1. The Neuroscience Graduate Program Curriculum Overview

2. Graduate School Timeline Year 1: Boot camps, 4 core courses, “Fashion show”, 4 lab rotations + Professional Skills, statistics Yr 1-2 End of Year 1: CHOOSE A THESIS LAB Year 2: Take 2 advanced courses End of year 2: QUALIFYING EXAM - advance to candidacy 6 months later: Defend thesis proposal Years 3-5: Dissertation work - meet with your supervisory committee every year Defend thesis and graduate

3. Intensive Bootcamps (Summer Yr1) Molecular Biology Lab Electrophysiology Lab One full week each - methods and lab procedures that are used in Neuroscience research. Helps prepare students for lab rotations.

4. 4 core classes (Yr 1) How the nervous system is organized - Graduate Neuroanatomy How a neuron functions - Cellular and Molecular Neuroscience How the nervous system develops - Developmental Neuroscience How the nervous system processes information - Systems Neuroscience

5. Professional Skills (Yr1-2): Research Ethics class - required of all scientists supported by NIH funds Grant writing/professional skills class - to prepare to write research proposals Statistics/quantitative methods class - to prepare for data analysis

6. Choose a lab for thesis work (Yr1) Frontiers in Neuroscience - “Fashion Show” introduces you to research from different faculty 4 half-semester lab rotations before a lab is chosen for thesis work (at end of first year)

7. Advanced course work - specialize in area of thesis research (Yr2+) 2 advanced courses required Courses available in: genetics, gene regulation, cell biology, neuropharmacology, bioengineering, biochemistry, physiology, psychology, visual neuroscience, computation

8. Qualifying exam Prepare 2 short pre-proposals (2 page abstracts summarizing the rationale and aims) Meet and briefly present these to the committee. If suitable, one will be selected for a full proposal. Sometimes a revised abstract is required first. 6 weeks later submit a written proposal (NRSA format) and orally present this to the committee. Student is examined on the proposal as well as basic knowledge.

9. Thesis proposal Prepared 6 months after the qualifying exam Student should submit a written thesis proposal (NRSA format) to the committee (with input from the thesis advisor), then orally present this. The goal should be to develop an effective plan for the student’s dissertation work. This needs to be approved by the committee Students should be encouraged to submit this proposal for funding The proposal should serve as a template for future thesis meetings to evaluate progress or revise the plan