neuroscience phd without masters

Neuroscience Ph.D. Program

Our Neuroscience Ph.D. Program is one of the best in the nation, and prepares students to become independent researchers, educators and trainers making significant contributions across all aspects of the field.

Program Overview

Our program combines rigorous coursework and sound training in the fundamentals of neuroscience, including the integrated study of nervous system function and disease, with opportunities for state-of-the-art research. 

Please reach out to Bruce Carter if you have any questions about the Neuroscience Ph.D. Program or the application process.

Bruce Carter

Director of Graduate Studies in Neuroscience

Associate Director for Education and Training, Vanderbilt Brain Institute Professor of Biochemistry

• 615-936-3041
• 625 Light Hall

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We foster the development from trainee to independent research scientist and educator.

Individualized Attention

With 81 graduate students and 64 training faculty, our excellent student-teacher ratio results in extensive opportunities for interaction and exchange of ideas in a relaxed and collegial atmosphere. Our distinguished training faculty stem from diverse fields such as Psychology, Biochemistry, Molecular Physiology, and Pharmacology and capture the multidisciplinary nature of modern neurobiological inquiry.

Career Outlook

Graduates of our department are superbly prepared for a variety of career options in both academia and industry. Each student's program is designed to provide a broad-based education in neuroscience, yet accommodate individual needs and interests to allow students to become creative, independent scientists.

Students holding degrees in the biological or physical sciences, psychology, or biomedical engineering are especially encouraged to apply to the Neuroscience Ph.D. Program, but applicants from other fields will be considered.

Areas of Concentration

The Neuroscience Ph.D program offers two areas of concentration. Students have the option to emphasize either Cellular & Molecular or Cognitive & Systems neuroscience, preparing each trainee for a future in which neuroscientists must be able to navigate from molecules to cells to neural systems and behavior.

Cognitive & Systems

This path provides doctoral training with emphasis on cognitive neuroscience, sensory-motor systems, neuroimaging, neural development, synaptic plasticity, neurobiological basis of neuropsychiatric and neurodegenerative disorders, and targeted gene disruption in transgenic animals to ascertain the function of neural genes and establish disease models.

Cellular & Molecular

This path provides doctoral training with emphasis on neurogenetics and genetic dissection of neural development, molecular aspects of synapse formation and plasticity, structure and regulation of ion channels and transporters, targeting and signal transduction, psychotropic drug action, the molecular basis of neuropsychiatric and neurodegenerative disorders, and targeted gene disruption in transgenic animals to ascertain the function of neural genes and establish disease models.

Cellular & Molecular Application Tip

Students with broad biomedical interests are encouraged to apply through the Interdisciplinary Graduate Program in Biological and Biomedical Sciences instead of directly through the Neuroscience Ph.D. Program. This pathways provides a strong foundation in biomedical science prior to matriculation into neuroscience.

Students begin their first year with a general course in graduate level cellular and molecular biology and then begin specialized courses in Neuroscience in the spring semester of their first year.

Grants and Awards

University Tuition Scholarships are service-free awards that pay all or part of tuition costs. The following graduate awards are normally supplemented by a full University Tuition Scholarship, which usually includes student health insurance coverage:

• University Fellowships
• Graduate Teaching Assistantships
• Graduate Research Assistantships
• Traineeships
• Teacher Training Awards

The current stipend level for 2023-2024 is $36,500. In addition, applicants may be nominated at the time of application for Harold S. Vanderbilt graduate scholarships and other awards, which provide an additional stipend of up to $10,000 per year to students of exceptional accomplishment and high promise.

Training in Fundamental Neuroscience T32 Grant

The Neuroscience Graduate Program receives invaluable support from the "Training in Fundamental Neuroscience" NIH T32. Over 70 mentors across 22 departments within 4 schools and colleges are available to train students, with 65+ Neuroscience trainees earning PhDs in the past 5 years. Over 60 trainees have been supported by the T32 since its inception, with over a third subsequently securing their own fellowship funding. Program graduates have gone on to leadership positions in academia, industry, and additional research-related fields, providing a rich alumni network across multiple career tracks. The program includes works-in-progress seminars by all Neuroscience trainees, invited external seminar speakers including several suggested or hosted by trainees, and an annual retreat.

Graduate students interested in joining the training program should contact Dr. Bruce Carter, Associate Director for Education & Training and Director of Graduate Studies for the VBI.

Faculty interested in becoming T32 preceptors should contact Dr. Rebecca A. Ihrie or Dr. Lisa Monteggia, VBI Director.

Rebecca A. Ihrie

Associate Professor, Cell & Developmental Biology and Neurological Surgery

• 615-936-2951
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Graduate students in the Neuroscience Graduate program receiving Vanderbilt University financial support or services must devote full-time effort to graduate study. Students cannot accept jobs for pay within or outside the University unless prior approval is given by their advisor, their Director of Graduate Studies, and the Dean for the Office of Biomedical Research Education and Training. Exceptions to this rule include part-time internships and activities that contribute to career development and that do not exceed the time commitment outlined by the National Institutes of Health, service as course associates at Vanderbilt, and occasional and temporary part-time pursuits (e.g. house sitting). Engagement in outside employment without obtaining approval may result in loss of financial aid, including stipend.

Neuroscience, PhD

School of medicine.

The Department of Neuroscience offers an interdisciplinary program designed to train doctoral students for independent research and teaching in neuroscience. It is the goal of the program to ensure that candidates for the Ph.D. and M.D./Ph.D. degrees obtain a background covering molecular, cellular, systems, and cognitive approaches to neuroscience, as well as receive training that brings them to the forefront of research in their particular area of interest. A series of core courses in neuroscience, along with advanced electives, seminar series, laboratory rotations, and original independent dissertation research, form the Neuroscience Graduate Training Program.

Students enter the program from different backgrounds and the laboratories in which they elect to work cover different disciplines; therefore, the program is tailored to fit the needs of individual students. The academic year at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine is divided into four quarters plus a summer semester. Courses are designed so that students have ample time to become involved in laboratory rotations. These laboratory rotations expose the student to a variety of current research techniques in neuroscience and provide an opportunity for the student to select a laboratory in which to conduct dissertation research. Scheduling of the three rotations is adjusted to make the most convenient schedule for each student. The rotations are usually completed by the end of the first full year in the program. Most students begin their thesis research at the beginning of their second year.

For more information, please visit The Solomon H. Snyder Department of Neuroscience webpage: http://neuroscience.jhu.edu.

Financial Aid

The program provides tuition remission plus a stipend at or above the National Institutes of Health Predoctoral level for all students. All entering and first-year students are encouraged to apply for individual fellowships such as those sponsored by the National Science Foundation and the Howard Hughes Medical Institute.

Vivien Thomas PhD Scholars at JHU The  Vivien Thomas Scholars Initiative (VTSI)  is a new endowed fellowship program at Johns Hopkins for PhD students in STEM fields. It provides full tuition, stipend, and benefits while also providing targeted mentoring, networking, community, and professional development opportunities. Students who have attended a historically black college and university ( HBCU ) or other minority serving institution (MSI) for undergraduate study are eligible to apply. More information about the VTSI program is available at this link:  https://provost.jhu.edu/about/vivien-thomas-scholars-initiative/ . To be considered for the VTSI, all application and supplementary materials must be received by  December 1st .

Admission Requirements

We use a holistic approach to evaluating applicants and look forward to reading your application. We are most enthusiastic about applicants who have taken full advantage of the opportunities available at their undergraduate institution and through other summer or postbac experiences. Our class size is typically ~18 students per year.

Applicants are expected to have received a B.S. or B.A. prior to enrolling in the graduate program. Laboratory research experience prior to enrollment is also desirable. If you have research experience, please describe your research in your Statement of Interest and Career Objectives and indicate the number of months engaged in full-time and part-time research on your CV. Students who do well in our program typically have a strong academic foundation in areas of biological or physical sciences. Some of the courses that prepare students well include general biology, neuroscience, mathematics through calculus, general physics, general chemistry, organic chemistry, statistics, engineering, or computer science.

NOTE: The Neuroscience Program DOES NOT require GRE scores. 

Program Requirements

A year-long core course provides an integrated overview of molecular and cellular neuroscience, neuroanatomy and systems, and cognitive neuroscience. This course is aimed at providing Neuroscience graduate students with a foundation for posing meaningful questions in their area of interest.  During the first two years, students are required to take 6 graduate level core courses that provide rigorous training in principles of neuroscience research. In addition, students in the first year attend research symposia and complete lab rotations to introduce them to research. Students in the program are also required to participate in core program activities such as seminars, journal clubs, a quantitative analysis boot camp, career development courses and various program events. In addition, each student selects advanced electives offered by members of the Neuroscience Training Program or other departments at the Medical School.

Seminar Program

The Neuroscience Training Program conducts several seminar series to ensure that students are exposed to recent work by researchers from across the country and the world as well as by Hopkins faculty and fellows. Graduate trainees participate actively in these series throughout their training, including inviting and hosting three speakers each year. A weekly lecture is given by an outstanding researcher in some field of neuroscience. Seminars are selected so that an overall balance of subject matter is covered yearly. Students are given an opportunity to meet with each speaker for questions and discussion. Weekly lunchtime talks are presented on current literature by graduate students and postdoctoral fellows. Since an ability to communicate scientific work clearly is essential, graduate students receive close guidance in preparing and evaluating their journal club presentations. Once a month, the faculty, postdoctoral fellows, and students from one laboratory present and discuss the ongoing research in that laboratory. This provides an informal setting to discuss research being conducted in the laboratories of the Neuroscience Training Program and gives advanced graduate students and postdoctoral fellows a forum for presenting their work.

