Unc developmental biology training program

The defense must be completed before the Graduate School deadline within the semester that the student aims to graduate. Other Requirements. The Department of Biology believes strongly in the value of teaching, and therefore requires each student to serve as a teaching assistant TA in a course in the Biology Department for at least one semester. Students must be registered during the semesters in which exams are taken.

Residence credit of four full semesters is required for a Ph. Please see Residence Credit Requirements for more information. If degree requirements change following admission, the student may choose to follow either the rules in effect upon admission or any subsequent set of rules in effect prior to reaching candidacy.

Timeline for Doctoral Students. Timeline for Masters Students. This could mean your written exam and thesis defense are in the same semester, or in your final semester, you will only be registered for Financial Support. Funding levels for students in the Quantitative Biology QBio track currently varies significantly depending upon the major advisor and funding source so it is important that you discuss this with your advisor or potential advisor. This minimum will be reviewed yearly to consider increases based on the MIT living wage calculator, representative apartment rents, and input from Biology graduate students.

Several sources of stipend support are available. QBio students are supported by teaching assistantships, research assistantships, or fellowships described in greater detail below during the academic year and summer. It is very important that funding packages are discussed in detail during the recruitment process between the prospective advisor and student, and that realistic expectations of funding are shared. Academic Year Funding: During the 9-month academic year, you will be funded on either a teaching assistantship, research assistantship, or fellowship.

Fellowships usually fund students on a 9-month or annual basis and vary in stipend amounts. If your advisor does not have sufficient grant funding to fund you as a research assistant, then teaching assistantships will be available to you. If the advisor does not have grant funding, teaching assistantships are available during both summer sessions. Each session lasts 5 weeks with a 20 hour per week average for teaching one lab or one recitation. Research Assistantships RAs If funding permits, your advisor may be able to support you as a research assistant funded off their grant.

Duties vary, but it is generally expected that RAs will work hours per week on grant-related work and be paid at a level comparable to a TA. Consult your advisor for details. Fellowships Fellowships are often the most desirable form of funding because they typically carry no service requirements. There are two main kinds of fellowships for beginning students. First are those offered by the UNC graduate school for information, see the funding information page on the UNC graduate school website.

The Graduate Funding Information Center is a resource that assists current and prospective graduate students in finding appropriate funding sources. Through some of the funding databases, you can set up alerts to notify you when new opportunities are available based on information you provide. A limited number of fellowships are also available to support continuing students. These fellowships are described in greater detail below. The UNC Graduate School holds an annual competition for a limited number of fellowships aimed at supporting advanced students i.

Most are merit-based. Supplies and Travel Support As the departmental budget permits, several awards are offered annually through the Biology Department to help graduate students with research expenses generally a few hundred dollars per year. The competition for these awards is normally announced in April. These grants cover travel expenses only and are available for doctoral and masters students presenting research papers at international, national, regional academic conferences or meetings of professional societies.

Students may receive this grant only once. Applications are considered throughout the year and must be submitted prior to travel. Teaching Assistants and Research Assistants are paid monthly for the academic year, usually beginning at the end of August and continuing through mid-May. Those who will be supported as Research Assistants during the summer will continue to be paid monthly, while those who will be supported as Teaching Assistants during the summer are paid at the end of each summer session.

Students on University payroll are required to have their paychecks automatically deposited to their bank account by completing a direct deposit authorization form via ConnectCarolina. As part of your assistantship or fellowship, you will receive an award to cover your full tuition and mandatory student fees. You must remain fully enrolled and maintain good academic standing to qualify for your assistantship and the benefits outlined above. Applications to Qbio will be considered in a holistic fashion with performance in classwork, letters of recommendation, GRE scores, statement of purpose and prior research experience all being considered.

The deadline for applications for Fall admissions is November 30, Applications will not be accepted after this date. Once applications are received, we evaluate them to determine who we will invite to visit our campus and interview.

Applications that are not complete by the deadline will not be reviewed. The following items are needed in the application:. Potential reasons for inclusion could be that the student feels they improve their application or their potential faculty advisor at UNC recommends including them.

