Neuroscience

First-year students take four core courses: Neuroscience M201, M202, M203 and 205. First-year students participate in three laboratory rotations. Students also attend an annual retreat. In the first or second year, students take a course in scientific ethics, Neuroscience 207.

Second-year students take at least one quarter of biostatistics or biomathematics selected from a departmental list of courses, as well as two courses from a menu of advanced neuroscience courses.

In the first, second and/or third years, students enroll in 12 units from a selection of seminar courses.

Teaching Experience

One quarter of teaching experience is required. Students who enter the program through the MSTP and STAR Programs may teach but teaching is not a degree requirement.

Written and Oral Qualifying Examinations

Academic Senate regulations require all doctoral students to complete and pass university written and oral qualifying examinations prior to doctoral advancement to candidacy. Also, under Senate regulations, the University Oral Qualifying Examination is open only to the student and appointed members of the doctoral committee. In addition to university requirements, some graduate programs have other pre-candidacy examination requirements. What follows in this section is how students are required to fulfill all of these requirements for this doctoral program.

All committee nominations and reconstitutions adhere to the Minimum Standards for Doctoral Committee Constitution.

A written qualifying examination is required following completion of the core requirements, generally before the second year. The objective of this examination is to test the ability to relate knowledge in different neuroscience areas, to locate and interpret literature, and to apply research problems.

After passing the written qualifying examination, and after completion of a degree audit, students, in consultation with the adviser, choose the doctoral committee to administer the University Oral Qualifying Examination. The doctoral committee members should meet the campuswide minimum standards for doctoral committees (effective Fall 2016).

The Oral Qualifying Examination should be completed no later than the end of the third year. For the examination, students are expected to write a research proposal and orally present the outline of the proposal to their doctoral committee. This presentation usually takes between one and two hours. The written proposal should be no more than 10-pages and should follow the basic format of an NIH grant proposal focusing on an important question pertinent to the student's field of study, with well-defined Aims, Significance, Innovation, and Experimental Design sections. Students should not have completed significant portions of the dissertation project at the time of the examination. Instead, the purpose of the exercise is for students to (1) formulate their plans in their own words; (2) become acquainted with the faculty committee; and (3) familiarize the committee with their projects at an early stage. The committee will either accept the proposal or suggest changes. It is expected that the committee agree that completion of the proposed research will suffice for the conferral of a Ph.D.

Doctoral Committee Meetings

Students are expected to hold doctoral committee meetings each year after the University Oral Qualifying Examination. The yearly doctoral committee meetings provide additional interaction between the committee and the student and serve as an important barometer for the progress of the student's research proposal since the University Oral Qualifying Examination. Each yearly meeting requires a written progress report (prepared jointly by the doctoral committee chair and the student) to monitor and track the student's progress in their dissertation research and time-to-degree and to identify the critical experimental and intellectual issues that students need to address prior to their final defense of the dissertation.

Advancement to Candidacy

Students are advanced to candidacy upon successful completion of the written and oral qualifying examinations.

Doctoral Dissertation

Every doctoral degree program requires the completion of an approved dissertation that demonstrates the student's ability to perform original, independent research and constitutes a distinct contribution to knowledge in the principal field of study.

Final Oral Examination (Defense of Dissertation)

Required for all students in the program.

Time-to-Degree

In general, overall progress toward the degree is accomplished with completion of the written qualifying examination by the beginning of the second year. It is recommended that students complete the University Oral Qualifying Examination by the end of spring quarter of the second year, and the examination must be completed no later than spring quarter of the third year. Students must hold doctoral committee meetings each year after the University Oral Qualifying Examination and before the Final Oral Examination (defense of the dissertation). The approved normative time-to-degree is 18 quarters.

MAXIMUM TTD

Termination of Graduate Study and Appeal of Termination

University Policy

A student who fails to meet the above requirements may be recommended for termination of graduate study. A graduate student may be disqualified from continuing in the graduate program for a variety of reasons. The most common is failure to maintain the minimum cumulative grade point average (3.00) required by the Academic Senate to remain in good standing (some programs require a higher grade point average). Other examples include failure of examinations, lack of timely progress toward the degree and poor performance in core courses. Probationary students (those with cumulative grade point averages below 3.00) are subject to immediate dismissal upon the recommendation of their department. University guidelines governing termination of graduate students, including the appeal procedure, are outlined in Standards and Procedures for Graduate Study at UCLA.

Special Departmental or Program Policy

A student must receive at least a B- in each core course or repeat the course. A student who receives three B- grades in the core courses, who fails all or part of the written or oral qualifying examinations two times (if the student fails all or part of the written qualifying examination the Written Qualifying Examination Committee determines the form of reexamination), or who fails to maintain minimum progress may be recommended for termination by vote of the entire interdepartmental degree committee. A student may appeal a recommendation for termination in writing to the interdepartmental degree committee and may personally present additional or mitigating information to the committee, in person or in writing.

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