Department or Curriculum?

Graduate students can enroll through the Department of Biology, the Curriculum in Ecology, or the Curriculum in Neurobiology. Faculty with primary appointments in Biology can supervise students in any of these programs.

The Ecology Curriculum requires greater breadth of courses and membership on students' committees.   It has fewer prerequisites for admissions.

A potential disadvantage of the Ecology Curriculum is the limited access to teaching assistantships for graduate student support.   Nevertheless, students in the Ecology Curriculum have always obtained teaching assistantships in the Biology Department when necessary.

In the end, the most important components of a doctoral program are the student's doctoral committee and the research group in which a student works.   Whichever program a student enters, faculty with related interests assist graduate students in developing their research programs.

The decision, Department or Curriculum, often comes down to how you view yourself.   Are you interdisplinary in your larger interests?   Or are your interests primarily biological?

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