If you include GRE scores, they will be considered as part of a holistic review of your complete application including classwork, research, letters of recommendation, statement of purpose, and prior research experience.

Graduate school guidelines are that GRE scores must be no more than 5 years old. What happens after you apply… Your application is reviewed by the departmental admissions committee.

In January, we decide which applicants will be invited in for on-campus interviews. In March and April, final decisions are made and applicants are notified.

Note that applicants are admitted ONLY if a faculty member is willing to advise that student. You must therefore identify prospective advisors prior to submitting an application and indicate this on your application. Submit Search. Read More: Training Goals The goal of the Quantitative Biology graduate program is to prepare the next generation of PhD scientists who will probe biological processes with a knowledge base that transcends the boundaries of traditional disciplines such as biology, mathematics, computer science and physics.

Examples of the kinds of questions students in this program may address include: Mechanics and Dynamics: At the molecular scale, how do the mechanical properties of biological macromolecules, macromolecular complexes and ensembles chromosomes, membranes and structures and cellular surfaces influence their function?

Patterns and Collective Phenomena: How are spatial and temporal patterns determined within cells and among cells in a group? Transport, Signaling and Communication: At the cellular scale, how does information flow within cellular compartments, between compartments, within and among macromolecules and their ensembles and structures, and among cells?

Multiscale Processes: A fundamental question in all areas of the biological sciences is how to connect multiple scales. The following are the Ph. Table 1. Quantitative Biology Funding Information Funding levels for students in the Quantitative Biology QBio track currently varies significantly depending upon the major advisor and funding source so it is important that you discuss this with your advisor or potential advisor.

Link to updated Biology Graduate Student Stipend Policy QBio students are supported by teaching assistantships, research assistantships, or fellowships described in greater detail below during the academic year and summer. TAs help teach undergraduate courses and lead recitations or laboratories. The expected average workload for a TA during the academic semester is 20 hours per week or less.

A successful scientist must master the literature of a field, identify a significant unanswered question, and design and execute a project that provides a definitive answer. We feel that the most effective way to learn these skills is by actual practice in graduate training. In addition to training in scholarship and research techniques, our students are also trained to present their work in yearly seminars for their fellow Department of Biology graduate students, in smaller EEOB graduate seminars, in local research group meetings with other universities e.

The research interests represented by the EEOB faculty, along with those of the UNC-CH Department of Biology as a whole, cover a remarkable diversity of fields and provide a student with the integrative, multidisciplinary training that characterizes the most important and significant research in the field. Students in the EEOB program are encouraged to take advantage of this range of interests by participating in graduate seminars outside of their specific research area, attending our weekly departmental seminars, and attending seminars in other curricula and departments both on campus and at neighboring universities.

Degree Requirements. If requirements change after you arrive, you may choose to follow the rules in effect when you arrived, or any subsequent set of rules in effect during your tenure at UNC.

It is your responsibility to stay in touch with your major adviser and graduate dissertation committee. Likewise, you are ultimately responsible for seeing that you comply with the regulations of the Department of Biology and the UNC Graduate School.

Failure to comply may result in losing your financial support or in being dismissed from the program. The Department of Biology offers a Ph. It also offers two masters degrees: a Master of Science degree requiring independent research and a thesis, and a Master of Arts degree requiring a written library report. A current student in the Ph. Course Requirements. Every graduate student must gain an understanding of the breadth and depth of the field of Biology as it is treated among various traditional disciplines.

This is accomplished in three ways. First, each student is required to register for the Biology seminar course in the fall semester for the first two years in the program. Second, the student will complete 3 graduate seminars during the course of their studies in addition to the two semesters of At least three hours of these courses must take the form of research and completion of the thesis MS, Biology or library report MA, Biology Out of the 30 hours, 21 must be taken in residence please see Residence Credit Requirements for more information.

Each Ph. There are no other course requirements for the Ph. Graduate Adviser. Most EEOB students select a graduate adviser before beginning graduate school. For students doing rotations in several labs, however, the advisor may not be selected until after rotations are complete. Generally, you must choose an adviser by the end of your first year in graduate school. If you wish to change advisers or add a co-adviser, you must submit your request in writing to the Director of Graduate Studies for approval these requests must include the reasons for the proposed change.