Requirements for the PhD Degree

A minimum residency of two academic years is required. During the course of graduate study, the student must successfully complete the required course requirements. An oral examination, conducted as prescribed by the Doctor of Philosophy Board, must be completed by the end of the second year. The student must then conduct original research and describe this research in a written thesis dissertation, which must be approved by the students Thesis Committee and the Doctor of Philosophy Board.

Training Facilities

The Training Program is centered in the Department of Neuroscience. The Training Program utilizes laboratory facilities located in the Department of Neuroscience plus several other basic and clinical departments closely associated with the Neuroscience Department. All of these laboratories are within a short distance of each other. Modern state of the art facilities for research in molecular biology, neurophysiology, pharmacology, biochemistry, cell biology, and morphology are available. The Mind/Brain Institute, located on the Homewood Campus of the University, is a group of laboratories devoted to the investigation of the neural mechanisms of higher mental function and particularly to the mechanisms of perception. All of the disciplines required to address these questions are represented in the Institute. These include neurophysiology, psychology, theoretical neurobiology, neuroanatomy, and cognitive science. All of the faculty in the Mind/Brain Institute are members of the Neuroscience Graduate Program.

Combined M.D./Ph.D. Program

A subset of the current predoctoral trainees in the Neuroscience Program are candidates for both Ph.D. and M.D. degrees. Applications for admission to the combined program are considered by the M.D./Ph.D. Committee of the School of Medicine. Application forms for the School of Medicine contain a section requesting information relevant to graduate study. Applicants interested in the combined M.D./Ph.D. program should complete this section also, and indicate specifically their interest in the “Neuroscience Training Program”. If application to the combined M.D./Ph.D. program proves unsuccessful and the applicant wishes to be considered for graduate studies, they must notify the Admissions Office of the Neuroscience Training Program by separate letter.

Princeton Neuroscience Institute

Ph.d. in neuroscience.

First-hand experience is an essential part of gaining real understanding

Ph.D. Neuroscience students take lecture and laboratory courses; learn to read, understand, and present current scientific literature; develop and carry out substantial original research, and present their research at meetings and conferences, including the annual Neuroscience retreat each Spring.

During the first year, all students participate in a unique year-long  Core Course  that surveys current neuroscience. The subjects covered in lectures are accompanied by direct experience in the lab. Students learn through first-hand experience how to run their own fMRI experiments; to design and run their own computer simulations of neural networks; to image neural activity at cellular resolution in behaving animals; and to patch-clamp single cells, to name a few examples. This core course offers students a unique opportunity to learn the practical knowledge essential for successfully developing new experiments and techniques. Incoming students are encouraged to rotate through up to three different labs to choose the lab that best matches their interests. During this process, students may discover an area of research completely new and fascinating to them. Following their rotations and by mutual agreement with their prospective faculty adviser, students choose a lab in which they will carry out their Ph.D. research.

Ph.D. Timeline Overview

The first year of the graduate program begins with the Neuro Boot Camp in August. All newly admitted Neuroscience graduate students are required to attend a 2-week course intended to ensure that new recruits have a basic understanding of molecular biology, as well as the core skills required to use mathematical and computational approaches to analyze neural systems and neural data. The Neuro Boot Camp takes the form of morning lectures and afternoon workshops in which students will apply the principles introduced in the lectures.

Once the academic year begins, all students take the Neuroscience Core Course. The goal of this course is to provide a common foundation so that all students have a strong knowledge base and a common language across the breadth of Neuroscience, which is a highly diverse and multidisciplinary field. To the extent possible, the course aims to teach an overview of all topics through a mix of hands-on laboratory experience, lecture, and computational modeling. Students will also rotate in up to three labs, participate in grant-writing workshops, and attend the Society for Neuroscience Annual Conference .

By the second year of their Ph.D., students will have joined a research group. Projects that involve collaborations across groups, and thus have students joining more than one research group, are decidedly welcomed. Students also typically teach half-time during their second year, as part of learning to teach and communicate science, and as a part of helping the Neuroscience Institute's educational mission. The other half of their time, students begin to carry out in-depth research and dedicate themselves wholly to this in the summer between their second and third years. Students also will participate in an NSF Fellowship grant-writing workshop in September.

At the beginning of their third year, Ph.D. students present their thesis proposal at a generals exam, in which they demonstrate the command of their chosen research topic and the existing literature surrounding it, and present a logical plan to address key questions that they have identified.

The third, fourth and fifth years are largely devoted to research. They culminate with the submission of their research papers for publication, and the writing and defense of their Ph.D. thesis. Throughout their time at Princeton, students participate in grant-writing workshops, career workshops, and present their work both locally and in national and international conferences.

Across the board, from molecular biology to physics to psychology, Princeton's world-class faculty is particularly strong in quantitative and theoretical investigations. The same is true in Neuroscience. In recognition of this, a Quantitative and Computational Neuroscience track exists within the Neuroscience Ph.D.

Students in this track must fulfill all the requirements of the Neuroscience Ph.D. In addition, their electives should be in quantitative courses, and their Ph.D. research should be in quantitative and/or computational neuroscience. The QCN track is supported by the T32 training grant in Quantitative Neuroscience from the NIMH.

Neuroscience

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Neuroscience is an area of study within the Division of Medical Sciences, an administrative unit based at Harvard Medical School that coordinates biomedical PhD activities at the Longwood Medical Area. Students who study in neuroscience receive a PhD in neurobiology. Prospective students apply through the Harvard Kenneth C. Griffin Graduate School of Arts and Sciences (Harvard Griffin GSAS). In the online application, select  “Division of Medical Sciences” as your program choice and select "Neuroscience" in the area of study menu.

Neuroscience is one of the programs in the Harvard Integrated Life Sciences that facilitates collaboration and cross-disciplinary research. Visit HILS for additional  application instructions .

This interdisciplinary program includes over 150 faculty members from several hospitals and campuses in the Boston area with a variety of backgrounds in all areas of neuroscience. You will receive a solid core foundation and will then be able to focus on the area that interests you most with specialized training.

You will have access to an impressive array of resources, including state-of-the-art labs, high-resolution microscopy facilities, animal cores, and an instrumentation core that can design custom behavioral chambers and other experimental apparatuses. You will have the opportunity to engage with the broader neuroscience community in several ways, including through the Harvard Brain Science Initiative (HBI), a cross-schools initiative among neuroscientists in the University and its affiliated hospitals.

Students are working on various projects such as studying how neural circuits generate behavior through the use of in vivo imaging to study neurons in awake, behaving animals; the development of the nervous system; the ways in which genes and molecules regulate neural function; and the electrical properties of neurons.

Graduates of the program have secured faculty positions at institutions such as Stanford University, Holy Cross University, Rutgers University, and Harvard University. Others have established careers with leading organizations such as Biogen, Google, and McKinsey & Company. 

Personal Statement

Standardized tests.

GRE General: Not Accepted GRE Subject: Not Accepted iBT TOEFL minimum score: 100 IELTS minimum score: 7

See list of Neuroscience faculty

APPLICATION DEADLINE

Questions about the program.

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This subreddit is for anyone who is going through the process of getting into graduate school, and for those who've been there and have advice to give.

My Neuroscience PhD Application Experience or: How I (Almost) Compensated for a Bad GPA

Thanks to u/AlzScience for posting about her neuroscience application process; I posted my stats in the thread but I thought I'd wait a bit and post mines here for all the early-birds looking into applying to neuro grad programs for next cycle. This post will be most helpful for those, like me, with low undergrad GPA's that are looking to find ways to enter schools for neuroscience. The short of it is that I followed the guide on the sidebar but, unfortunately, even that wasn't enough (for my field, specifically).

I'll try to include as much detail as possible and I'm willing to share all my materials: application essays, transcripts, emails to potential PI's, etc if you PM me. Disclaimer: I am a sample size of 1 (and have only applied once) and I probably over-learned many things in the process.

Also, my results seem to be the result of a neuroscience Ph.D. in the U.S. at top-20 program specific problem so extrapolate with a grain of salt.

Stats at Undergrad Graduation

GPA: 3.13 in Math (2.8 in major) and Biochemistry (2.9 in major)

GRE: 167/163/6.0 V/Q/W 98th/83rd/99th percentiles

School: top-200 liberal arts college with an 88% acceptance rate in the PNW

3 years undergraduate research experience; 2 summer REU's at R1's

Asian-american male

Interested in computational neuroscience

Awards: small travel awards

LoR's: one great one from PI, two mediocre from academic professors

Posters/Pubs: One 2nd author SfN poster, one 3rd author submitted manuscript

Networking: none but I wasn't planning on applying anyways

Additional stats at time of application (3.5 years later)

GPA: 3.7 in an MS in Applied Math (80% done)

School: top-10 worldwide public university

0.5 years tech at R1; 3 years tech at leading neuroscience research institution

LoR's: One great one from undergrad PI and now also manager (neither well-known); one good joint letter from PI's

Posters/Pubs: 3 published (3rd author small journal IF of 4.0; large # author mid-author eNeuro and eLife); 2 manuscripts submitted (large author # mid-author Nature (yes, Nature Nature), 2nd-author PLOS ONE); 2 manuscripts in prep (1st and 3rd); four posters at SfN (one first, one third, two mid-author)

Networking: emailed 2-4 PI's at the top 10 schools I wanted and corresponded with a dozen; skyped around 4 PI's and met 8 PI's at SfN in person.

