Fisheries and Wildlife Sciences Graduate Program
The graduate programs in fisheries and wildlife are designed to prepare you for a professional career with state and federal agencies, private conservation organizations, consulting firms or academic institutions.
If you're contemplating graduate work in fisheries and wildlife, you should have a good background in the biological and physical sciences, including biology or botany, zoology, ecology, physiology and genetics. In addition, such taxonomic courses as plant taxonomy, invertebrate zoology, ichthyology, ornithology and mammalogy are highly desirable, as is a background in chemistry, mathematics and physics. A background of 25 to 30 hours in biological sciences courses is desirable. Major deficiencies in the area will be remedied during the graduate program.
Background in resource management helps distinguish our program from basic biology; therefore, course work in fisheries or wildlife management, environmental science, resource policy or other applied ecology field is desirable.
Master's Degree
To attain the master's degree, you must complete, with a B average or better, 30 hours of course work (15 hours or more at the 8000-9000 level). Research, problems, special investigations and special readings courses shall not exceed 12 of the 30 hours.
Candidates are expected to design a study plan with their advisory committee during their first semester in residence.
A thesis acceptable to the student's graduate committee shall be completed before the final oral examination, which is given to all candidates before completion of the degree.
Doctoral Degree
The Ph.D. degree in Fisheries and Wildlife is designed to prepare students for academic careers in research and teaching or other advanced scientific or professional careers.
The doctoral program of study requires a minimum of 72 hours of graduate credit from courses taken at MU, transfer credit and research hours. This program must include at least 15 hours of 8000-9000 level course work exclusive of problems, readings and research.
Students enrolled in the Ph.D. program must also satisfy a residency requirement of at least three consecutive semesters in which the student is in residence on the MU campus and enrolled for 6 or more credit hours.
Qualifying Examination
The student pursuing the doctoral program is expected to pass a qualifying, comprehensive and final examination administered by the student's doctoral committee. This committee is structured as defined by the MU Graduate School and must have representatives from at least two disciplines outside fisheries and wildlife.
The qualifying examination determines whether the student's background is adequate to enter the Ph.D. program. It also is intended to ascertain if there are areas of weakness in which a candidate will be required to gain background through appropriate course work.
The objectives of the comprehensive examination are twofold:
- To determine if a student has acquired sufficient depth and breadth of knowledge in selected areas of concentration.
- To evaluate the candidate's capacity to apply that knowledge in solving applied or theoretical problems.
The final examination is directed primarily toward exploration of the dissertation research project.
Foreign Language Requirements
Requirements for foreign language and a collateral field, if any, are determined by the student's doctoral program committee. The doctoral committee is expected to make an assessment of the student's needs as they relate to the student's background and educational objectives.
Dissertation
An independent scholarly dissertation approved by the student's adviser and program committee must be completed in a form acceptable to the doctoral committee.
The doctor of philosophy degree is conferred only upon those students who, after extensive study, have demonstrated a high level of achievement in their particular specialization in Fisheries and Wildlife and have completed independent research contributing to knowledge in the field.