In all cases, at least one adviser must be a faculty member in Biology. Graduate Advisory Committee. You must form a graduate dissertation committee to oversee and guide your research by the end of your third semester, and preferably by the beginning of that semester.

This process is normally done in consultation with your adviser. Once each individual has agreed to serve on your committee, you should submit this list of the proposed members to the Director of Graduate Studies via the Graduate Student Services Manager for approval. For Ph. A majority must be regular members of the UNC Biology graduate faculty i. After satisfying this majority requirement, additional committee members can include anyone who is qualified to conduct the doctoral examinations and advise the student on their dissertation research.

People who are active UNC faculty require no special approval. People who are not active UNC faculty may serve as committee members, subject to approval first by the Director of Graduate Studies, then by the Dean of the Graduate School, who is responsible for the final appointment of the committee.

At the start of the first meeting of the committee, one member is designated as chair. Selection of the chair shall be a collaborative choice between the student, the advisor, and the other members of the committee. The chair must be a regular member of the UNC Biology graduate faculty.

The chair will lead the meetings of the advisory. These are the sole and entire responsibilities of the chair. Of the countless responsibilities that do not fall on the chair, only three will be listed here. Second, aside from conducting committee meetings in a professional manner, serving as chair does not convey greater responsibility for mediating any interpersonal conflict.

Third, the chair is not responsible for establishing the time and place of committee meetings, or ensuring that committee meetings are held at required intervals; these are the responsibility of the student.

It is recognized that research projects may go in unanticipated directions as they develop. Therefore, it is permissible to make changes to the committee, including adding additional members or making substitutions. If you wish to change the membership of your committee, then submit a written request to the Director of Graduate Studies this request must include the reasons for the proposed change. Changes must be approved in advance by the Director of Graduate Studies, and then reported to the UNC Graduate School via a revised Report of Doctoral Committee Composition form, to be obtained from the Graduate Student Services Manager , the chair of the committee, and affected committee members.

Oral Comprehensive Examination Ph. The oral exam is the primary examination of general knowledge and should be separated in time from the dissertation feasibility meeting see G below. To encourage breadth, you are required, in consultation with your committee, to identify four areas of proficiency from at least two major categories Table 2.

The selected areas will serve as a focus for preparation and questioning. The proficiency topics should be approved by the committee prior to the oral exam. Ideally, proficiencies should be identified far enough in advance that any deficiencies can be addressed through coursework, directed reading, or other forms of preparation. The four areas should each represent a topic that is broad enough to be the subject of an undergraduate course; during the exam, you are expected to demonstrate a level of proficiency in each area that would indicate that you could teach such a course.

In order to pass the exam, a majority of your committee must pass you your committee may also pass you, but require courses to take or other actions to make up any deficiencies. If you fail the exam once, you will be allowed to retake the exam. Written Examination. For this exam, each member of the graduate dissertation committee will submit to the committee chair one or more questions designed to be answered within a two-hour period.

The full examination must be undertaken and completed within a two-day period. Each question will be graded by at least two members of the committee. Passing of the exam is contingent upon approval of two-thirds of the entire committee. This exam cannot be taken until all courses are complete or until the final courses are in progress. Note: While not required, in most cases, students should use the same proposal to satisfy the requirements of both the written exam and the feasibility meeting, which is described below.

The proposal must include a project summary limited to one single-spaced page , and a detailed project description which must be no less than eight and no more than twelve single spaced pages, including figures and tables, but excluding the list of references cited. A majority of your committee must approve the proposal in order for you to pass the exam.

If you fail, you will be allowed to retake the exam by revising your proposal or submitting a different one. Feasibility Meeting. By the end of their third year, Ph. If the research plan also describes any non- dissertation research e. The feasibility meeting should consist of an in-depth discussion and correction of the research plan.

