Master of Science Degree Program

Last updated Spring 2022

Only Five-College students (Amherst, Hampshire, Mount Holyoke, Smith or UMass) are eligible to become M.S. candidates. Students from other institutions are not accepted.

M.S. students are required to have a home laboratory PRIOR to admission, and the student's advisor must be a member of the MCB Program. Most M.S. students continue research started in their final undergraduate years. MCB does not provide financial support (TA or RA) to master's students; funding is entirely between the student and the advisor.

Course work in the first semester includes the core course Advanced Molecular Biology. A total of 30 credits are required for the M.S. degree. M.S. graduate students sign up for the MCB seminar, a journal club, and the MCB colloquium every semester. A thesis committee must be established early in the semester.

In the second semester, M.S. students, in consultation with their advisers, take either MOLCLBIO 641 Advanced Cellular Biology or BIOCHEM 623 Advanced General Biochemistry. They also complete a master's outline at the beginning of the semester. Note that credits earned in a graduate-level course taken as an undergraduate can be counted toward the M.S. degree, if they have not already been counted toward the B.S. degree.

M.S. students who made significant research progress as undergraduates may write and defend their theses at the end of the first year if they have completed all other course requirements. Some M.S. students take a second year to complete their thesis work. The thesis is defended in front of the thesis committee.