happen along with the spring graduates).  This email will ask you to request your warrant.  The warrant request is a form filled out by the Student Services Coordinator that is submitted to the Graduate School.  By requesting your warrant you will trigger a check of your record by both the department and the Graduate School.  For a listing of the Graduate School’s requirements for completing the MS degree go to Expecting Your Master's Degree? Procedures to Help.

The Forest and Wildlife Ecology department follows the Graduate School’s guidelines for thesis formatting.  For information on the Graduate School’s thesis formatting requirement please visit the Guide to Preparing Your Master's Thesis website.  Please note that all theses deposited at Memorial Library are required to have an advisor approval page that is signed by the advisor.  You can either follow the directions on the Guide to Preparing Your Master's Thesis website or use the department’s template.

PhD Requirements

Enrollment

The department requires all funded students to be enrolled full time.  For PhD students this means 8 credits in the fall and spring term and 2 credits in the summer term.  Students funded by another department should check with the payroll and benefits coordinator of that department to see what that department requires for enrollment.  Unfunded students should follow the Graduate School’s rules on enrollment

Dissertators must always enroll for 3 credits during the fall and spring terms (and summer if funded over the summer term). 

Graduate Committee

Students pursuing a PhD degree in Wildlife Ecology are required to have several formal meetings with their PhD Committee: a Qualifying Examination, a Preliminary Examination, and a Final Oral Examination (commonly called the "thesis defense"). The PhD Committee is composed of at least 5 members, 3-4 Graduate Faculty members from the Department of Forest and Wildlife Ecology and 1-2 Graduate Faculty members representing a minor. The student and the major professor should form the committee as soon as possible, preferably early in the first semester in residence. Early selection of the committee is important because the Qualifying Examination must take place as early as possible in the student's program, preferably during the first semester in residence.  If you would like to request to have a non tenure or tenure-track faculty member server on your committee you can do so with the MS and PhD external committee member request form.

Degree Requirements

The basics of the PhD degree requirements are very similar to the MS degree requirements with a few exceptions.  All PhD students are required to meet the following requirements

• Entry Seminar: all PhD students are required to hold an entry seminar that outlines your proposed research program; often this seminar is followed by a meeting with your graduate Committee to discuss your plans.
• Minimum Course Requirements: you must take, for credit, all courses on the department's list of Minimum Course Requirements that have not been completed prior to entering the program; your major professor will review these requirements with you soon after you are accepted into the program.
• Graduate Seminars: you must enroll in at least two graduate seminars (preferably Forest & Wildlife Ecology 875 Special Topics or 961 Wildlife Seminar) during your program; the exact seminars you will take can be worked out with your graduate committee.
• Minimum Credit Requirement: the Graduate School requires all MS students to complete at least 32 credits of graduate-level coursework at UW-Madison before you can become a dissertator, courses that count towards the minimum credit requirement must meet the following criteria
• the courses must be numbered 300 or higher
•  you must maintain an overall GPA of at least 3.0
• you cannot transfer credits from another institution to meet this requirement
• graduate-level credits taken to remedy deficiencies in the department's minimum course requirements can count
• Other Course Requirements: the exact courses you take to meet the missing minimum course requirements and other courses necessary for you to take will be determined in consultation with your major professor and your graduate committee
• Minor: for more information on minors please see the Graduate School’s Minors  information page
• Qualifying Exam: see below for more information regarding the Qualifying Exam
• Preliminary Examination: see below for more information regarding the prelim
• Exit Seminar: you must present an exit seminar, typically this seminar is given just prior to the Final Oral Examination
• Dissertation: you must submit and defend a dissertation that is based on original research undertaken as part of your degree program

Qualifying Exam

The Qualifying Examination is administered by the full committee and typically requires about 1-2 hours. There are 2 purposes for this meeting:

• to uncover the rare instances in which a student proves to be completely unqualified to continue in the PhD program and
• to expose through oral questioning any weaknesses in the student's background that must be remedied with formal coursework, individual instruction or independent reading before the student takes the Preliminary Examination.

