Curriculum

*Partial list of graduate level electives - See Graduate Bulletin

https://www.urmc.rochester.edu/education/graduate/phd/neurosciences/about-the-program/curriculum/elective-courses

MD/PhD Program (MSTP students) usually enter the PhD portion of their combined degree work after the basic science years of the MD curriculum. During the second year of the MD program, they should discuss the PhD Program with prospective faculty advisors and the NGP director. It is optimal for the student to complete two research rotations before choosing a permanent advisor. A total of 96 credit hours is required for the PhD; MD/ PhD Program course requirements are meant to be sufficiently flexible to accommodate students with diverse backgrounds and career goals. MD/PhD students are allowed to waive the required Neuroscience Graduate Program electives.

• NSC 511 is not required for MD/PhD students. Email the course instructor for approval to waive this requirement.
• MD/PhD students are exempt from the TA requirement but may do so if they are interested.
• MD/PhD students need to complete only one rotation report – instructions on page 8-10 of the handbook.
• MD/PhD students can waive up to ten elective credits from medical school.
  • Typically, ANA 526 Human Structure & Function or ANA 525 Mind, Brain and Behavior

During the first year each student is assigned to a first-year advising committee comprised of two NGP faculty members and a senior NGP student. One of the faculty will be the current rotation mentor. The goal of the first-year advisory committee is to provide critical feedback to students early in their careers, before they choose a thesis lab. Since students may not have formed individual relationships with faculty and senior students at this point, the first-year advisory committee provides an opportunity to forge such relationships and get mentorship at a critical time when students may have less access to meaningful input. Mentors provide advice on areas that include (but are not limited to): expectations in graduate school, balancing classes and lab work, study habits, choosing a rotation and eventually a thesis lab, reading the scientific literature, scientific writing, qualifying exams, interacting with faculty and students, networking, and future career options. The first-year advising committee also provides feedback on rotation reports (see below) and oral presentations in student seminar. By the start of the second year, this committee is replaced by the Part I Exam Committee, Part II Exam Committee, and eventually by the Thesis Committee. Timing and guidelines for convening these committees are described later in the handbook.

The primary purpose of the lab rotation is to provide students with an insider’s view, through active participation in a research project, of the research interests, laboratory environment, and mentoring style of faculty they are considering as potential thesis advisors. Laboratory rotations also provide an opportunity to learn new techniques and to gain an appreciation for different scientific approaches to a problem. The experience should broaden one’s research skills and, therefore, students may want to avoid multiple rotations in labs utilizing essentially the same approaches and techniques. On the other hand, coordinating the rotations to employ different techniques aimed at investigations into one area of neuroscience research can be beneficial.

NGP students must complete at least 3 rotations with tenure track faculty by the end of the summer after their first year. The Senior Associate Dean for Graduate Education has established a standard set of start and end dates for lab rotations as follows:

At the conclusion of each rotation, the student and rotation mentor each complete a Lab Rotation Evaluation. Rotation Evaluation forms are available from the NGP Administrator or online at: https://www.urmc.rochester.edu/education/graduate/home/forms.aspx

Incoming students can arrive early and begin their first rotation on July 1 before starting classes in the fall.

When selecting a lab rotation, students must check with the mentor to find out whether they will be working with radioisotopes, certain regulated chemicals, or biologicals, and/or animals or human subjects. In such cases, students will need to complete specific required trainings.

Rotation reports

NGP first year students are required to complete two written rotation reports (MSTP students will only be required to complete a fall rotation report). The goal of guided rotation reports is to provide students with the opportunity to practice their scientific writing skills early. These skills include the ability to formulate project goals and provide rationale and an overview of the field. Many students come in with limited scientific writing experience and struggle to develop these skills in graduate school. A critical aspect of the rotation reports is to provide students with consistent feedback throughout the first year to ensure that their skills improve and that they are provided with the support they require, depending on their level of competency.

It is important that both students and faculty realize that rotation experiences vary widely. Some students will design and complete a full experiment and be ready to present their findings in the form of a scientific paper. Others will take part in a team approach and experience different techniques without formally carrying out an experiment. Those students may write a rotation report that focuses on the bigger questions addressed by their rotation lab or the techniques that they have explored to address these questions. DATA ARE NOT REQUIRED but may be presented if available. The most important result of the rotation write-up is that students learn to communicate scientific concepts clearly and identify important aspects of a new scientific field.

To ensure that reports are completed in a timely manner, rotation reports will only be required for fall and winter rotations. Completion of the reports will be required to obtain a passing grade in NGP Student Seminar (NSC 503).

Students not doing rotations in either of those rotation periods can complete a report on a rotation completed earlier.

Report format

The main point of the report is to demonstrate an understanding of the scientific field explored during the rotation and to provide a description of the rotation experience. DATA ARE NOT REQUIRED, although students who have obtained data during their rotations are welcome to include them in their report.

The report must include a Title followed by at least four sections:

1. Abstract: a brief paragraph succinctly describing the point of the rotation project or rotation experience.
2. Introduction: an overview of the field and where the rotation project fits into the big picture view.
3. Materials and Methods: description of the techniques used with their limitations. This section may include the design of experiments if this approach was part of the rotation whether the experiments yielded data.
4. Discussion: describe any results or expected results if none were obtained and how they would inform the field and lead to future research directions.
5. A results section may be included if appropriate.

A proposal will be required at the beginning of the rotation period. If the report describes a rotation that was completed prior to the timing of the report, then the proposal can be replaced with the purpose section.

The report is to be submitted as a Word document approximately 3-6 pages of text, double spaced, Arial font, 11 point, one-inch margins on all four sides of the page. Figures, Tables and References are NOT included in this page limit. Pages must be numbered.

Complete references are to be provided at the end of the report. There is no limit to the number of references; however, the student is expected to have read all the references cited. References should be cited in the text as “First author et al., 2005”, rather than numbered.

Additional pages can be used, as needed, for Figures, brief Figure Legends and Tables for data obtained during the rotation.

Timelines

Students are expected to turn in sections of the report on Mondays throughout the semester to their advisory committee and to rewrite those sections based on the feedback obtained. Timely submission of both the report sections and feedback from the faculty is critical. Faculty may ask for additional rewriting if necessary. Students are strongly encouraged to seek feedback from the rotation advisor before or along with submission to the first-year advisory committee.