Program Requirements

Program Requirements

Course Requirements:

There are no strictly required courses for MCD students. A student’s mix of courses is decided individually in consultation with the student’s first year mentor and the campus graduate deputy chair. The following core courses (or their equivalents) are STRONGLY recommended for all MCD students:

BIOL 700.XX	GENETICS	4 CR
BIOL 710.XX	MOLECULAR BIOLOGY	5 CR
BIOL 714.XX;	CELL BIOLOGY	4 CR
BIOL 750.XX	DEVELOPMENTAL BIOLOGY	4 CR

Most incoming MCD students take these courses in their first year in the program. In the second year, students usually take several 3-credit seminar courses on special topics given by MCD faculty experts. Among many others, some examples of these topics include:

GENE REGULATION IN DEVELOPMENT AND DISEASE
GENOME INTEGRITY
CELL BIOLOGY OF THE NERVOUS SYSTEM
CANCER GENOMICS
FRONTIERS OF LIVE CELL IMAGING
BIOINFORMATICS
ORGANIZATION OF NUCLEAR TRANSPORT
THE UBIQUITIN/PROTEASOME PATHWAY
BIOLOGY AND IMMUNOLOGY OF AIDS
HOT TOPICS IN DEVELOPMENTAL NEUROBIOLOGY

First year MCD students also receive 3 credits for each their three research rotations under the following course number:

BIOL 71101 LAB ROTATION (MCD) 3 or 6 CR

The remainder of the 45 credits needed to reach level II, and the total of 60 credits needed to reach level III is made up from research lab credits under the following course numbers:

BIOL 79200	TUTORIAL	1 to 4 CR
BIOL 79201	ADVANCED STUDY	1 to 4 CR
BIOL 89900	CELL BIOLOGY	1 to 10 CR

Each MCD student is offered registration advising every semester to ensure timely progress and an appropriate load and mix of courses and research credits until 60 credits are reached.

Qualifying Exams:

The LEVEL I qualifying exam is given in June of the first year after all four “core” MCD courses (or their equivalents) are completed. This is a written exam given in two 2-hour sessions. A reading list of primary and review articles for the exam is provided in January, six months in advance of the exam. This exam must be passed to reach LEVEL II status.

The LEVEL II qualifying exam involves writing and orally defending a thesis proposal based on the student’s research in their thesis lab. The student (in consultation with their research mentor) assembles an examination committee of at least five faculty members (three from the student’s home campus and two from outside). This exam must be passed to reach LEVEL III status. The three on campus examination committee members will then constitute the students ongoing thesis advisory committee, which must meet at least annually to advise the student and foster their timely progress towards completing their thesis work.

The FINAL EXAMINATION is, for all intents and purposes, a “THESIS DEFENSE” in which the student presents a seminar on their thesis work and fields questions from the examination committee. Usually, this examination committee is the same as the student’s LEVEL II exam committee. For this FINAL EXAM committee, at least one of the two off-campus members of the committee MUST be from an institution outside of CUNY.

For the specific requirements regarding advancement, the qualifying exams, committee composition and administrative requirements, please consult the Student Handbook of the Biology Ph.D. program