Applicable only to students admitted during the 2025-2026 academic year.

Neuroscience

Interdepartmental Program
School of Medicine

Graduate Degrees

The Neuroscience Program offers the Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) degree in Neuroscience.

Admissions Requirements

Master’s Degree

None.

Doctoral Degree

Advising

The Neuroscience program (NSIDP) provides a comprehensive system of advising for students throughout their graduate studies. During orientation, the advising committee and program chair meet with new students to review the first-year requirements in general terms. Throughout the term, students are expected to meet individually with the chair or other members of the advising committee to identify faculty whose research is closest to their own interests and who would be most appropriate for laboratory rotations. At the end of the fall term, the entire advising committee meets informally with the first-year students to field questions that have come up after their initial entry into the program. In subsequent quarters, students’ enrollment and performance in core courses and laboratory rotations are closely monitored and, as the need arises, students are counseled individually by the advising chair. At the end of spring quarter of the first year, students are required to submit a Faculty Mentor Approval Form (co-signed by the mentor) to the advising committee, which meets to consider the choice of mentor and the ability of the faculty to serve in this capacity.

The advising program continues after each student has chosen a faculty research mentor. Every year students receive a memorandum outlining current requirements (for example, course electives, the written and oral qualifying examinations and midstream seminar). The advising committee also meets every year to discuss the progress of all students and identify potential problems. The committee then sends each student a letter that assesses their current progress in the program and makes specific recommendations as needed. An overall assessment of student progress is also made annually to the neuroscience committee. In addition to the formal advising procedures outlined above, students are repeatedly encouraged to seek advice on career development from faculty members in the UCLA neuroscience community. Finally, an annual retreat serves the purpose of allowing informal and organized contacts between faculty and students, which provides further opportunity for advising.

Major Fields or Subdisciplines

Several subdisciplines are represented by large groups of faculty with common interests who closely interact with each other in a collaborative manner. A number of these clusters of faculty are represented as an area of specialty within the program, which we call a Focused Area of Research (FAR). The FARs currently available in the program are Addiction, Learning & Memory, Neural Development, Degeneration & Repair, Neuroendocrinology, Neurogenetics, Neuroimaging/Cognitive. Synapses, Cells & Circuits, Computational & Systems Neuroscience; and Neurotechnology.

Foreign Language Requirement

None.

Course Requirements

Students are required to enroll full-time in a minimum of 12 units each quarter throughout graduate study, attend an annual program retreat and encouraged to attend the Joint Seminars in Neuroscience (JSN).

First-year students are required to complete the following core, literature and methods-based courses: Neuroscience 201, M202, M203, 205, 210ABC and 211A (211A may be taken during the second year). In the first  year, students take a course in scientific ethics, Neuro 207 or MIMG C234.

First-year students participate in three research training rotations, represented by enrolling in Neuro 596 in each term. Research training rotation prior to the First-Year (i.e. Summer before) is not counted towards the required three research training rotations.

After the first-year, students are required to take one biostatistics or biomathematics course and eight units of advanced elective courses related to their research selected from a pre-approved list. Students can petition courses that are not on the pre-approved list. In addition, five graduate seminars in Neuroscience (i.e. Neuro 215) or research related fields. Neuro 215 may be repeated more than once to satisfy this requirement. The remaining units necessary for completion of the degree and to maintain student status are fulfilled through dissertation research (Neuro 599).

Students who have completed professional or graduate degrees (e.g. M.D., M.S., M.A.) prior to admission to the program may be exempted from required first-year core course work and subsequent course requirements if they have completed substantially similar courses elsewhere.  Course exemptions and modifications to the first-year curriculum are subject to review and approval with the chair and curriculum committee.

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.  New teaching assistants must enroll in the Life Sciences 495 (or equivalent) TA Training course before or during the quarter they receive their first teaching appointment.  495 does not count toward degree requirements.

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 coursework 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 campus wide 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.

DEGREE	NORMATIVE TIME TO ATC (Quarters)	NORMATIVE TTD	MAXIMUM TTD
Ph.D.	6	18	21

Academic Disqualification and Appeal of Disqualification

University Policy

A student who fails to meet the above requirements may be recommended for academic disqualification from 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 academic disqualification 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 academic disqualification by vote of the entire interdepartmental degree committee. A student may appeal a recommendation for academic disqualification in writing to the interdepartmental degree committee and may personally present additional or mitigating information to the committee, in person or in writing.