Division of Life Sciences

Information for Prospective Students

"Those who cannot reliably do research or evaluate the research of others will find themselves on the sidelines in a world that increasingly depends on sound ideas based on good information produced by trustworthy inquiry."
— Booth, Wayne G., Gregory G. Colomb, and Joseph M. Williams The Craft of Research, 2nd edition.

The Department of Genetics graduated its first class of three majors in 2000. Since then the major has grown rapidly. The Department of Genetics offers superb education opportunities. Students in the Department of Genetics work on important research problems with renowned scientists in state-of-the-art laboratories. These opportunities are only possible in a major research university. At same time students enjoy small class sizes and the personal attention that one would expect only at at a smaller college.

The Major in Genetics provides an excellent background in the natural sciences within a liberal arts curriculum. We provide comprehensive instruction in Mendelian, molecular, evolutionary, statistical and mathematical genetics Upon completion of our degree our students are prepared to enter graduate or professional schools or the workforce.

"Indeed, if you make science classrooms more like the quirky worlds of working scientists - full of the humor of wild hypotheses, the exhilaration of unconventional procedures- the dividends in better performance are quickly evident. Learning to be a scientist is not the same as "learning science": it is learning a culture, with all the attendant "non-rational" meaning making that goes with it."
— Jerome Brunner The Culture of Education, Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press.

Undergraduate research is the intellectual heart of our major. The Department of Genetics is committed to teaching science through the way we do science. That is, through the process of doing research. Every student completes a minimum of two semesters of laboratory research or independent study under the direction of a faculty member. Many of our students are authors on papers published in leading scientific journals. All our undergraduate majors are offered the opportunities formerly available only to honors students.

Undergraduate students work closely with Genetics faculty members in addition to their research advisor. Upper-level elective courses have small enrollments. In addition, every student is assigned a faculty advisor upon declaring the major. This advisor can discuss course selection and career goals.

The success of our major is documented by the success of our students.

"I think that 384/385 worked on a few levels. First, as a major, it was very helpful to be in a small class which allowed for more individual help from the professor, especially considering it was the first college level genetics work most of us had encountered."
— R. Tiver '05

The Department of Genetics is one of the smaller departments at Rutgers University but we consistently rank among the top three departments for students completing an honors thesis.

Our undergraduate majors are highly competitive for Summer Research Fellowships such the Harvard Stem Cell Institute Undergraduate Research Fellowship and the Duke University Summer Fellowship in the Institute for Genome Sciences and Policy.

Our graduates are routinely accepted at top graduate schools or medical schools such as the University of Chicago, Georgetown University, Rutgers/UMDNJ, Princeton, University of Pennsylvania, Carnegie-Mellon, Johns Hopkins University, MIT, Case Western University and Cornell.

Our Building

The Life Sciences Building opened June 2, 2005. It provides state of the art laboratories for faculty and student research.