A petition for status change must be made by letter to the Graduate Program Director by the student, stating the justification for the change. The Graduate Program Director will then obtain the recommendation of the Graduate Student Acceptance and Progress Committee, and report to the Graduate Program Faculty in the next faculty meeting. Failure of any core course will ordinarily result in termination from the Program. Students entering the Program who feel that their previous training is sufficient to meet all or part of the core courses may petition the Program faculty, before the end of their second semester of enrollment, to have any portion of the requirements waived. The Committee, with support from appropriate faculty, evaluates the request and makes a recommendation to be discussed by the Graduate Program Faculty.
All waivers require a majority vote by the faculty.
Students receiving a grade lower than B must take a competency exam administered by the Committee. At least 20 credits must be Entomology courses including the required core curriculum. The student's thesis committee may require additional courses even if the sum of the student's course credits will then exceed 30, as deemed needed. A student must be accepted by a professor as an advisee, or temporary advisee, at the beginning of the doctoral program. The advisor will notify the Graduate Director in writing.