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Biomedical - Advising

Biomedical Engineering Advising

First Year Advisement

If a student committee has not been established upon entry, students will be advised by the BME Curriculum Committee until a "formal" committee is established. During the first year, each student and committee (if established) will meet with the Curriculum Committee to determine the appropriate courses to be taken. Courses may be added by the Curriculum Committee to address deficiencies in the student's undergraduate record or courses may be waived in recognition of training or graduate credits already earned. The Office of Admissions and Records will transmit Graduate Standing Admission Certificates to the Program Director.

Second and Subsequent Years

To remain in the program, a student must meet the standards of the Graduate School of the University of Nevada, Reno and those of the BME program. The standards of the Graduate School include: students must complete each graduate level course with a grade of C or above and earn an overall B average (3.00 GPA) in graduate courses. A student whose GPA falls to 2.4 to 2.99 will be placed on probationary status and must elevate the GPA to 3.00 during the next semester in which s/he enrolls. A student whose GPA falls to 2.3 or below will not be permitted to continue in Graduate School.

Processing of progression forms (Graduate School forms GS 19) will be initiated by the "primary mentor" of the student's committee, and will require approval by the BME Program Director, the Graduate School and the Office of Admissions and Records.

Constitution and Function of Graduate Student Committees

All student committees will consist of an internal BME faculty member who is designated primary mentor or "student advisor" and who directs much of the day-to-day activities of the student. A secondary mentor must also be selected to complement the background of the primary advisor. In other words, if a primary advisor is identified principally within the field of engineering, the secondary advisor should be from the life or medical sciences; and vice versa. In addition, it is recommended that one member of each committee have a formal background in BME, although this condition can be waived by the Director if it is deemed that the proposed committee members adequately represent the broad field of BME. Before any committee is appointed, its membership must be approved by the Director.

A formal masters degree committee should be formed by the time of completion of the first semester of course work. Masters degree committees consist of at least 3 members from the BME faculty including the primary and secondary advisors. It is a requirement of the Graduate School that an additional member be included from outside the BME program faculty.

A formal doctoral examining committee should be formed by the time of submission of the grant-writing exercise. Doctoral committees consist of a total of at least 5 members with at least 3 internal members from BME faculty including the primary and secondary advisors, and at least 1 member from outside the BME faculty. It is not necessary for the doctoral committee to include all members of an original masters degree committee (e.g. if a research emphasis changed upon entering the doctoral program). It is preferable (but not mandatory) if one outside member is selected as a national expert outside of the University of Nevada, Reno faculty.

Doctoral committees must be informed if major changes in a research plan (presented in the grant-writing exercise and any progress reports) are contemplated. Committees will meet periodically with students to discuss progress. Three or four months prior to the completion of a research project, the committee will meet again with the student to decide on specific details of the dissertation preparation and presentation. Each member of a committee must receive a rough draft of a dissertation at least 3 weeks before its defense. The rough draft is necessary to allow changes to be made if the committee feels they are needed. This draft should already have incorporated any changes suggested by the primary and secondary advisors and should be neat, readable and as error-free as possible.