Experiences of Penn’s Neuroscience Graduate Group Rita Balice-Gordon Chair

Biomedical Graduate Studies is University-Wide School of Medicine School of Arts & Sciences School of Veterinary Medicine School of Dental Medicine School of Engineering & Applied Sciences Schoolof Nursing Children's Hospital of Philadelphia & other affiliated institutions

NGG is part of the BGS umbrella Biomedical Graduate Studies Neuro- science Pharm. Biochem. & Mol. Bio- physics Epidem. & Bio- stats. Gen- omics & Comp. Biology Immun- ology Cell and Molecular Biology Cancer Biology Cell Biology & Physiol- ogy Devel., Stem Cell & Regen. Biology Gene Therapy & Vaccines Genetics & Gene Regul. Micro., Virol. & Parasit.

Recruiting Ph.D. students  BGS sets recruitment dates with Graduate Group Chairs  Each Graduate Group has the same budget for recruitment  Each Group organizes its recruiting days schedule, activities  Each Group evaluates its candidates and assigns a numerical score  Each Group presents its candidates to the BGS Admissions Committee, and the best students are admitted essentially blind to Graduate Group

Accepting Ph.D. students  BGS sends formal acceptance letters  Each Group handles its own follow-on correspondence (phone, )  Students contact the Graduate Group with their decision  BGS and/or TGs support Ph.D. students for the first 21 months,  The Thesis Advisor and/or TG support students until thesis defense

NGG Curriculum: Past Fall 4 cu NGG Core I Cell, Mol. NGG Core II Biophysics Elective 1 or 2 credit Lab RotationNGG Journal Club + Seminars Spring 4 cu NGG Core III Systems Elective 1 or 2 credit Lab RotationNGG Journal Club + Seminars

BGS implemented required Core courses in 2002  Strong feeling that Cell Biology, Biochemistry and Molecular Biology were foundational to all biomedical scientific disciplines  Strong feeling that student preparation was uneven  Lengthy and vigorous discussion of optimal number of required courses for all BGS students  Result was implementation of 1 required Core course: BIOM 600

Issues that arose for the NGG  NGG courses were highly rated by students, had been fine-tuned over a 15+ year period after extensive review by NGG faculty  NGG courses are small (20+ students), discussion based, participation essential  BIOM 600 was large, lecture only (120+ students), more undergrad than grad style, high level  Not neuro- focused  Some of our students in computational and cognitive neuroscience didn’t have the background to succeed in BIOM 600

NGG Negotiated a Compromise  All NGG students meet with our Academic Review Committee at the beginning of each semester during the first 2 years  The ARC reviews each student’s portfolio  Decides with student input whether BIOM 600 is appropriate  If not, students take upper level ugrad / grad Biology course  We added a neuro-centric “recitation” section to BIOM 600, in which NGG students discuss papers related to lecture topics over a pizza lunch

Strengths and weaknesses of NGG’s current curriculum  BGS requirement is met with little difficulty  NGG student needs are met – our focus is “couture” rather than “off the rack” education.  NGG students don’t have a formal course in Cell / Mol. Biology of Neurons, etc.  Some of our students struggle with BIOM 600, in particular those with psychology, physics, engineering and math backgrounds; if students receive a C, an additional seminar style course is taken.

New BGS Core course initiative: ?  BGS feels strongly that organismal physiology is foundation to all biomedical scientific disciplines  BGS would like to standardize training in statistics  The impact on NGG’s curriculum and time to Ph.D. would be substantial  We favor course development in these areas, and others, as electives