Schools applied to

Applied: UW, UO, UCSF, UCSD, Stanford, Columbia, NYU, CMU/Pitt CNBC, Princeton, Stony Brook, BU GPN, MIT, Harvard

Interviewed: UO, Stony Brook, CMU Biological Sciences, BU GPN

Rejected after waitlist: CMU Biological Sciences, BU GPN

Accepted: UO (with $20k fellowship), Stony Brook (with $15k fellowship), BU BBC

Attending: BU BBC

Quite shocked to be perfectly honest. I had spoken with several neuroscientists that had served as PI's years ago and some that had just graduated their PhD a year or two ago and some even served on admissions committees; all of them said that, despite my low undergrad GPA, I'd be fine and I should be getting into top-tens. Even people here said the same (see my post history). I thought I had truly done enough to be getting easily into top schools despite my GPA but I don't feel like I came close; the only other things I was missing were a first-authorship or an LoR or two from a big name. I love the research project/program I am about to enter (BU BBC is direct admit to the professor) but I had far less options than I anticipated. You might also notice that I was interviewed at a program I never applied to and I was admitted to a program I neither applied to nor interviewed at: one professor wanted me enough at CMU to swing me into interviewing at CMU Bio a month after the deadline (but I was ultimately rejected) and another wanted me enough at BU that they admitted me to another program after getting waitlisted at GPN.

What I would've changed

Applied to more biology programs : as far as I could tell, top neuro programs were getting >500 apps each and admitting around 20 (for class sizes around 10) whereas bio programs were far less selective. Friends were interviewing at top-50 neuro programs and at the same time top-10 bio programs.

Networked even more : Both CMU and BU I was "golden buzzered" into and interview or acceptance because there was one PI who wanted me an exceptional amount. Both I had met in-person and chatted about how I'd fit into their lab. I should've had at least one of these people at every top-choice but this is understandably a tall order and up to luck.

Not been so specific in my interests : My feedback for CMU and BU GPN was that I had interests that were too specific and they felt they could not accommodate my interests. I thought it advantageous to talk extensively about a specific project in mind and how I would structure it but I think the PI's didn't "get it" and thought I wasn't a good fit. I was too focused on neuroscience for CMU Biological Sciences (which I resent because they're starting a neuroscience institute this year and it was my top school among everywhere I applied).

Talked about my undergrad GPA and sleep disorder : I thought it was a bit of a cop-out to talk about how I was diagnosed with a sleep disorder (Delayed Sleep Phase Disorder) which made it difficult to focus in my 8 a.m to noon science/math classes (my major had all their classes in this time frame) or talked about my brief depression after losing a best friend in a car crash. Maybe talking about these wouldn't have mattered but I think I should've at least mentioned it.

Final Thoughts

The application process turned my whole sense of self-worth and my outlook on academia upside-down. I hope I'm wrong about this but I came to a terrible realization throughout: it really doesn't matter what you look like on paper if you don't know the right people. When graduate programs have over 500 applications each, they become reliant on things like undergrad GPA for first-pass filtering and weigh less things that take time to evaluate like statements of purpose or content of letters of rec (but not who is writing them). By most readings, my application was stellar sans my undergrad GPA and I was told as much by literally everyone I spoke to but it seems that there's been a paradigm shift in the neuroscience application process in that everyone looks perfect; now, the only way to stand out is to have letter writers that are part of the "in-crowd" of neuroscientists. I say this because, of the friends I have that got into every top school, they had letter-writers that were top- to just-below-top- neuroscientists in the field (and some of them had sub-3.5 GPA's) e.g. Anne Churchland, Adrienne Fairhall, Nancy Kanwisher, Sam Gershman, etc. People who are notable PI's at R1's or Group Leaders at research institutes. Also, all of my friends who got into top-schools had any publications but yet I had three published and two in review which signals to me that it's really not important (unless you have a first-author) as a differentiator. I think that my undergrad GPA was not outweighed by my MS GPA largely.

Please let me know if you have any questions! Being honest, the few months between early December and mid-April were some of the worst of my life (second only to the death of a close friend) and if I can help someone else avoid some of the pain of this process, it will have been (somewhat more) worth it.

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Fully Funded PhD Programs in Neuroscience

Last updated October 23, 2022

As part of my series on  How to Fully Fund Your PhD , I provide a list of universities that offer fully funded PhD programs in neuroscience. Neuroscience is the study of the structure or function of the nervous system and brain. A PhD in neuroscience can prepare you for an academic career in teaching or research, or for a non-academic career in pharmaceutical and biotech companies, scientific consulting firms, medical and scientific journals, law firms dealing in intellectual property, science-focused nonprofit organizations and foundations, government agencies, and venture capital firms.

“Full funding” is a financial aid package for full-time students that includes full tuition remission and an annual stipend or salary for the three to six-year duration of the student’s doctoral studies. Funding is typically offered in exchange for graduate teaching and research work that is complementary to your studies. Not all universities provide full funding to their doctoral students, which is why I recommend researching the financial aid offerings of all the potential Ph.D. programs in your academic field, including small and lesser-known schools both in the U.S. and abroad.

You can also find several external fellowships in the  ProFellow database  for graduate and doctoral study, as well as dissertation research, fieldwork, language study, and summer work experience.

Would you like to receive the full list of more than 1000+ fully funded programs in 60 disciplines? Download the FREE Directory of Fully Funded Graduate Programs and Full Funding Awards !

List of Universities Offering Fully Funded PhD Programs in Neuroscience

Brown university, department of biology and medicine.

(Providence, RI): All Neuroscience Graduate Program and Brown-NIH Graduate Partnership Program students are fully supported during their time in graduate school. Students will receive a competitive stipend, tuition, health insurance, and health services fees.

Harvard University, Program in Neuroscience

(Cambridge, MA): All students receive full tuition and stipend support while they are enrolled and making satisfactory progress toward the Ph.D. degree. For the 2021-2022 academic year, the stipend support is $42,660

Georgetown University, Department of Neuroscience

(Washington, DC): The Interdisciplinary Program in Neuroscience provides competitive stipend support and health insurance benefits for all qualified students. Full tuition is also paid by the program.

UC San Diego, Department of Neuroscience

(San Diego, CA): The first year of student funding is provided by the Neurosciences Graduate Program. This includes full payment of tuition and fees and a stipend of $34,500/year for the 2021-2022 academic year. Beginning the Winter Quarter (January 1) of the second year, your thesis advisor assumes responsibility for providing full financial support.

Stanford University, Stanford Biosciences

(Stanford, CA): Each student is admitted to a particular Home Program and initiates training with a core group of faculty, students, and postdoctoral fellows who share scientific interests. The offer of admission included a stipend of $48,216 ($12,054 per quarter), health and dental insurance, and graduate tuition.

Boston University Graduate Program for Neuroscience

(Boston, MA): For the first year, most Ph.D. students will either be funded by an early-stage T32 neuroscience training grant or by the University. After the first year of coursework and laboratory rotations, students join a lab and are typically funded by that lab, or by an individual training grant, until the completion of their degree.

Ohio State University, College of Arts and Sciences

(Columbus, OH): As a student in the Neuroscience Graduate Program you will receive funding as a Graduate Research Associate or a Graduate Fellow and receive full payment of tuition, health insurance, and an annual stipend.

University of Texas at Dallas, PhD in Cognition and Neuroscience

(Dallas, Texas): PhD students selected for the program are fully funded through either a teaching assistantship (TA) or a research assistantship (RA). The minimum funding amount is $2,000 per month, guaranteed for nine months. Additionally, all PhD students receive a tuition waiver from the university.

University of Texas at San Antonio, PhD in Neuroscience

(San Antonio, Texas): The department offers competitive stipend support throughout a student’s tenure in the program. In addition, all tuition and fees will be paid.

University at Buffalo, PhD Program in Neuroscience

(Buffalo, NY): This fully-funded program provides an entry portal and a common first-year curriculum, equipping you with core knowledge and concepts to support your pursuit of a doctoral degree in one of our several participating disciplines. As a doctoral candidate, you will receive a full-tuition scholarship, a $31,000 stipend, and medical/dental insurance.

Arizona State University, PhD in Neuroscience

(Tempe, AZ): PhD students accepted into our programs receive a full financial support package for 5 years that includes a stipend, tuition waiver, and health insurance.

University of California Davis, PhD in Neuroscience

(Davis, CA): The UC Davis Neuroscience Graduate Group provides financial support, fees, and tuition for all first-year students who are admitted to the program and then guarantees to fund every student who continues to make satisfactory progress. The current stipend (for living expenses) is ~$33,902.00 per year.

Brandeis University, PhD in Neuroscience

(Waltham, Massachusetts): Students are guaranteed funding, including a stipend of $36,000, full tuition, and health insurance while they are completing their studies and are maintaining satisfactory progress towards their degree. Students in years 1-3 are typically funded by university fellowships or training grants and in years 4+ by their individual lab.

University of Rochester, PhD in Neuroscience

(Rochester, New York): They provide a fellowship package for full-time students. Full tuition scholarship, including all fees, competitive stipend for 2023-2024 of $32,300 per year for 12-month programs, and Single coverage AETNA student health insurance policy.

Case Western Reserve University, PhD in Neuroscience

(Cleveland, Ohio): All admitted students receive full tuition remission, healthcare coverage, and a stipend for 5 years as long as the student remains in good academic standing.

Northwestern University, PhD in Neuroscience

All students are guaranteed a stipend, tuition, and Northwestern student health insurance as long as they remain in good academic standing within the NUIN program. For the 2022-23 year, the stipend will be $35,196.

