Ph.D. Preliminary Exam Policies and Instructions
The 2007 preliminary exam will be given over two days: Thursday, June 14th, 2007 and Friday, June 15th, 2007, 8:00 A.M. to 5:00 P.M. each day. More details will be provided in the Spring.
Eligibility and Overview
Only students currently enrolled in the IPHG Ph.D. program are eligible to take the exam. Students are eligible to take the preliminary exam after completion of all the required core courses. A student can take the exam without completing a core course only if he or she has obtained prior approval for a waiver of that course. In the exam, the student will still be responsible for the content of waived area. It is expected that most students will take the preliminary exam following their 2nd year of participation in the PhD program, although those who have completed the MPH degree in PHG may be prepared to take the exam at the end of their 1st year.
The preliminary exam will evaluate the ability of the student to synthesize and integrate information from the core disciplines that comprise the PHG PhD program. The exam will contain a description of a broad public health genetics issue in the form of a case study, and 5 questions related to the core knowledge areas listed below. These questions will intersect with the seven core knowledge areas in different ways each year.
- Genetic Epidemiology
- Ecogenetics & Pharmacogenomics
- Ethics
- Social Science
- Law
- Policy
- Health Economics & Outcomes Research