This graduate program includes faculty members from several departments including neuroscience and cell biology (UMDNJ), cell biology and neuroscience (Rutgers), molecular biology and biochemistry (Rutgers), psychology (Rutgers), psychiatry (UMDNJ), and animal sciences (Rutgers). Areas of specialization include trophic factor biology, production and analysis of mutant mice with altered neural function, regulation of neural and glial gene expression, developmental neurobiology, autism, gliogenesis, neurogenesis, spinal cord injury, stem cell biology, synaptic plasticity, and mechanisms and regulatory controls of learning and memory.

A student must have an undergraduate cumulative grade-point average of at least a B to be considered for admission with prerequisite courses normally including biology, general and organic chemistry, calculus, and physics. The program selects incoming students on the basis of their academic records, Graduate Record Examination scores, personal statements, multiple letters of recommendation, productive research experience, and impressions from personal interviews during campus visits or via phone.We hold recruitment days beginning in early January-February, inviting promising applicants to be interviewed by our faculty and to be hosted by our graduate students, attend poster sessions, and be taken to dinner.

Applications are accepted throughout the year, but must be submitted by January for admission to study for the fall semester. Financial support is provided to highly qualified students. Support typically includes a stipend to cover living expenses, remission of tuition, and health insurance.

To be awarded a Ph.D. in neuroscience, the candidate must complete:

required coursework
a qualifying examination and a dissertation proposal defense; and
an original research project under the supervision of a faculty adviser

While course requirements vary with the area of specialization, a total of 72 combined credits are required for the Ph.D. degree. Of the 72 credits, at least 28 course credits (at a minimum B grade average) are required, of which 24 must be at the 500 level or above, including 8 seminar credits of Advanced Studies in Neuroscience and 1 credit of Ethical Scientific Conduct. Up to 44 research credits are also required to bring the required total to 72.

The neuroscience qualifying examination is administered in two parts that typically are taken in the second and third years of graduate study. The first part examines the ability to think critically about several topics after a period of reading primary publications on different topics with several faculty members. The second part is the oral defense of a thesis proposal that will serve as the foundation for completing dissertation research. When both written and oral parts of the qualifying examination have been judged by the student's committee to have been completed successfully, the student will be considered to have passed the qualifying examination and will then be advanced to candidacy and proceed to complete his/her dissertation research project.

For more information about joint Ph.D. degrees available in this program, see the Joint Programs section of the catalog.