University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, PhD in Neuroscience

(Chapel Hill, NC): Stipend support and full tuition is provided to all students working towards the PhD in Neuroscience. Support for entering students is provided by a training grant from the National Institutes of Health, funds from the School of Medicine, health insurance, and competitive fellowships awarded by the Graduate School.

Michigan State University, PhD in Neuroscience

(East Lansing, MI): All Neuroscience Program graduate students in good standing are fully supported during their tenure at MSU from one or a combination of sources. The stipend is approximately $29,364. In addition, all graduate assistants and fellows receive a full tuition waiver each semester, a waiver of matriculation fees, and paid health insurance.

University of Chicago, PhD in Computational Neuroscience

(Chicago, Illinois): Financial support includes tuition and fees and provides a stipend. Such assistance is guaranteed through the student’s first five years of study, conditional on satisfactory degree progress. The stipend will be $35,700 plus health insurance and fees.

Washington State University, PhD in Neuroscience

( Pullman ,  WA): Ph.D. students in good standing are supported by a competitive annual stipend, health insurance, and tuition waivers. Stipends come with expectations of assisting in research or teaching. Scholarships are available through the WSU Graduate School and the College of Veterinary Medicine.

University College London, PhD in Theoretical Neuroscience and Machine Learning

(London, UK): Full funding is available to all students, regardless of nationality. Our PhD studentships cover UCL tuition fees for both home and international students and include an annual tax-free stipend of £26,000 and a travel budget for attending conferences and workshops.

Need some tips for the application process? See my article  How To Get Into a Fully Funded PhD Program: Contacting Potential PhD Advisors .

Also, sign up to discover and bookmark more than 2,400 professional and academic fellowships in the ProFellow database .

© Victoria Johnson 2020, all rights reserved.

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Program Overview and Milestones

The Neurosciences Program teaches students how to approach and solve research problems by developing skills in modern methods of neuroscience research, the ability to appraise the scientific literature and make scientific judgements, to be self-confident and skillful in communicating research results and ultimately to function as independent creative neuroscientists. Students work closely with faculty, postdoctoral fellows and other students to achieve these goals.

• Incoming students attend a two-week boot camp in early September. Comprised of lectures and labs, students learn a host of techniques in cellular and molecular aspects of neuroscience.
• Students enroll in Core courses and Journal Club, complete additional course requirements , and attend Superfriends talks given by senior Neuroscience students.
• Weekly faculty talks are hosted so students may learn about ongoing research in Neuroscience program labs. 
• Students complete at least 3 laboratory rotations to gain hands-on experience in a variety of approaches and methods, get to know faculty members and their laboratory groups, and gain information about the research area for their thesis.
• Students apply for extramural fellowships and grants for which they are eligible (e.g., NSF GRFP, HHMI)
• Students join a thesis lab at the end of the first year.
• The second year is occupied by the initiation of a thesis project . The Qualifying Examination is taken by the end of the second year in the program.
• Students continue to enroll in coursework to fulfill degree requirements, participate in Journal Club, and attend Superfriends talks.
• Students apply for extramural grants and fellowships for which they are eligible (e.g., NSF GRFP, NDSEG)
• Second year students also take on leadership roles in the program by serving as Student Representatives for Admissions, Community activites, Student Speaker events, the SNI Speaker Series, and Website/Communications.
• Students meet at least annually with their Thesis Advisory Committee to ensure progress towards successful completion thesis research.
• Students apply for fellowships and grants for which they are eligible (e.g., NIH NRSA, HHMI)
• Students continue to participate in Journal Club and attend Superfriends to gain experience reviewing scientific publications and giving public presentations.
• Students use the Individual Development Plan to create a roadmap to complete their degree and pursue their chosen career path.
• Students continue to meet regularly with the Thesis Advisory Committee to ensure progress towards successful completion of thesis research.   
• Students apply for fellowships and grants for which they are eligible.
• Senior students in Years 4+ talk about their own research and graduate student experiences at Superfriends gatherings.
• Students give their Thesis Defense , a public seminar presenting the student's research findings followed by an oral examination of the candidate by the Thesis Committee.
• Students publish a first-authored article and submit a written dissertation prior to being conferred the Ph.D. degree.
• The Ph.D. program typically takes approximately five years to complete.

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• J Undergrad Neurosci Educ
• v.16(3); Summer 2018

Demystifying Graduate School: Navigating a PhD in Neuroscience and Beyond

Linda k. mcloon.

1 Graduate Program in Neuroscience, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN 55455

2 Department of Ophthalmology and Visual Neurosciences, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN 55455

A. David Redish

3 Department of Neuroscience, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN 55455

The decision to apply to a PhD-granting graduate program is both exciting and daunting. Understanding what graduate programs look for in an applicant will increase the chance of successful admission into a PhD program. It is also helpful for an applicant to understand what graduate training will look like once they matriculate into a PhD program to ensure they select programs that will help them reach their career objectives. This article focuses specifically on PhD programs in neuroscience, and while we use our program, the Graduate Program in Neuroscience at the University of Minnesota, as an example, most of what we describe is applicable to biomedical graduate programs generally. In order to ensure that our description of graduate programs is typical of neuroscience graduate programs generally, we surveyed the online websites of 52 neuroscience graduate programs around the U. S. and include our observations here. We will examine what graduate schools look for in an applicant, what to expect once admitted into a PhD graduate program, and the potential outcomes for those who successfully complete their PhD in neuroscience.

What Makes a Strong Application to a PhD Program in Neuroscience

A number of years ago, our Graduate Program in Neuroscience at the University of Minnesota performed a statistical analysis of what correlated with successful completion of our PhD program. Consistent with more recent analyses ( Weiner, 2014 ), we found that the strongest correlation was if the applicant had done research outside of the classroom setting. Given those results, at this point, our admissions committee will only consider applicants if they have some research experience. However, in our experience speaking to undergraduates, we find that undergraduates tend to underestimate how much research they’ve done. This issue of what counts as “research” appears to worry many applicants, who often feel that they have not done sufficient research to meet this requirement.

The most useful research experiences are not necessarily those which result in publications, or even those which find statistically significant answers. Rather, the most useful research experiences are those in which an applicant contributes to the research being performed, which involve grappling with questions which do not have known answers in the back of the book. These experiences are generally performed outside of a regular classroom setting, but a wide array of experiences can fulfill this research prerequisite. For example, an applicant might have done one or more summer internships in a laboratory. Others may have done a directed research project that was taken for academic credit but whose sole purpose was to perform independent research. Others may have done internships at companies. We often see applicants who have worked in laboratories or done independent original research projects in the context of their specific coursework during the school year. These courses are becoming more common, and these independent research-focused undergraduate classes can be great examples of independent research if the work provided the applicant with experience in doing research directly.

Some colleges do not have strong research opportunities available. Students in those situations should reach out to summer or other internship programs at other universities to gain that research experience. There are many such research programs. For example, the University of Minnesota runs a Life Sciences Summer Undergraduate Research Program (LSSURP) that provides such opportunities across many fields in the life sciences (including neuroscience). Many universities have Research Experience for Undergraduate (REU) programs available that are funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF). These programs usually pay a summer stipend and living costs as well as providing research experiences.

However, it is not necessary for the research to be done in a formal setting. What matters is that the applicant has some experience with direct research. Similarly, the duration of the research done is not as critical a concern as having had the experience of performing research at all. The key question is: Does the student have real-world experience in doing research, and in spite of methodological difficulties and negative results in experiments, does the applicant still have a love for the scientific process? It does not matter if there were no conclusive results, if the project was left unfinished, or if the project was not published as an abstract or peer-reviewed publication.

While coursework in a graduate program is important, the “real” work of a graduate student is to learn to do science. The research experience demonstrates to the admissions committee that the applicant has a realistic sense of what it is like to work on an open-ended problem, which takes innovative thinking about experiments and controls as well as understanding the need for patience with the scientific process. It is important that both the applicant and the admissions committee know that if admitted, the applicant will not be surprised by the focus of graduate school on independently performed research.

Personal Statement

The personal statement is one of the most important aspects of an application to a graduate program. There are three main areas that need to be included in a personal statement, and if these are inadequate, it will have a negative impact on the ultimate success of that application. First, and most importantly, a personal statement must make it clear why that applicant wants to pursue a PhD in neuroscience specifically. A broad flowery description about the applicant’s interest in biology since they were 5 years old is not helpful. This statement is easier if the applicant has some laboratory research experience and can speak to why that research experience was motivating. A clear articulation of “why neuroscience” is imperative.

As noted above, the most important information in an application is the research done by the applicant. Thus, the applicant needs to provide a description of the independent research they have performed to date somewhere in the application. The research description should focus on the big picture: What was the big question? What choices were made in the experiments? What controls were done? Why were the specific controls used? The applicant should do this for each distinct research project. This shows the admissions committee how the applicant thinks about science; understanding the process is more important than if there were positive results.

The final part of the personal statement should state why they are applying to the particular program. A good way to show that the applicant has spent time looking at the specific graduate program and has thought about which programs were a good fit for their interests is by identifying programmatic strengths, such as the expertise of the faculty, or by identifying other specific or unique aspects that differentiate the program, such as, for example, our Itasca program [see below].

Finally, applicants should proofread their personal statements. Typographic errors, poor grammar, and other sloppy writing suggest an applicant who does not take the time or effort to ensure quality. It may seem silly to mention, but it is important to make sure that when mentioning programmatic strengths, the applicant should be sure that these are the programmatic strengths of the institution to which the application is sent.

