Graduate Program Resource Guide

Graduate Programs and Postdoc Support

The College of Agriculture offers 11 graduate programs that are aligned with each of the academic units within the College. Students also have the option to participate in interdisciplinary graduate programs and many College of Agriculture faculty serve as mentors to students in one or more of the 15 interdisciplinary graduate programs on campus.

Academic departments are responsible for the recruitment of students (with assistance from the Graduate School) and all applications are submitted online. The Graduate School oversees more than 70 graduate programs at the West Lafayette campus and nearly 30 programs at four additional campuses across the State of Indiana. Admission to the Graduate School is recommended by individual programs with administrative support from the Graduate School.

The head of each of the academic department in the College of Agriculture serves as the head of its graduate program and is responsible for supervision, governance, and maintenance of academic standards within their graduate program. Various levels of administrative authority may be delegated to graduate faculty members. In most cases this authority within the College of Agriculture is delegated to the Chair of the Graduate Program within academic units.

Members of the Graduate Faculty are tenure-track faculty who have been nominated by the head of a graduate program and the respective dean of the college for appointment to the Graduate Faculty. Nominees for appointment to the Graduate Faculty must demonstrate ability to mentor and supervise graduate students. Nominees for graduate faculty status who do not have a record of experience as graduate student mentors must complete a Graduate School workshop on mentoring as part of the graduate faculty appointment process. Graduate programs may petition for special graduate faculty status for qualified individuals that are employed outside of Purdue. These members of the graduate fully participate in advisory and examining committees and add a valued dimension to graduate education.

Requirements for satisfactory completion of graduate programs within the College of Agriculture are determined by each of the 11 individual graduate programs. Each program has specific curricular, student research advisory committee, and exam requirements and deadlines. These are published, updated, and available online.

The Graduate School in cooperation with The Office of the Vice President for Research has developed the Purdue University Responsible Conduct of Research (RCR) Program. Details can be found here.