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New students in the Neuroscience Graduate Program
will take in their first year a unique and highly integrative, multidisciplinary
graduate curriculum called the
Basic Biomedical Science Curriculum (BBSC).
Courses specific to neuroscience begin in the summer of the first year and
continue through the end of the second term in the second year.
The typical student will emphasize course work
during the first five terms. However, laboratory rotations also occur during
this same time frame, and students are encouraged to identify a research area
and potential supervisory professor during this period. A written comprehensive
qualifying examination is given at the end of the second term of the second
year. This examination is designed to test the overall comprehension of
fundamental principles of neuroscience and the ability to design, interpret and
analyze experimental problems.
Following successful completion of the course work
and the qualifying examination, the student does research in the laboratory of a
potential supervisory professor to develop a dissertation proposal. This
proposal takes the form of a mock grant application, is presented as a seminar
and is then subject to an oral examination by a faculty supervisory committee.
With acceptance of the proposal by the supervisory committee, which will guide
the dissertation work, the student is admitted to candidacy. Admission to
candidacy should occur by May of the third year in the program.
The dissertation is complete when it is successfully
defended in a final oral examination and the final, approved copy is presented
to the dean. The average time for students to complete the neuroscience doctoral
program is 5.5 years, significantly less than the national average.
During the course of each student’s program, there
is a teaching opportunity. This involves participation in the teaching of the
laboratories in the Neuroscience and Human Behavior course for medical students
and graduate students. All students are expected to present a seminar each year
until admission to candidacy; these presentations are critiqued to enhance the
skills of the student. In addition, it is anticipated that research findings
will be presented at national meetings. The development of effective
communication skills, both written and oral, is an integral aspect of training
in the NGP. Students are also required to take the course Ethics of Scientific
Research.
Schedules and calendars of courses in the BBSC and
in the NGP that students will take in the fall of 2005, as well as descriptions
of the courses offered by the NGP, are available online by following the links
at the top of the page. Descriptions for the courses that are part of the BBSC
can be found
online at the BBSC web site.
Descriptions of the Neuropharmacology course (PHTO 6223), NGP curriculum, can be
found
online at the Pharmacology and Toxicology Graduate
Program web site.
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