Ph.D students are required to take a minimum of sixty (60) hours for the degree including 3 hours of professional development and professional ethics, and a minimum of 12 hours in research methods and statistics courses.  To form their 12 hour EXNS core, students will be required to take two courses each in:

1. exercise physiology and
2. nutrition.

In addition to these 27 hours of course work, students must complete 12 hours of directed research (generally 3 hours per semester) and 12 hours of dissertation.  The remaining 9 hours of course work will consist of electives approved by the Advisor.

General Admission Requirement

Students wishing to pursue the Doctor of Philosophy degree in Exercise and Nutrition Sciences must apply and meet all general requirements for admission to the Graduate School of Baylor University. Qualified students will be admitted regardless of race, color, national or ethnic origin, gender, age, or disability. The applicant’s packet will be considered complete when all application materials have been received.

Department Admission Requirements

The following are the specific requirements from the Department of Health, Human Performance, and Recreation for admission to the Doctor of Philosophy degree in Exercise and Nutrition Sciences:

• An equivalent of a master’s degree in a related area of exercise physiology, nutrition, health, sports medicine, physical therapy, athletic training, nursing, allied health, or medicine or appropriate undergraduate degree work that would suggest that the student could be successful in the program.
• Completion of a departmental doctoral program application form describing academic preparation, degrees earned, interests in the doctoral program, professional goals, research skills, and teaching/work experience.
• Letter of intent and samples of writing such as copies of representative publications, articles abstracts or other samples of the applicant’s technical writing.
• Three letters of reference from mentors who have insight regarding potential for success in the doctoral program.
• An appropriate and acceptable score on the verbal and quantitative portions of the GRE.
• A minimum of a 3.50 overall GPA on graduate work and/or undergraduate work if applicant is applying with only an undergraduate degree completed at an accredited college or university.
• Willingness of an applicant-identified mentor to supervise the applicant’s doctoral training.

Departmental Supervision

Potential students will need to identify a mentor upon application to the program.  Students will not be admitted unless there is a faculty mentor willing to serve as their mentor. The mentor will serve as the student’s academic advisor throughout the program and will serve as their dissertation chair.  In rare cases, students may elect to change mentors, but only with the current mentor, prospective mentor, and graduate program director’s approval.

Prerequisite Courses

Although most applicants will have backgrounds in appropriately-related fields, the possession of degrees in these fields is not required for admission. It should be recognized, however, that applicants with deficiencies in academic backgrounds will be determined by the student’s mentor and remedial course work prescribed.  In general, such remedial course work cannot be counted toward the credit hours required for the degree.

Period of Study

• 2 to 3 years academic study
• 1 year dissertation

Program Course Sequence

The program is designed to consist of two to three years (fall, spring, and summer sessions) of course work and one year of dissertation research. During the first year, students will take a core of statistics and research methods courses designed to provide a strong multidisciplinary background in conducting kinesiology, exercise nutrition, and health promotion research.  During the second and third years, under the guidance of their mentor, students will take emphasis area course work and electives to provide research specialization. During both the first and second years, with consultation and/or guidance from their mentor, students will take directed research hours.  For these research hours, students will be required to have collected data from an independently-led or collaborative research project resulting in manuscript submission to a peer-reviewed journal and presentation at a national/international conference before being allowed to take preliminary exams and progressing to doctoral candidacy. The final year is dedicated to dissertation research. Students must be registered for at least one semester hour of graduate credit during the semester of intended graduation. The maximum time limit for the doctoral degree is described in the Baylor University Graduate Catalog under General Degree Requirements.

