College of Veterinary Medicine - Cornell University

Degree Requirements

Cornell Graduate Education is based on Graduate Fields. Graduate Fields are defined as voluntary groupings of faculty around a research area. You are a member of the Biological & Biomedical Science Graduate Field that admitted you, but you have access to all the other Fields at Cornell University through minor membership on your Committee.

Concentrations are specific research areas within the Graduate Field. Some fields have only one concentration; others have several.  In Fields with more than one concentration, faculty have chosen the concentration(s) that most closely matches their research.

Your Special Committee Chair and Field-appointed Member (if you have one) represent your major Graduate Field.

Your minor members serve as representatives of the Fields and/or concentrations that you have chosen as appropriate for your project. You should consult the web pages of all of the Fields represented on your Special Committee in order to become familiar with their requirements.

Faculty are often members of more than one Graduate Field. The Graduate School provides a search engine for all Graduate Faculty that will tell you all the Fields of which a particular faculty is a member. The Field and concentration they represent should be the one that most closely corresponds to their role in your project. 

Should your chosen faculty mentor be a member of another Graduate Field, there are two options open to you:

• The faculty mentor can join the Graduate Field that admitted you. The rules for membership vary among Fields and the faculty mentor should contact the Director of Graduate Studies (DGS) or the Graduate Field Assistant (GFA) of the particular Field to inquire about becoming a member.
• You can change your Graduate Field membership. This involves completing a Student Program Change Form and writing a personal statement giving details regarding your research and professional goals within the chosen Graduate Field. The Graduate School will send a copy of your application to the new Field and this Field will make the decision whether or not to admit you.