The doctorate symbolizes the ability of the student to undertake original research with minimal supervision and demonstrates the student’s ability to write a dissertation reporting the results of this research. Eventual publication in a scholarly, refereed journal is expected of research from the dissertation. There are no definite course requirements for the Ph.D. degree. There is, however, a Graduate School requirement for a minimum of 72 credit hours for a Doctoral degree.  Of these 72 credit hours, 18 may be transferred from a Master’s degree. Students cannot take 400-level courses or lower as part of the credit-hour requirement. Most Doctoral POWs contain 30 to 40 semester credit hours with about one-third of the credit hours coming from courses taught outside of the discipline of Soil Science. The POW must contain at least one credit hour of seminar (SSC 801) and at least two credit hours of research (SSC 893 or SSC 895). Additional credit hours of research may be used to fulfill continuous registration requirements but do not need to be listed on the POW. The preliminary written and oral examinations must be completed within six calendar years, and all degree requirements must be completed within ten years from the date of admission to the Doctoral program. A non-credit exit seminar is required.