Advisors
Each student is assigned a temporary academic advisor upon entry into the program. The faculty member selected to supervise the thesis or research paper automatically becomes the student's academic advisor. Students must meet with their advisors at least once a semester and should keep their advisors informed of study plans. Any prolonged absences from the program must follow the accepted protocol (see Leave of Absence Policy).

Foreign Language Requirement
The Computational Bioscience Program has waived the foreign language requirement for its doctoral students.

Required Courses
The Ph.D. program has a number of required courses. Students must complete a minimum of 30 semester credit hours of course work (including academic credits transferred from other programs) and a minimum of 30 semester credit hours of doctoral dissertation research. Students may transfer up to twenty semester hours from prior work (see Transferring Credits).

Waiving Courses
If a student believes that he/she has covered the content of a required course in previous course work, he/she may request to waive the course. To waive a course, the student consults the instructor teaching the course, bringing evidence of his/her previous work in the subject. With the instructor's and advisor's approval, the student can substitute the course requirement with an equivalent number of hours in an elective course or independent study.

Preliminary Examination
The purpose of the preliminary examination is to ensure that doctoral students are qualified to continue their academic studies in the bioinformatics program. A written, open–book examination is administered around each June that covers topics from the major required areas of study: applied mathematics, statistics, biology, computing sciences and bioinformatics. This examination usually follows completion of the first year in the program, but is sometimes postponed for certain students who need to broaden their academic backgrounds to obtain expertise in these defined areas.

Dissertation Committee
A dissertation committee, having at least 5 members, is chosen by the student, with the approval of the Director of the Computational Bioscience Program and in accordance with Graduate School rules. The purpose of this committee is to guide the student's work and to judge the oral Comprehensive Examination, the presentation of the thesis proposal, and final Defense of Dissertation. Students are encouraged to form a dissertation committee early in the second year. The dissertation committee and the comprehensive examination committee often include the same membership; however, this is not a requirement.

Dissertation Proposal
Before taking the Comprehensive Examination, the student must assemble a dissertation/comprehensive examination committee, submit a dissertation proposal to the Program Director and to the dissertation committee at least two weeks prior to the schedule examination date, and schedule the examination with the Graduate School by filing all the required Graduate School forms. The dissertation proposal should be in a format comparable to a National Institutes of Health (NIH) R03 grant submission.

Application for Admission to Candidacy
Students must submit an application for admission to candidacy for the Ph.D. degree to the Graduate School at least two weeks before scheduling the oral Comprehensive Examination. To be admitted for candidacy, students must have:
• completed all course work
• passed their Preliminary Examination
• met the Graduate School requirements for residency.
See http://www.uchsc.edu/gs/gs/rules.htm

Comprehensive Examination
The oral Comprehensive Examination is based on the student's dissertation proposal, but can include other areas of study as well. This exam typically takes the format of presenting the problem, defending its innovation and demonstrating a workable knowledge of the field of study to assure that independent work is eminent. The student's dissertation committee judges the quality of the examination and makes recommendations for further academic advancement.

It is necessary that students complete all course work or at least be finishing all course work in the same semester as the exam, pass their preliminary examination and have a dissertation topic before scheduling their oral Comprehensive Examination. After successfully completing this examination and meeting all other Graduate School requirements, students are recognized as formal Ph.D. candidates who can proceed with the independent research work that usually culminates in their Ph.D. dissertation.

Continuous Registration Requirement
Following successful completion of the Graduate School oral comprehensive exam, students must register for at least 5 credits of dissertation each semester (excluding the Summer semester). If the dissertation defense occurs during a Summer semester, the student must register for 3 dissertation credits for that Summer semester. Students may take up to 10 dissertation credits prior to or during the semester in which they take the Comprehensive Examination. Please refer the Graduate School rules at http://www.uchsc.edu/gs/gs/rules.htm for further information.

Dissertation
A dissertation (written presentation of novel research) is based upon original investigations and demonstrating innovation in bioinformatics methodology. This document must be written, approved by an examining committee authorized by the program, and in a final format approved by the Graduate School. A near–final draft of the work is submitted to the examination committee at least 14 days prior to the final oral examination (the Defense of Dissertation, see below). The examination committee must formally approve the dissertation before the candidate submits a final and appropriately formatted version of the dissertation to the Graduate School. All Graduate School guidelines and specifications must be followed. Students must register for and complete 30 semester hours of doctoral dissertation credit (BIOI 8990) to be eligible for the Ph.D. degree.

Defense of Dissertation
The student's dissertation committee conducts the Defense of Dissertation after completion of the independent research. Arrangements for the final examination must be made through the Graduate School at least two weeks in advance. Upon successfully defending the innovation of the problem and student's independent research efforts, the Ph.D. candidate must complete all the contingencies and formal recommendations of the dissertation committee and the program director. A final grade for the 30 semester hours of dissertation research will be assigned only after the student submits the final, approved manuscript, documenting the completed, innovative and independent research work, to the Dean of the Graduate School. If approved by the Graduate School, the Dean of the Graduate School makes a recommendation to the Chancellor, on behalf of the entire graduate school faculty, who then awards the Ph.D. degree to the candidate.
 
Completion of the Program
Successful completion of course work is verified based on the total number of credit hours and grades appearing on the official UC Denver Transcript. Successfully defending a dissertation at the Dissertation Examination provides the required evidence of independent and innovative Ph.D. level research by the student and marks successful completion of all the academic requirements for the Ph.D. degree.