Preliminary Examination

Students will take a preliminary examination upon completing all course work or within 6 hours of completing their course work. With the consultation of the student’s mentor, the student will form an advisory committee that will serve to administer the preliminary exam and consult on the dissertation research (see dissertation supervision section below). At least four faculty members will serve on the advisory committee, the composition of which will be approved by the Graduate Program Director and include at least three members within the HHPR Department graduate faculty and one graduate faculty member outside the department. The preliminary examination consists of written and oral testing by the student’s advisory committee. The primary purpose of the preliminary examination is to assess the student’s understanding of the broad body of knowledge in a field of study. The examination also affords the advisory committee an opportunity to review the student’s understanding of research methods and literature in the chosen field. The student will schedule separate written examinations with each advisory committee member. Each written examination will be evaluated by the committee member who provided the questions and graded as pass, pass with stipulation, pass with distinction, or failure. Committee members will convey the student’s results to the mentor and, together with the mentor, determine if the student is prepared to take the oral portion of the preliminary exam. The oral portion of the preliminary examination should be conducted within two to four weeks after the successful completion of the written examinations. Each member of the advisory committee will vote to determine if the student has passed the exam. This determination will be based on the overall performance on both the written and oral portions of the exam.  The student becomes a candidate for the doctoral degree on successful completion of both the written and oral portions of the preliminary examination. If the preliminary examination reveals deficiencies in any of these areas, the advisory committee may recommend remedial work or re-examination. Two or more votes to “fail” a student will constitute failure of the exam. Students who fail this examination may re-take their examinations no sooner than four months after, and within one year of the initial written preliminary examinations. After two failures of the exam, either in its whole or part form, the student will not be allowed to continue in the doctoral program.

Admission to Candidacy

Students are recognized as candidates for the doctoral degree only after they have passed the preliminary examination, completed all departmental requirements (except the dissertation), and received approval by the Graduate School of their formal application for admission to candidacy. An application for admission to candidacy must be filed with the Office of the Graduate School upon successful completion of the above requirements. This form should be filed no later than five months prior to the date on which the degree is conferred, and prior to a student registering for dissertation hours.

Dissertation Supervision

The dissertation advisory committee is determined by the student and mentor under general guidelines. The committee will be composed of the following members:

• Two committee members including Dissertation chair, will be HHPR graduate faculty.
• Third committee member will be a Baylor graduate faculty who is outside the HHPR graduate faculty.
• The fourth member can be inside or outside HHPR graduate faculty, including non-Baylor graduate faculty with approval of the GPD.
• At least one of the committee members will be HHPR Graduate Faculty with primary faculty appointment in HHPR Dept.

Note: The committee may consist of 3 HHPR grad faculty + 1 outside HHPR grad faculty within Baylor or 2 HHPR grad faculty + 1 outside HHPR grad faculty within Baylor + 1 non-Baylor grad faculty. The committee may include additional members beyond the required minimum of four.

Dissertation

A dissertation is required of all candidates for the degree of doctor of philosophy. The dissertation must give evidence that the candidate has pursued a program of research, the results of which reveal scholarly competence and a significant contribution to knowledge. The candidate conducts the research and prepares the dissertation under the direction of the mentor and in consultation with the dissertation advisory committee.

The candidate will develop a dissertation proposal for approval by the dissertation advisory committee.  The candidate will conduct the dissertation work and prepare and submit a dissertation draft for committee approval.  The candidate will arrange for a final oral examination, a defense of their dissertation work, on committee approval of the dissertation draft. The candidate will make any final revisions to the dissertation, according to the directions of the dissertation advisory committee, and complete all remaining Graduate School requirements to successfully complete their doctoral studies.

Candidates should acquire the guidelines for preparing the dissertation and thesis and other necessary forms and materials for graduation under the “Student Resources” tab on the Baylor Graduate School webpage (http://www.baylor.edu/graduate/). The “Student Resources” tab includes semester calendar and deadlines, directions for completing the dissertation, and an explanation of fees associated with the dissertation and graduation process. Additional degree completion materials not available on the Graduate School webpage are provided to students when they file for graduation.

Required Coursework

Course List

Code	Title	Hours
Research Seminar
HP 6000	Doctoral Research Seminar (required every semester)	0
Professional Development and Ethics
HP 6397	Christianity, Ethics and Research with Human Participants	3
Research Methods
HP 6300	Research Methods in Exercise and Nutrition Sciences	3
Statistics
The courses can be taken in Educational Psychology, Statistics, and Psychology departments upon mentor’s approval.		9
Directed Research
HP 6V70	Directed Research in Kinesiology, Exercise Nutrition and Health Promotion	12
Dissertation Research
HP 6V99	Dissertation	12
EXNS Core
Six semester hours each in the two areas below:		12
Exercise Physiology
HP 5328	Physiology of Exercise I: Neuromuscular Aspects
HP 5330	Physiology of Exercise II - Cardiovascular Aspects
Nutrition
NUTR 5355	Macronutrients and Metabolism
NUTR 5386	Nutrition for Sport and Fitness
Electives
Select nine semester hours of electives (must be approved by mentor)		9
Total Hours		60