Doctoral Degree
Doctoral Admissions:
Competitive applicants will have a minimum of a bachelor's degree from an accredited college or university, a GPA of 3.5 or greater, and research experience in a relevant discipline. Please review the admissions information, deadlines, and requirements below.
- Apply through the Virginia Tech Graduate School.
- Submit all undergraduate and graduate transcripts.
- Submit a personal statement. Statement should include applicant's interest in the program and career goals. Applicants may indicate faculty of interest but it is not required to match with faculty before entering the program.
- Submit 3 letters of recommendation. Recommendation letters should be from individuals qualified to evaluate the applicant's potential for success in this program.
- Submit CV/Resume.
- Submit GRE scores. (Optional)
- International students should submit TOEFL score (90 minimum for internet based tests, with scores of 20 or greater subsections, or a 550 minimum for paper based tests) or IELT score (6.5 minimum). Send to institution code 5859.
Application Deadlines for the 2024-2025 academic year:
Priority Deadline: Dec. 15, 2023
Domesitc Student Final Deadline: Jan. 15, 2024
International Student Final Deadline: Dec. 15, 2023
Doctoral Student Support:
TBMH Ph.D. students are fully supported during their time in the program, provided they are making satisfactory progress toward their degree. Students will receive a yearly stipend of $32,976 to cover the cost of living, as well as full tuition, student fees, and a portion of health insurance coverage.
Doctoral Coursework
Students pursuing a doctorate will earn a minimum of 100 credit hours beyond the bachelor of science degree. Students will engage in research rotations in year one, while completing most of their core coursework, and will commit to a thesis research lab at the end of year one.
Student's will:
- Take an intensive “Gateway” course in semester one, where they will learn the fundamentals of biomedicine, physiological systems, and translational science.
- Then select a focus area in semester two and take two intensive “Fundamentals” courses (4 credits each) covering in depth the fundamentals of that focus area, with heavy emphasis on translational exemplars and case studies.
- Continue a core curriculum in parallel with their focus-area-specific coursework, which includes professional development, ethics, seminars and scientific analysis, as well as program retreats and presentations.
- In total, students will take 31 credits of core coursework, 3 credits quantitative requirement, 3 credits of free electives, and 63 credits of dissertation research.
Coursework by Year
