What the Students Have to Say:

The Qualifying Exams

Having just finished our program's newly redesigned written/oral qualifying exam, I can say that the material covered was well balanced. The exam did not directly focus on factoids, but rather asked broader questions that tested our ability to use those bits of knowledge in a unified way as well as our ability to reason as scientists. Having taken 7 courses specifically on neuroscience and researched for 3 years as an undergraduate, I feel pretty well qualified to say that the exam did a good job of covering the breadth of knowledge needed by a modern neuroscientist in less than 50 questions. The 1.5 hour oral examination was used as a way to probe our answers to the written exam. In this way, our examiners were able to disambiguate fuzzy answers and, in my case, gave me a chance to answer questions that I overlooked in my written exam. Like I told my examiners, the oral section was the shortest 90 minutes of my life. I was amazed at how fast and, relatively, painlessly it went. I really felt like the examiners were just feeling out the limits of my knowledge and reasoning abilities rather than trying to trip me up or assault me with a barrage of impossible questions. You're sure to get rougher panels during grad school interviews (but not at UCD) -Daniel Rathbun, Graduate Student in the Usrey Lab The qualifying examinations for our program are split into two parts, the Written/Oral Prelim Exam and the Thesis Proposal, which are taken separately and generally have different committee members. During the Thesis Proposal, which is done after successfully completing the prelim, you will once again be put on your feet, this time to present the proposed route of your doctoral research and to answer any questions which your committee might have about the background you should have to complete your research, the ultimate goals of your projects, and any pitfalls which might come up. It is another potentially intimidating exam, but you should always keep in mind two things: 1) The professors on your committee are there to ensure that your doctoral research goes as smoothly as possible, not as antagonists, and 2) Hey, you're going to be a Ph.D. candidate! -Jeffrey Johnson, Graduate Student in the Olshausen Lab Back to What the Students Have to Say!