Students may wish to do some cursory review before this meeting, but it is not intended that a student should undertake intensive preparations. Committee members are to have reviewed the student's file and to be prepared to probe the student's background by asking questions designed specifically to reveal weaknesses. When the questioning is complete, the Committee decides on the student's suitability to continue in the PhD program. The Committee and the student then agree on required coursework or other learning activities that must be completed before the student takes the Preliminary Examination. These requirements will include

• any deficiencies in the minimum coursework required of all graduate students majoring in Wildlife Ecology,
•  any courses that remedy weaknesses identified during the Qualifying Examination,
• any courses that may be required to satisfy the minor, and
• a course in which the student learns a new technical skill not previously possessed.

Once a consensus is reached, the student and the Committee members sign a PhD Certification Form (available in the Wildlife Ecology worksheets) that becomes part of the student's official records maintained by the department.  The signed PhD Certification Form should be turned into the Sara (276 Russell Labs).

The student and the committee may also wish to discuss the student's research proposal at this meeting. If this is the case, the student should circulate the research proposal to the committee ahead of time, giving adequate time for the committee members to read it. Also, the student should plan for a longer (2-3 hour) session with the committee. If the research proposal is not discussed during the Qualifying Examination, another meeting for that specific purpose should be scheduled. Often, the student may wish to give their entry seminar to the department in conjunction with the committee meeting at which the research proposal is discussed.

Preliminary Exam and Dissertator Status

After completing all coursework prescribed at the Qualifying Examination and satisfying the minimum graduate-level credit requirements of the Graduate School (32 credits), the student can schedule the Preliminary Examination. The exam can take place during the student's last semester of coursework. This is a 2- to 3-hour oral examination administered by the full committee in which the student will be questioned extensively about their knowledge in wildlife ecology and related fields. It is expected that the student will have prepared well for this meeting, and it is usually wise to seek council from each committee member about what to expect from them.

Early in the semester in which you plan to do your preliminary exam, contact the Student Services Coordinator Sara Rodock to request your prelim warrant.  The Graduate School requires three weeks for processing prelim warrant requests, so you should contact the Student Services Coordinator no less than five weeks before your prelim exam.

Once you have passed your preliminary exam all of your committee members have signed your preliminary warrant you should return the warrant to Sara for final processing so that you can become a dissertator.

Students who have passed their preliminary exam are called dissertators.  There are very specific rules for being a dissertator, it is very important that you follow all of the rules of being a dissertator otherwise you may lose your dissertator status.  A full listing of the dissertator rules can be found on the Graduate School’s Dissertator FAQs page.  The three most important rules of being a dissertator are:

• You must maintain continuous registration by enrolling for 3 credits every fall and spring (and summer if funded) until you graduate, otherwise you will be assessed a degree completion fee.
• You should not enroll in any courses expect research credits or a required departmental seminar unless you have an extenuating circumstance.
• You have five years from the date that you passed prelims to defend and deposit your dissertation.  If you do not meet this requirement you may be required to pass your prelim exam again before you will be allowed to graduate with your PhD degree.

If at any point you have questions about what is acceptable as a dissertator contact Sara [rodock@wisc.edu] ASAP.

Final Oral Examination and Finishing Your PhD

Early in the semester in which you intend to graduate you will receive an email asking you to notify the Student Services Coordinator (Sara) of your intention to graduate (for summer graduates this will happen along with the spring graduates).  This email will ask you to fill out your Final Oral Committee Approval Form.  The Final Oral Committee Approval Form is a form filled out by you and is submitted to the Graduate School by the Student Services Coordinator.  By requesting your warrant you will trigger a check of your record by both the department and the Graduate School.  For a listing of the Graduate School’s requirements for completing the PhD degree check out The Three D's: Deadlines, Defending, & Depositing Your PhD Dissertation website.

The Final Oral Examination is a 2- to 3-hour examination administered by the full Graduate Committee after the student has submitted a draft of the PhD Dissertation to each committee member and the major professor has agreed that the student is ready to defend. The purpose of the examination is to question the student intensely about the work presented in their dissertation and ascertain that it meets all of committee's expectations.

The Forest and Wildlife Ecology department follows the Graduate School’s guidelines for dissertation formatting.  For information on the Graduate School’s dissertation formatting requirement please visit A Guide to Preparing Your Doctoral Dissertation.

Updated: 2008.05.07