Majors, Grades, and GREs

Neuroscience encompasses many different disciplines – from genetics and subcellular approaches to neural circuits and behavior. Most neuroscience graduate programs admit applicants with a broad variety of majors. Many of the applicants that we see majored in neuroscience, biology, or psychology as an undergraduate, but applicants with other undergraduate majors such as math, computer science, or physics have succeeded in our program. Many programs also admit applicants with degrees in the humanities, and we have found that many students with these broad backgrounds have succeeded in our program, some of whom only developed an interest in neuroscience after they graduated from college. However, successful applicants from the humanities need to have taken classes in the sciences before they apply to graduate school for a PhD in neuroscience.

The most important statement that we can make about grades is really in terms of the specific classes taken. While the major area of study is not critical, an internal survey of our program found that trainees were most successful in our PhD program if they had taken at least some biology, some physics, basic chemistry preferably through organic chemistry, and college level mathematics through calculus.

In our survey of over 50 graduate programs in neuroscience, most programs do not seem to have a strict GPA cut-off under which they will not admit someone; nevertheless, GPA is an important criteria being used by many admissions committees. While overall GPA is important, students who did poorly in their freshman and sophomore classes, but did well in their junior and senior years, can excel in their PhD training. Another example might be someone who had a very bad single semester or year due to extenuating circumstances, such as an illness of a death in the family. If one of these scenarios applies, it is imperative for this to be directly discussed in the personal statements that accompany a graduate program application. While most admissions committees do not explicitly rank schools, expected difficulty of the undergraduate program is usually taken into account when looking at grades, classes and GPA.

The use of the Graduate Record Exam (GRE) in making admissions decisions to a neuroscience PhD graduate program is a complex issue and has become controversial in recent years. Although many recent studies have claimed to suggest that GRE scores do not correlate with successful completion of a PhD degree in the biomedical sciences ( Hall et al., 2017 ; Moneta-Koehler et al., 2017 ), other studies examining PhDs in more quantitative disciplines, including neuroscience, found that the portions of the GRE score are in fact correlated with successful degree completion ( Willcockson et al., 2009 ; Olivares-Urueta and Williamson, 2013 ). In a large meta-analysis of GRE scores and success in graduate school, Kuncel and Hezlett (2007) found that both the GRE and undergraduate grades were effective predictors of important academic outcomes even beyond grades earned in graduate school. It should be noted that all of these studies have been performed on programs that took GREs into account when making admissions decisions and thus are based on biased data sets. Following this, some neuroscience graduate programs have elected to remove the GRE from their admission decisions, while others have decided to weigh it less in their decision-making. Most graduate programs recognize that the GRE score is just a tool, and one of many that admissions committees use to make their admissions decisions. Our graduate program, for example, is currently in the latter group—we still require it but are weighing it less than other factors such as the personal statement, classes taken, GPA, and letters of recommendation.

Letters of Recommendation

Letters of recommendation are some of the most important components of an application to graduate school. Who the student chooses to write for them and what those letters say are important factors considered by admissions committee members. The most important letters are those from research mentors with whom the applicant did independent research. A lack of letters from research mentors leaves open the question of the extent and value of that research experience. The best letters of recommendation are detailed and provide a clear indication that the mentor knew the student and can assess the student’s potential for success. The mentor’s comparison of the applicant’s abilities relative to others with whom they have worked is particularly useful.

Letters from other sources, such as athletics coaches or course directors, can speak to initiative, time management, ability to work under stress, and so forth; however, most admissions committees do not find these particularly useful, unless the course director can speak to exceptional academic achievement, such as an undergraduate shining in a graduate class. Least useful are letters from non-academic sources, such as faith leaders, employers, family friends, and the like. These letters cannot speak to the questions of success in a graduate program and have been known to detract from an application, because it implies that the student does not have sufficient academic mentors to provide the full complement of letters.

Should letters come from postdoctoral fellows or graduate students? In many large laboratories, the primary professor may not actually interact with an undergraduate research assistant very much. Instead, undergraduate research is often done under the supervision of a postdoctoral fellow or graduate student. While letters from senior postdoctoral fellows are acceptable to some programs, they are not for others. We advise the applicant to check with each program to determine if this is an issue for their admissions committee. Our program has accepted students with one letter from a postdoctoral mentor, but we found that these students were not eligible to be nominated for some university-level awards. Thus, there is a balance in having the letter come from someone who worked with the student directly but also having the letter come from a faculty member. We recommend that undergraduates in these situations get a single letter that is co-signed by both the postdoctoral fellow and the professor or senior mentor.

The Admissions Process

Most graduate programs in neuroscience use a two-stage admissions process. The first stage identifies a subset of students to invite for an interview/recruiting visit and then a subset of those students is provided offers. All graduate schools in the U. S. have signed the Resolution Regarding Graduate Scholars, Fellows, Trainees, and Assistants from the Council of Graduate Programs which says that students have until April 15th to make their matriculation decisions. In order to try to manage this, schools will admit more students than they actually expect to matriculate, and may place other students on a waitlist, trying to balance issues of getting too many students, producing a problem for budgets, or too few students producing problems of cohesion, and problems meeting the research needs of the program and university.

Interview and Recruiting Visits

Some graduate programs bring students out either singly or in small batches to visit their program, interview with faculty, and see what possibilities could come from matriculating into the program. Other programs bring students out all at once as a cohort in a combined interview/recruiting visit. Many programs combine this interview/recruiting visit with other program events; for example, we tie ours to our annual retreat. The method of organizing these interviews and recruiting visits is not particularly important, as the goal of these visits is the same – to provide an in-person look at the graduate program.

From the program side, the interview/recruiting visit allows the admissions committee to assess the fit of the potential students and to ask specific questions related to how they think about science. It is important for visiting interviewees/recruits to realize that graduate programs often have graduate students contribute to the governance of the program and provide input to the admissions committees. In our program, two current PhD students are full voting members of the admissions committee. Comments made during events where only graduate students are present do matter, and we have had a number of experiences where comments and behavior at dinners or other trainee-only events have led to rejection of the applicant.

From the visitor side, this is an opportunity to see what the program is like, as well as the living environment where the program is located. Important questions that applicants should consider include whether the students are getting the training and support that they need, whether the faculty members are engaged with the program, and whether there are faculty members to work with in the student’s area of interest. Generally, applicants should recognize that their goals, interests, and research directions may change. Ensuring that a program can accommodate those changes is an important thing when choosing a PhD program.

Choosing the Right Program

Graduate school, like most of life, is about finding the right fit. Every student is going to have to use their own judgement to determine which graduate school is right for them, but we have some suggestions about issues to consider.

First and foremost, are there a sufficient number of faculty members in their area of interest? Importantly, students should recognize that interests often change, either with experience or time or discoveries, so the student should also look at what other faculty members are around, and what opportunities there are to examine other research areas. For example, how collaborative are the faculty? What processes are in place if one needs to switch advisors? Does the program do rotations in different laboratories, or does the student have to choose an advisor immediately?

In our survey of over 50 neuroscience graduate programs in the U. S., all but one admit students into the program as a whole, rather than into specific laboratories. Students in the majority of programs spend the first year rotating through three or four different laboratories in order to get a thorough exploration of advisors and potential research areas. Furthermore, because students are admitted to the program as a whole and not into a specific laboratory, there are processes in place to handle the (rare) situation when a student needs to switch their primary research mentor.

An important consideration on picking an advisor is not only the research area of the advisor, but also the training and personal style of that PhD mentor. In our graduate program, we have 8-week rotations to give a student and an advisor sufficient time to determine if they can work together well. The duration of laboratory rotations varies between programs, but generally most programs have between 2 and 4 during the course of the first year. Choosing a PhD thesis mentor is not generally an issue of advisor quality, but rather one of style. Should the student and advisor meet daily? Weekly? Monthly? Is the goal a thesis that is a hoop to jump through on the path to another career or is it a magnum opus on which one will build a reputation? How are manuscripts written? How does the laboratory decide which projects to do? These questions do not have right and wrong answers, but a mismatch between styles can potentially make it difficult to complete the degree.

There are several other considerations. The applicant should examine the curriculum. How comprehensive or specific is it? Does it cover what the student wants to have as their baseline/background? Applicants should also look at publication requirements and expectations. Are students publishing first author papers? Trainee funding should also be evaluated. How are trainees supported? Is funding guaranteed or not? Part of the consideration relative to trainee funding is whether the program has training grants to help financially support students—these can include National Institutes of Health (NIH) T32 grants, and National Science Foundation (NSF) Research Traineeship (NRT) and Integrative Graduate Education and Research Traineeship (IGERT) training grants. Training grant support from NIH and NSF is a good measure of how the PhD training program is viewed by external reviewers. It is also useful to see if the trainees are successfully competing for fellowship awards. This speaks to the quality of the graduate students as well as the quality of mentorship from their thesis advisors and the program.

Other issues to consider are the environment and social climate of the program and the career paths the program’s graduates take. In terms of social climate and environment, we suggest asking whether the trainees know and support each other, and whether the faculty members know the trainees. Science is increasingly a collaborative venture. Evidence could be the presence of co-mentored trainees, as well as research publications that are co-authored by members of the graduate program. Other evidence of the environment of a PhD graduate program is to determine how integrated the PhD trainees are in program decision making and leadership. Do they serve on committees, and if so, what are their roles? Self-reflective programs generally include multiple voices in making program decisions. This also speaks in part to mentorship of trainees, as participating in program governance provides the PhD trainee an opportunity to develop leadership skills.

