The nitty-gritty about neuroscience PhD programs
In the timescale of humanity learning about how things work, our somewhat organized investigation of the nervous system is relatively new.
There was a ragtag group of guys at Walter Reed in the 1950s who did a mix of behavioral and anatomical research, but Harvard takes the prize for the first official Department of Neurobiology, founded in 1966. Soon after, a handful of schools established their own research, and eventually degree-granting programs. Neuroscience programs have been evolving ever since.
Neuroscience PhD programs are fairly diverse, but thanks to a recent Society for Neuroscience survey of graduate programs in the U.S. and abroad, we can draw some similarities.
Program Structure
Most neuroscience PhD programs in the U.S. have three stages:
Year 1: Coursework + Research rotations
Year 2: Coursework + Research in your PhD lab
Year 3+: Research, research, research.
If you’re coming straight out of college, this progression will usefully wean you off of coursework and transition you into life as a full-time researcher. If you’re coming from a research lab or elsewhere, you’ll be gleefully delighted with life as a student once again. On average, students complete their PhD in 5.5 years, but this will vary depending on your lab and your program (SfN 2016).
Coursework
Most programs include about 1–2 years of coursework before you dive full force into your research. The actual coursework you’ll need to complete, or that will be offered, will vary. Most often, there is an overview series of neuroscience, an ethics course, and often a statistics course. Beyond those courses, there is a lot of variability, particularly as it relates to computational neuroscience coursework. I recommend looking at the SfN report if you’re really curious about the breakdown.
Rotations
One unique aspect of neuroscience and biology programs is lab rotations. In most psychology (and often cognitive science) programs, you choose an advisor before you begin, and dive right in. Instead, neuroscience programs give you a chance to test out different labs and find a good fit. This means you won’t really get to start your thesis research until year two. There are some exceptions, but most programs strongly encourage students to go on research rotations.
During the first year, you’ll likely have three rotations lasting 9 weeks each, but some programs only require two (SfN 2016). As you’re considering different programs, there should be at least three (ideally more than five) labs that you’re excited to rotate through.
Your first priority in choosing your rotations is finding a lab that will be your PhD home. However, you might also choose to join labs so that you can learn techniques or be exposed to an entirely different field. Be careful though — I went on a rogue third rotation and ended up loving it.
How much should program structure matter for your decision?
The structure of PhD programs won’t vary significantly, and it probably won’t be a huge factor in your decision. But if you’re raring to go into research immediately, you might want to avoid programs that are very serious about their coursework.
When you’re interviewing, it’s good to ask the students:
- Is there anything unusual about the structure of this program?
- Did you feel the coursework was reasonable?
- Were you able to take all of the courses you were hoping to take?
There are lots of other important factors to consider when choosing a graduate program — more on that here. And stay tuned for a post about neuroscience programs outside of the U.S.
Like what you read here?
This article is a piece of my forthcoming book, So you want to be a neuroscientist? (Columbia University Press, December 2020). The goal is to offer aspiring neuroscientists honest, informative insight about our field as well as education and careers in it. You can pre-order the book here.
