Graduation Info for Chemistry Graduate Students

Registration
Filing Fee
Graduate Appeals Procedures


Registration

Registration requirements for Ph.D. students are relatively informal. Each student during their first year in the program must see an academic advisor during the Enrollment period each semester to work out a schedule that best suits the student's individual needs. There is flexibility in the choice of courses that a student may take, particularly after the first year. See suggested course sequences for first year students in various sub-disciplines of chemistry below. In addition to lecture courses, there are three kinds of courses you can get course credit for. These are:

Seminar (Chemistry 298- sections 1-8). Student can register for up to 3 seminars for 1 unit only, every semester.
Enrollment in a seminar means regular attendance at (a) seminars given by outside speakers and Berkeley faculty appropriate to a student's area of specialization, (b) student seminars in at least one of the two divisions of the graduate program, and (c) group seminar organized by a student's research group. Enrollment is on a satisfactory/unsatisfactory (S/U) basis.

Research (Chemistry 299). Since the Ph.D. is a research degree, each student in the Ph.D. program is expected to show progress in research every semester. In the first semester each student should choose a field of interest and a research director. Since new students do not have a research director when registering for the first time, they will normally sign up for research under the Department Chair's name. (Chemistry 299-section 1). Once a research director has been chosen, students should sign up for research units under their research advisor.

Research is always variable in the number of units, ranging from 1-9 and must be taken for a letter grade. A student's load of formal classes and seminars will determine the number of research units that he/she will sign up for each semester, i.e., sign up for formal classes and seminars, then fill up your schedule with as many Chemistry 299 units are you need to bring your schedule up to 12 units. All students are required to carry a total of 12 units each semester, while in the program.

Teaching (Chemistry 300). Students enroll for 2 units of Chemistry 300 during the semesters in which they serve as teaching assistants. Student must enroll for a letter grade in the Chemistry 300 section for the course they are teaching.

back to top

Filing Fee

Filing Fee is a reduced fee for graduate students who have completed all requirements for the degree, except for filing the master's thesis or doctoral dissertation or taking the master's comprehensive examination.

To be approved for the use of the Filing Fee a student must be continuously enrolled during all periods of study and research that have required the use of University facilities or faculty consultation. Two semesters of approved withdrawal status is permitted; however, the student must be registered in the semester or summer (4 units minimum in summer) immediately preceding the one for which Filing Fee status is requested. For example, to use the Filing Fee in Fall, you must have registered in the previous spring or summer; and to use the Filing Fee in the Spring, you must have been registered during the previous Fall semester.

Filing Fee is valid for the length of the semester for which Filing Fee status has been approved, up to the deadline for a degree in that semester. The Filing Fee may be used only once. However, students currently in a graduate program who have used the Filing Fee to file a master's degree in spring semester 2002, or in a prior semester, will be permitted to apply for the use of Filing Fee for the doctoral degree.

Students may not hold an academic graduate student appointment (i.e., GSR, GSI) while on Filing Fee. You should consult the Department on other means of financial support while on Filing Fee status. Filing Fee status for those students with their financial support coming from LBNL is prohibited - unless they are paid as a Student Assistant.

Students must apply for the Filing Fee by the end of the first week of classes of the semester in which they intend to file.

back to top

Graduate Appeals Procedure

In accordance with the provisions of the Graduate Adviser's Handbook (Appendix A, pages 19-24), it is necessary for the Chemistry Department to have a procedure for appeals of "those administrative or academic decisions that terminate or otherwise impede the progress of a Berkeley graduate student toward his or her academic or professional degree goal." The following procedure has been established:

1. A graduate student who has been dismissed from graduate standing, who has been placed in a probationary status, or whose academic progress has otherwise been impeded by administrative or academic decision, has the right to appeal that decision. The individual making such a decision is obligated to inform the graduate student of his or her right to appeal under these procedures.
2. The appeal should be lodged, in writing, within 14 calendar days after the student is made aware of the decision. The written appeal should be delivered to the Chair of the Chemistry Department. If the appeal pertains to a decision made by a Vice Chair of the Department or by the student's research director, a copy of the appeal must be delivered to that individual as well as to the Department Chair.
3. Upon receiving the written appeal, the Department Chair will appoint an ad hoc committee to consider it. The ad hoc committee will normally consist of the three Vice Chairs of the Department, plus one professor to be named by the student. If the decision being appealed was made by one of the Vice Chairs, that person will not serve on the ad hoc committee. In such a case, the Department Chair will appoint a fourth member of the committee from the Chemistry Department faculty. The ad hoc appeals committee will be constituted within fourteen (14) calendar days of receipt of the written appeal.
4. Within twenty-one (21) calendar days after receipt of the written appeal in the Chemistry Department office, the ad hoc appeals committee will meet to consider the appeal. The committee will make a written recommendation to the Department Chair, who will make the final decision on the appeal. The Department Chair will notify the student of the outcome of the complaint within sixty days from written receipt of the appeal.
5. If the decision on the appeal is negative, the student has the right to further appeal to the Dean of the College of Chemistry or to the Dean of the Graduate Division, as provided in Appendix A of the Graduate Adviser's Handbook.
6. The full Graduate Appeals Procedure (approved April 27, 1998) is available at the Graduate Division website.

back to top