In terms of outcomes, it is important to recognize that career goals change, but we recommend programs that provide opportunities for a variety of career paths. Importantly, programs should have processes that enable students to succeed in academia and elsewhere. As we will discuss in the following section, post-graduate paths for PhD trainees have always included a mix of academic and non-academic careers. This was also the recommendation of a workshop held by the National Academy of Science ( IOM, 2015 ), and in fact reflects the actual career choices of individuals who received their PhD in neuroscience ( Akil et al., 2016 ). Importantly, the career-space that our current graduates will face will look very different from previous generations. In particular, it will look very different from the previous generation when there were very few academic jobs available. The current career space is broader than it used to be, including some jobs, such as internet-related positions, that did not exist a generation ago. Furthermore, neuroscience academic jobs are opening up as baby boomers retire and universities invest in neuroscience. Whatever the student’s goal is, we recommend looking for programs that provide career facilitation support for a variety of outcomes, because, as noted above, career goals may change with experience.

While many students and many programs will look at time-to-degree as a criterion for program quality, we feel that this can be misleading. No one has ever asked us how long we took to get through graduate school. One way to think about graduate school is to realize that graduate students in neuroscience programs get paid to go to graduate school – being a graduate student in neuroscience is a job, and one that should provide a living wage in the area that one will be living in during one’s time in graduate school. The main problem with students taking too long to complete a degree is that it may indicate deeper problems in a graduate program, for example, when students are not graduating because their technical skills are needed in a laboratory. These situations are rare, but extremely long durations (e.g., 8 years) can be a sign to look for when making a decision. However, the difference between spending 4.5, 5.5, or even 6 years in graduate school is simply not important relative to the duration of a scientific career. In fact, there is a case to be made that taking an extra year to get additional publications can be a wise choice for students going into academic careers, since fellowships, awards, and other granting mechanisms, such as individual NIH postdoctoral training grants (F32) and individual NIH Pathway to Independence (K99/R00) awards, and the faculty level “early stage investigator” identifier at NIH, are based on date of graduation. Furthermore, few reviewers normalize number of papers by time spent in graduate school.

Additional Resources

The Society for Neuroscience provides useful resources to undergraduate students interested in a PhD in Neuroscience. One resource is the online training program directory that offers graduate program information on more than 75 top neuroscience graduate programs in North America, and provides a short summary of the characteristics of each program (e.g., number of faculty, student demographics, and research areas) along with a link to the program of interest. A second resource is available to prospective students who are able to attend the SfN annual meeting. Known as the Graduate Student Fair , it offers an opportunity for prospective students to meet face-to-face with representatives of many graduate programs.

The Gap Year Question

In recent years, we have seen that increasing numbers of applicants are taking a gap year between completion of their undergraduate degree and entering graduate school. We have not seen any correlation with success in graduate school from a gap year, and the Graduate Program in Neuroscience at the University of Minnesota does not require such a gap year. However, other neuroscience graduate programs have begun to require it. The gap year itself can vary, but often the recent college graduate enters a formal postbaccalaureate or “postbac” program, such as the one at the NIH, works in a laboratory, and participates in specific programs designed to increase readiness for graduate school. Many applicants have taken one or more years off from formal education to do research in an academic, government or industry setting. Whether a postbac year is useful or not is very much an individual choice.

There are two cases where a postbaccalaureate experience can be helpful for admissions into a neuroscience PhD program. One is when the undergraduate GPA is lower than a 3.0 or the student does not have the requisite science-related coursework. The other is when a student does not have sufficient research experience. Structured programs, such as the one at NIH, can be helpful in these situations. These postbac programs can provide an experience that is valuable for those students with limited research experiences. They can also provide opportunities for students who decide to transition to new fields late in their college career or after completion of their undergraduate degree. However, as noted above, in our experience, students underestimate their research experience and take gap years unnecessarily. To summarize, additional research training after a bachelor’s degree is not necessary for successful admission into a graduate program in neuroscience for the vast majority of applicants, nor does it appear to correlate with successful completion of the PhD.

What Trainees Can Expect During Their PhD Training in Neuroscience

A neuroscience PhD is a research-focused degree. This means that the student will spend the majority of their time as a PhD trainee working on research that can be published in peer-reviewed journals. However, that journey can look quite different from program to program. Most programs work through some structure that is a combination of coursework and early research exploration in the first years, punctuated by a written preliminary exam, followed by a thesis proposal, thesis research, and a thesis defense. In almost all of the programs we surveyed, the student is paired with an advisor that is the primary research mentor.

Throughout this section, we will use our program as an example and we will note where it differs from others. However, the general timeline is similar between programs.

In August before our “official” school year actually starts, we provide a month-long hands-on, state-of-the-art research experience for all our incoming PhD students at a research station owned by the University of Minnesota at Lake Itasca at the headwaters of the Mississippi River. This program is unique in our experience relative to other programs, and it (1) provides a neuroscience background experience for students coming from diverse intellectual backgrounds, (2) binds the class together into a cohort which helps to provide a strong support system during the transition to and experience of graduate school, (3) begins the trainees on a journey from student to colleague. They then return to the Twin Cities to begin their formal year 1 experience.

In the majority of neuroscience graduate programs, students spend their first year doing two to four laboratory rotations with faculty who participate in the neuroscience graduate program and complete a set of core classes. The four core classes we require are Cell and Molecular Neuroscience , Systems Neuroscience , Developmental Neurobiology , and Behavioral Neurobiology . Other programs require other classes that might constitute a “minor” in a secondary subject, such as pharmaceutics or computational methods. At the end of the first year, many programs have students take a written preliminary examination that is focused on the integration of the material taught in the core first-year classes. Generally, programs use this sort of examination as a check to ensure that students have integrated the knowledge from their first-year classes. Students in most neuroscience graduate programs also take a class that provides training in research ethics, writing experiences, and other important non-academic components that will be necessary for a research career. Starting in the first year, it is typical that the program directors have annual or semi-annual meetings with every trainee in the graduate program. In later years, a thesis committee will also meet semi-annually with students to provide oversight and mentorship. Some programs we surveyed have separate committees that monitor student progress in the PhD program independent from the mentor and thesis committees. We advise looking for a program that will provide the trainee with regular evaluations and clearly defined milestones to help the student complete their degree in a timely manner.

In year 2, students in the majority of graduate neuroscience programs have settled into a laboratory and are working towards writing their thesis proposal. The thesis proposal is usually the basis for the “oral preliminary exam.” In our program, we have students write their thesis proposal in the form of an NIH NRSA (F30 or F31) grant proposal which helps train students to write grant proposals.

Many programs have students take other elective classes throughout their second and sometimes even into the third year. In the second year in our program, students take one more required class, Quantitative Neuroscience that covers statistics, programming, and experimental design, but that then completes their class requirements. These types of quantitative classes are being introduced in many neuroscience graduate programs in response to the rigor and reproducibility issues that are being raised in the scientific literature and expected to be discussed as part of grant submissions to the NIH.

Most neuroscience graduate programs also have a teaching requirement. In our program, this occurs in the second year. Programs require different amounts of teaching, so this is a good question for the applicant to ask when they are interviewing. Many graduate students are interested in careers that include teaching as well as research, and additional teaching experience is important. We provide extra opportunities for teaching, where the trainee might run discussion sections or give course lectures. Often, these “extra” teaching experiences are paid beyond what the student receives from their stipend. For those interested in a more teaching-centric career, these experiences are very important. We recommend the applicant ask about how teaching expectations of the graduate students is handled in the programs to which they are applying.

Year 3 and Beyond

In the subsequent years, PhD trainees continue to do research, write and publish papers, present their work at conferences and in colloquia, and proceed on the journey to graduation. Graduate neuroscience programs generally have trainees meet with their thesis committee once or twice a year to ensure that they stay on track to graduation. The final stage, of course, is the thesis writing and thesis defense.

Presentations and Outreach

A key factor for a successful science career is the ability to communicate one’s discoveries, both to fellow scientists and to the public at large. In our program, students are required to present their research annually to the other faculty and students in the Graduate Program in Neuroscience. These presentations are opportunities to learn how to present work to a friendly audience who will push one scientifically, but still provide positive support. In our experience, students are often very nervous giving their first colloquium, but confident by the time they are ready to defend their PhD thesis. The final PhD defense is a public presentation in which the student presents and defends their research. The specific aspects of the PhD defense are accomplished in different ways amongst PhD graduate programs; however, in the end, all PhD programs require that the student be able to publicly present their research in a comprehensive and cohesive manner as well as field questions about their research.

In addition, neuroscience graduate programs provide many opportunities for outreach beyond the scientific community, although most do not require outreach explicitly. Typical types of outreach in many programs include volunteering to present science at K-12 schools, Brain Awareness Week programs sponsored by the Society for Neuroscience, or science museums as examples. We have found that these opportunities provide students learning experiences in how to present scientific data and ideas to a broader audience. Not surprisingly, the ability to present ideas to a broad audience translates very well to communicating scientific results to other scientists as well.

It’s a Job

We have found it useful for students to think of graduate school as a combination of college and career. Students should not have pay out of pocket for their PhD program. Most neuroscience graduate programs not only pay students a stipend but also provide tuition and health care benefits. For some trainees, conceptualizing graduate school as a job rather than as continued school can be important for dealing with family pressures to “get a job” rather than “continue in school.”

