Students receive instruction from prospective thesis mentors in semester-long lab rotations.
Students in the Neuroscience Program begin independent research projects in their first semester in the Program, and are required to participate in independent research each semester. Every student is required to rotate in two different labs, and students are strongly advised to do three rotations before deciding on the lab in which they will do their thesis research. Students register for these rotations as Neuroscience 800 or 801. Program policy is that students are expected to select a thesis lab no later than the middle of the second year. In practice, most students select the lab for their thesis research at the end of the first year.