Graduate Training

You will spend your first year within one of 8 Tracks.

While in a Track you will rotate through 2 - 4 labs as well as take several courses per semester. At the end of the first year you will then leave the BBS Track structure to join both a thesis lab and a Ph.D.-granting program. Independent of the Track you join, you will have access to dozens of graduate courses, innumerable seminars in both basic science and clinical departments, over 400 faculty labs, and cutting-edge research facilities at the School of Medicine, West Campus, and the main university campus.

Most Tracks have recommended or required courses, but you will also be able to choose electives outside of these recommendation. Given the interdisciplinary nature of research, you can expect to find students from multiple Tracks sitting side-by-side with you in your classes. See the link below to download our most recent course guide.

Integral to all research is intensive training in rigorous scientific research methods. Exposure to research rigor and reproducibility begins even before you matriculate in the fall and continues throughout your training.

An important aspect of graduate training at Yale University is the acquisition of teaching skills through participation in courses appropriate for the students’ scientific interests. These opportunities may be in lecture, laboratory, and seminar courses given at the undergraduate, graduate, or medical school level. Each BBS student is required to participate in two semesters (or its equivalent) of teaching during graduate school, but no student is expected to teach during the first year of study.