Where to Go from Here

Fundamentally, the goal of a PhD program is to teach the student how to think critically and how to determine if a new discovery is real or illusion. An undergraduate program is usually about how to learn from books and from teachers, how to determine if the text in front of you is trustworthy or not, and how to integrate knowledge from multiple sources. A graduate program is about how to determine if the discovery you just made is correct when there is no answer in the back of a book for you to look up. In practice, this means learning how to ask questions that are answerable, how to design appropriate controls, how to interpret results and integrate them into a scholarly literature, and, importantly, how to communicate those discoveries to other scientists and the public as a whole.

These skills are useful in a variety of careers. Much of the discussion of graduate school outcomes has suggested that graduate programs are designed to produce faculty for colleges and universities and bemoan the fact that (1) there are too many PhD trainees and not enough faculty jobs, and (2) that many students are forced into “alternative careers.” Both of these statements are wrong when one looks at the actual data.

First and foremost, we wish to point out that there should be no such thing as an “alternative career” — graduates should go towards a career and not away from one. We tell our students that we want them to do something important, whether that is becoming faculty at a research institution, teaching undergraduates at a liberal arts college, contributing to industrial research, analysis, or translation, becoming a writer and making research findings accessible to other scientist or lay audiences, or making policy in a governmental or non-profit setting.

Second, the complaints seen in many of these publications do not take into account very important demographic trends. Current students will see a very different world of faculty jobs than their professors did. Simply put, understanding the faculty situation requires considering the baby boomers (q.v. ACD biomedical workforce data ). In 1980, a 35-year-old young professor was born in 1945, while a 65-year-old was born in 1915. This means that the generation of senior professors in 1980 consisted of those who had survived two World Wars and the Great Depression, while the junior professors were baby boomers. With the blossoming of investment in science after WWII, there were lots of jobs, and the baby boomers filled them quickly. Mechanisms were developed for new professors to get initial NIH grants to help them set up their laboratories (q.v. NIH History of new and early stage investigator policies ). In contrast, in 2000, a 35-year-old was born in 1965, and a baby-boomer born in 1945 was 55, in the prime of their scientific career. There were fewer jobs and few funding mechanisms that focused on providing assistance for new, young investigators. In 2018, that baby-boomer born in 1945 is nearly 75 years old and likely retiring or retired. Thus, based on our own university as well as checking sources online such as Science Careers , there are faculty positions in neuroscience open all over the country. In addition, there are now specific programs at NIH to help new faculty get grants and transition into becoming successfully funded faculty quickly.

In practice, this has meant that there are many faculty positions for those who want them, at many different types of academic institutions. An undergraduate student who wants to take the next step into a PhD program should be encouraged to do so. PhDs have always gone on after their PhD to contribute to science in many ways. A recent survey published in Nature found that a scientific PhD had high value in the United Kingdom and Canadian job markets ( Woolston, 2018 ). In fact, when we look at the distribution of careers our graduating students have taken since graduation, we find that the vast majority (96%) are engaged in important, science-related jobs.

However, the essential benefit of a PhD is that it teaches one how to think critically about the world around them. Life is long and careers are long, and the needs of both society and technology changes. It is critical to remember that many of the jobs people are doing today literally did not exist when we (the authors of this paper) were in graduate school. For example, it is now possible to make a living running an educational website on scientific topics that gets millions of hits per month, reaching thousands of school districts around the country, but when we (the authors) were in college, the internet didn’t exist. A well-designed PhD program will prepare its trainees for whatever career they chose.

We cannot imagine the world 30 years from now, but we can state that PhD-trained scientists will not only be able to handle these changes but will in fact invent many of them. Huge technological innovations now allow investigators to see many individual neurons inside the brain, control the properties of neurons experimentally, to see effects of individual channels and proteins within a neuron or glial cell, and to observe the effects of these manipulations on behavior. Neuroscience is making amazing discoveries in the fundamental science of how the brain functions and the clinical and practical consequences of those discoveries. Simply put, it is an amazing time to be a neuroscientist.

The authors thank Drs. Robert Meisel, Timothy Ebner, Paul Mermelstein, Stephanie Fretham, Kevin Crisp, and Neil Schmitzer-Torbert for comments on an earlier draft of this manuscript.

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Coronavirus COVID-19 Updates: uc.edu/publichealth

Welcome to the Neuroscience Graduate Program!

The Neuroscience Graduate Program at the University of Cincinnati was established in 1988 as an interdisciplinary program offering the PhD degree and now has more than 80 participating faculty members from 22 departments in the Colleges of Medicine, Pharmacy, and Arts & Sciences.

The program encourages a focus on clinical translation and offers multiple areas of concentration: Stress & Neuropsychiatric Disorders, Developmental Neurobiology, Pain, Sensory Neuroscience, Stroke & Neural Trauma, Metabolism & Obesity, Epilepsy, Cognitive Development, and Motivation & Drugs of Abuse. In addition to scholarship and laboratory training in high impact research within state-of-the-art facilities, the Neuroscience Graduate Program offers guidance and support for a wide range of professional careers.

Competitive stipends, tuition scholarships, and health insurance are provided to all admitted students. Outstanding candidates may also receive distinguished graduate fellowships supported by our National Institutes of Health neuroscience pre-doctoral training grant.

We invite you to learn more about our program and all UC has to offer. Renu Sah & Steve Davidson NGP Director & Associate Director

Agnes Luo NGP Co-Director

UC College of Medicine Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Statement

Johns Hopkins School of Medicine

The Solomon H. Snyder Department of Neuroscience

How to Apply

Admissions Requirements

2024 Hopkins Neuroscience Graduate Program Virtual Open House Registration

November 7th 2024, 5-7 PM EST Please register below to receive the zoom link: https://forms.office.com/r/hj4j7iraZv

Thank you for your interest in applying to the Graduate Program in Neuroscience at Johns Hopkins. We use a holistic approach to evaluating applicants and look forward to reading your application. We are most enthusiastic about applicants who have taken full advantage of the opportunities available at their undergraduate institution and through other summer or postbac experiences. Our class size is typically 14-16 students per year.

Applicants are expected to have received a B.S. or B.A. prior to enrolling in the graduate program. Laboratory research experience prior to enrollment is also desirable. If you have research experience, please describe your research in your Statement of Interest and Career Objectives and indicate the number of months engaged in full-time and part-time research on your CV. Students who do well in our program typically have a strong academic foundation in areas of biological or physical sciences. Some of the courses that prepare students well include general biology, neuroscience, mathematics through calculus, general physics, general chemistry, organic chemistry, statistics, engineering, or computer science.

Vivien Thomas PhD Scholars at JHU The  Vivien Thomas Scholars Initiative (VTSI)  is a new endowed fellowship program at Johns Hopkins for PhD students in STEM fields. It provides full tuition, stipend, and benefits while also providing targeted mentoring, networking, community, and professional development opportunities. Students who have attended a historically black college and university ( HBCU ) or other minority serving institution (MSI) for undergraduate study are eligible to apply. More information about the VTSI program is available at this link:  https://provost.jhu.edu/about/vivien-thomas-scholars-initiative/ . To be considered for the VTSI, all application and supplementary materials must be received by  December 1, 2024 .

NOTE: The Neuroscience Program DOES NOT require GRE scores. 

Application materials requested in the online application include:

1. Transcripts. Applicants will need to list all colleges and universities they attended. A transcript will need to be uploaded from each school attended.  2. Curriculum Vitae (2 pages maximum). Please include the length of time for any full-time or part-time research experiences, any work experience, any abstracts, poster presentations or manuscripts authored in your CV. 3. Statement of Interest and Career Objectives (1 page maximum). The statement should include your motivations for pursuing a graduate degree in neuroscience at Johns Hopkins and should describe your scientific preparation (research experiences) and your long-term career goals. The statement should enable the admissions committee to determine that: 1) you are committed to pursuing a PhD in neuroscience and understand what is needed to succeed in graduate school, 2) you are intellectually engaged in science and your research, and 3) that the program in neuroscience at Johns Hopkins is a good fit for your research and career interests. Please name faculty whose work you find particularly interesting and with whom you would like to complete your thesis research. If you are interested in our joint program with the Janelia Research Campus, please indicate your interest by including one to four Janelia Group Leaders with whom you would like to complete your thesis research. For more information visit Janelia research . 4. Personal Statement (1 page maximum) . Our program is dedicated to creating an inclusive scientific environment for all scientists. Please describe how your personal background has prepared you to operate in a diverse environment, as well as your contributions to support and advance diversity, equity, and inclusion in science. In this section, you may include information such as the following: 1) Your efforts to address the barriers to equitable access in higher education faced by racial minorities, persons with disabilities, first generation and low-income students, LGBTQIA+ individuals, women, and other historically underrepresented individuals in higher education; 2) What you have learned from the barriers that others face; 3) If you are comfortable, the barriers you have overcome throughout your academic journey; and/or 4) Your involvement in organizations, research, or related work in supporting historically underserved populations and how that influenced your outlook on science, and/or any plans you might have to be involved in these efforts at Hopkins.  5. Letters of recommendation . Applicants must identify three people who are familiar with the applicant’s work and provide contact info for these references. The contact info will be entered into the application, and SOM will contact the references and ask them to submit letters of recommendation on behalf of the applicant. Letters should preferably come from faculty members or other professionals who are in a position to comment on the applicant’s aptitude for independent research and motivation for applying to the program. 6. International students whose native language is not English are required to complete the Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL) or International English Language Testing System (IELTS). When taking the exam, applicants should request official scores be reported to Institution Code 5316 (the Department Code is not necessary). To report official IELTS test scores, please include the Test Report Form (TRF) verification number on the application. Scores must be received before the application deadline. The TOEFL requirement is waived for students who have studied at a university within the U.S. or if you received your degree from an institution where English was the primary language of instruction. Students who studied in Puerto Rico do NOT have to submit a TOEFL score. All transcripts, letters of recommendation, and parts of the Admissions application must be in English. The approved transcript service for use by international students is WES .  7. Additional material. There is an option for uploading additional information including a description of any special considerations or additional documents that may support your application. 8. Application fee. Fee waivers are available for applicants who are U.S. Citizens or permanent residents of the U.S. and meet additional eligibility criteria as described in part below. These include: 1) military service, 2) low income status, and 3) participation in programs such as the Johns Hopkins Basic Science Institute Summer Internship Program including the NeuroSIP and Kavli SIP programs, Johns Hopkins Doctoral Diversity Program, Johns Hopkins Post-Baccalaureat Research Education Program (PREP), Johns Hopkins Neuroscience Scholars Program, Meyerhoff Scholarship Program, Minority Access Research Careers (MARC), Minority Access Research Support Program (RISE), attendance at ABRCMS or SACNAS, or attendance at a Neuroscience Outreach Program, among others. 