You should provide your committee with a copy of your research plan at least one week in advance of the feasibility meeting. Publication Requirement Students are required to have a first-author or co-first author research paper not a review accepted in a peer-reviewed journal for graduation.

Graduate Dissertation Committee. MCDB graduate students should plan to form their graduate advisory committee and hold a committee meeting by the end of their 2nd year in graduate school by the end of their first year in the Biology program. Selection of the chair shall be a collaborative choice between the student and the committee.

A majority of the committee must be regular members of the UNC Biology graduate faculty i. Professors, Associate Professors, and Assistant Professors of Biology, as well as a few additional UNC faculty who have been specially appointed by the Department; if you are unsure of the status of a prospective committee member, then please consult the Graduate Student Services Manager.

After satisfying this majority requirement, additional committee members can include anyone is qualified to conduct the doctoral examinations and advise the student on their dissertation research. People who are active UNC faculty require no special approval.

The advisor or co-advisors will be invited back in and the full meeting will commence. At the conclusion of the meeting the committee may but is not required to ask the student to step out of the room again so that they can reach consensus. Dissertation Defense. Students must schedule a pre-thesis defense meeting at least 2 months prior to their anticipated thesis defense date, and prior to setting the date.

The committee must give the student permission to defend. Once this date is set, please inform the Graduate Student Services Manager. The defense consists of a written thesis that has been read and approved by the committee, a public seminar describing the thesis work, and a private oral defense of the thesis work with the committee.

Other Requirements. Students must be registered during the semesters in which exams are taken. Residence credit of four semesters is required for a Ph. The degree time limit for Ph. The Department believes strongly in the value of teaching, and, therefore, requires each student to serve as a teaching assistant TA in a course in the Biology Department for at least on Fall or Spring semester. In addition to coursework, attending seminars also greatly helps students gain exposure to broader research and new ways to ask and answer scientific questions.

It is strongly recommended that students attend the lunch bunch seminars on Fridays and attend relevant Biology departmental seminars. Refer to the Graduate School Handbook for additional information regarding required registration, doctoral degree requirements, and other relevant information.

Please inform the Graduate Student Services Manager when any of the above exams and meetings are to take place as forms may need to be prepared. Financial Support. As a student in the Molecular, Cell, and Developmental Biology program at UNC, you will receive a competitive stipend through a research assistantship funded by your PIs grants or through a teaching assistantship if your PI does not have sufficient grant funding.

Typically, these sources of support are provided throughout your graduate career as long as you remain in good academic standing. Finances of individual labs may vary, so it is important that funding packages are discussed in detail during the recruitment process between the prospective advisor and student, and that realistic expectations of funding are shared. Through some of the funding databases, you can set up alerts to notify you when new opportunities are available based on information you provide.

Teaching Assistants and Research Assistants are paid monthly for the academic year, usually beginning at the end of August and continuing through mid-May. Those who will be supported as Research Assistants during the summer will continue to be paid monthly, while those who will be supported as Teaching Assistants during the summer are paid at the end of each summer session. Students on University payroll are required to have their paychecks automatically deposited to their bank account by completing a direct deposit authorization form via ConnectCarolina.

As part of your assistantship or fellowship, you will receive an award to cover your full tuition and mandatory student fees. You must remain fully enrolled and maintain good academic standing to qualify for your assistantship and the benefits outlined above. As the departmental budget permits, several awards are offered annually through the Biology Department to help graduate students with research expenses generally a few hundred dollars per year. The competition for these awards is normally announced in April.

These grants cover travel expenses only and are available for doctoral and masters students presenting research papers at international, national, regional academic conferences or meetings of professional societies. Students may receive this grant only once. Applications are considered throughout the year and must be submitted prior to travel. How to Apply. For students interested in research in Molecular, Cell, and Developmental Biology our application, interview, and admission process is now handled through the Biological and Biomedical Sciences Program.

Click here to begin the Biological and Biomedical Sciences Program application process. The Biological and Biomedical Sciences Program BBSP is unified way for prospective students interested in the Department of Biology or any of the other 12 participating graduate programs in the biological and biomedical sciences at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill to apply for graduate study.