A Guide for Graduate Students

The program in Cell and Developmental Biology is the graduate program of the Department of Cell Biology, Neurobiology and Anatomy at MCW. The purpose of this program is to provide state of the art research training leading to a Doctor of Philosophy degree in Cell and Developmental Biology. This is accomplished through a combination of coursework, seminars, journal clubs, and "hands-on" laboratory research in the laboratory of a faculty mentor. This guide is intended to provide students with a list of requirements and a general time-line for completion of requirements for the PhD degree. To maintain full-time status, graduate students are required to take a minimum of 6 credits in the summer, 9 credits in the fall and 9 credits in the spring semesters. Accrual of at least 60 graduate course credits is needed for the PhD degree. Students are required to meet with their thesis committee starting in the third year of training. The student will write a 1-2 page summary of the meeting, detailing what was presented and discussed, and any bench-marks or time-lines that were established. This should be approved by the Thesis Mentor and then distributed to the thesis committee. As part of the training process, it is also required as a minimum that the student thesis research culminate in publication of at least 2 articles in peer-reviewed journals for which the student is first author. One should be accepted for publication, if not already in press, while the other can at the “submitted” stage.