For a complete description of the fee waiver process, please see the Application Fees and Fee Waiver Instructions on the On-Campus Admission website.

All students accepted into the Neuroscience Training Program will receive a living allowance in the form of a stipend, full tuition waiver, and health and dental insurance. Funding for International students is more limited as only U.S. citizens, non-citizen nationals, and U.S. permanent residents are eligible for U.S. NIH funding. International students who apply for and receive outside support for their graduate education often exhibit the characteristics of successful applicants to our program. Although not required, it can be advantageous for international students to secure such funding.

Inquiries regarding the program and its admissions requirements:  [email protected]

The deadline for submission of completed applications including letters of recommendation is  December 1, 2024 . NOTE that this is an earlier deadline than for other graduate programs at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine. 

The neuroscience program will host an interview event in  February 2025 (date TBD) . Attending the interview event is by invitation only. 

All candidates will be notified of the Admissions Committee's decision by April 15, 2025 . All Johns Hopkins graduate students will undergo criminal background checks as is the policy of the School of Medicine.

We recognize that it can be financially burdensome to relocate to a new city to attend a PhD program.   Students who are admitted to PhD programs at JHU can apply to receive a $1500 need-based grant to offset the costs of relocating to JHU.  These grants provide funding to a portion of incoming students who, without this money, may otherwise not be able to afford to relocate to JHU for their PhD program.  This is not a merit-based grant . Applications will be evaluated solely based on financial need. For more information, visit the Office of the Provost webpage on   Need-based Relocation Grants for Incoming PhD Students

• Doing a PhD in Neuroscience

What Does a PhD in Neuroscience Focus On?

Neuroscience is the study of the structure and function of the nervous system. Neuroscientists investigate how the nervous system works and also study factors which can influence the behaviour of the nervous system. Such factors include neurological, psychiatric and neurodevelopmental disorders.

A PhD in neuroscience provides a wide range of advantages for people that are already studying in the field. It allows you to focus your postgraduate study, work with cutting edge technology, operate within leading research departments, and pursue specialist neuroscience jobs upon completion of your research project.

It should be noted that there are many research projects which are focused on a specialist area of neuroscience. Subsequently, other relevant doctoral degrees include (but are not limited to):

• PhD in cognitive neuroscience – A PhD in cognitive neuroscience offers a unique opportunity. It teaches you how the brain functions chemically and neurologically. A PhD allows you to investigate the role of neurotransmitters, chemical compounds that send messages across the synapses of the brain. These compounds control the behaviour of the neurons and influence all the other functions of the brain. When they are working the way they’re supposed to, the brain is behaving normally.
• PhD in behavioural neuroscience – Also known as biological psychology, biopsychology, or psychobiology. Behavioural neuroscience includes the study of psychological and neural mechanisms which affect behaviour (e.g. genetic or psychiatric) and neurological disease.
• PhD in computational neuroscience – Computational neuroscience is a growing field and uses computers to simulate the brain. Computational neuroscience candidates should be well versed in the emerging technologies of this field to contribute to the field’s progress, and may have a background in mathematics, physics, artificial intelligence, or computer science rather than biology. A PhD in computational neuroscience may see a PhD student develop personalized treatments for neurological and psychiatric disorders.
• PhD in clinical neuroscience – A postgraduate degree in clinical neuroscience focuses on the nervous system in relation to health and disease. A research project in this field may involve the development of novel techniques to diagnose and treat disorders of the human brain or central nervous system.

Other popular neuroscience research areas in include molecular neuroscience, neuroengineering, neuroimaging, neurolinguistics, neuroinformatics, and neurobiological study.

Entry Requirements for A PhD in Neuroscience

The typical neuroscience PhD research project requires applicants to have, or expect to obtain, an upper second class (2:1) bachelor’s degree in a related subject area. In some cases, a lower second class (2:2) bachelor’s degree is sufficient if the graduate has a master’s degree or other relevant experience. For international students, overseas equivalent qualifications are almost always accepted. Since the focus of a research project can vary greatly, relevant subjects can be decided on an individual basis.

Of course, PhD in neuroscience requirements vary across different institutions, and some projects may have subject specific entry requirements, e.g. a PhD in computational neuroscience may require the graduate student to have basic programming knowledge.

Universities typically expect international graduate students to provide evidence of their English Language ability in addition to their application. English language requirements are usually provided in the form of a IELTS, TOEFL (iBT) or CAE and CPE score. The exact score requirements may differ from university to university. Any English language qualifications will be clearly stated as part of the application process.

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A next-generation genetic technology to identify biotechnologically-valuable enzymes and transporters, development of fluorescent organic molecules for application in super-resolution imaging techniques, ubiquitin-dependent signalling pathways in ageing, speciation in facultatively sexual species, energy dissipation in human soft tissue during impacts, how long does it take to get a phd in neuroscience.

In the United Kingdom, a standard PhD research project in neuroscience requires 3 to 4 years of full-time study. A part-time neuroscience programme typically takes 6 to 7 years to complete. A neuroscience MPhil typically takes 1 to 2 years of full time study.

Students pursuing careers in this field may undertake additional training courses, aimed to develop independent research, communication and project management skills. Courses in these areas will give students an excellent foundation in which to begin their careers.

There are also laboratory rotations and specialised training modules for doctoral students within some PhD programmes, which may include developmental psychology, developmental biology, brain sciences, clinical neuroscience, cell biology, medicine, biomedical sciences, genetics, pharmacology, neurophysiology, cognitive science and neurology .

Costs and Funding

Annual tuition fees for PhDs in neuroscience are typically around £5,000 – £6,000 for UK students. Tuition fees for overseas students are typically around £25,000 – £35,000 per academic year. Tuition fees for part time programmes are typically scaled down according to the programme length (for both home and international tuition fees).

Some neuroscience PhD programmes also have additional costs to cover laboratory resources, travel, fieldwork, department administration and computational costs.

Many Universities offer postgraduate studentships or doctoral loan schemes which cover the tuition fees and in some cases the living costs for neuroscience PhD programmes.

PhD in Neuroscience Career Paths and Jobs

If you are wondering what to do with a PhD in neuroscience, there are many options you can explore. PhD in neuroscience jobs require specialist knowledge, and the typical neuroscientist salary in the UK reflects this. However, the average salary of a neuroscientist varies greatly due to the broad range of industries they can operate in. Generally a senior neuroscientist salary in the UK is around £50,000 per annum, however salaries can exceed £100,000 depending on the specific role. For example a cognitive neuroscientist salary in the UK may be greater than that of a cellular neuroscience researcher. It is also possible to use your PhD to find work internationally as some countries may provide employment opportunities which improve upon neuroscience salaries in the UK.

Many PhD in neuroscience careers are within the academic world, as often postgraduate students choose to become lecturers, professors and researchers. Here they can continue to lead research into their field of interest and can help shape future postgraduate study. Neuroscience professors and lecturers can expect a generous salary. Higher education institutions are not the only destination available for postdoctoral researchers. Government lead research councils such as the BBRSC are one of many employers which contribute to academia.

Other PhD students look for neuroscience jobs in the pharmaceutical industry, where they can use their specialist knowledge and skills in the lab to understand how developmental drugs affect the nervous system.

Another popular career destination is within public engagement. As a scientific communicator, you are responsible for educating the general public on neurological matters and often take governmental or advisory roles. There are many NHS jobs that facilitate these responsibilities.

Typically, a PhD in neuroscience salary is higher than that of a counterpart with an undergraduate degree only. This is because the specialist knowledge a PhD graduate student has allows them to innovate and lead. A PhD programme also usually involves some manner of project management which lends itself to management roles.

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Graduate Programs

Neuroscience is one of the most exciting and fastest growing research fields. Examining the development and function of nervous systems does not only hold the key to better understand the interaction of animals and human beings with their environments, but will also allow us to develop therapeutic strategies for the treatment of neurological, behavioral and psychiatric disorders.

At the University of Chicago, there are five closely interacting, interdepartmental graduate programs that study nervous systems, brain function, and behavior: the PhD Programs in Neurobiology, Computational Neuroscience, Integrative Neuroscience, Cognition, and Computational Cognitive Neuroscience (Psychology track). Combined, these programs form the Neuroscience Cluster which comprises over 90 faculty members from both basic research and clinical departments. 

Investigating brain function from molecular to systems levels.

Quantitative approaches to studying nervous system function.

Studying brain and behavior through computational analysis and data.

Fosters integrative thinking across disciplines and focuses on research questions with theoretical and practical significance.

Understanding the biological basis of complex behaviors.

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