About the Major

Declaration of the major and graduation requirements:

Students may declare the CBN major anytime from the end of the Sophomore year up to the Fall semester of the Senior year. To declare the major, students must have completed one of the two introductory CBN core courses (Fundamentals of Neurobiology OR Fundamentals of Cell and Developmental Biology) with a grade of C or better.

It is strongly recommended that students also complete at least 1 semester of Organic Chemistry with a grade of C or better prior to declaring the major.

Declare the intent to major in CBN online at mymajor.sas.rutgers.edu. 

Please note: the CBN major requires departmental approval.  You must email the undergraduate advising office at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.for approval.  Email your name, RUID, and date of submission.

Students must complete ALL courses required for the major with grades of C or better.

Courses should only be repeated once to replace D/F grades. 

Courses required for the CBN Major (Curriculum 2024):

1. Life Sciences Core Courses

2. CBN Core Courses

Please note the following:

- At least 1 of the 2 Fundamentals is required to declare the major, but BOTH are required to complete it. These courses are prerequisites to several Advanced courses and should be taken prior to the senior year.
- Immunology and Honors Immunology cover similar topics, and credits will not be given for both courses. Honors Immunology is open to ALL majors enrolled in an Honors program (CBN, SAS or Honors College)
- Any Advanced CBN course in this set can be used as an Elective, but only AFTER the 3 Advanced courses requirement (R10) has been met (the same course CANNOT count for both requirements).

3. Electives and Lab

Please note the following:

- Choose 1 upper level (300 or 400) life science lecture course (3 credits) from the Approved Elective list.
- Choose 1 Lab course (1 credit) from the Approved Lab list. This list includes formal lab courses as well as a number of Research courses such as Aresty research, Independent Studies (01:146:201-202) or Research in CBN (01:146:307-308).
- ALTERNATIVELY, students can take 1 lecture/lab course (4 credits) from the Approved Lecture-Lab list to meet both R11 AND R12 requirements.

4. Departmental Honors Program

Students interested in the CBN Honors Program (research-intensive) should join a lab during the sophomore/junior year and register for Independent Studies (01:146:201-202) and/or Research in CBN (01:146:307-308) (>3 research credits are recommended prior to entering this program).

At the beginning of the senior year students can submit a CBN Honors Application Form. Please note that a CBN major GPA>3.4 is REQUIRED for this program.

If accepted into the CBN Honors program, students must register for the following courses:

Please note:

- Honors Seminar is a course designed to help students produce and present the research thesis. It replaces the R12 Lab requirement in the default CBN curriculum.
- 2 consecutives semesters of Honors Research are required and include laboratory work as well as thesis preparation
- A written research thesis and oral presentation are required at the end of the Senior Spring semester in order to attain CBN Departmental Honors.

To register for Independent Studies or Research in CBN, and to apply for the CBN Honors program please contact Prof. Shu-Chan Hsu at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

5. Other

For CBN Major residency rules, please check the Residency Requirements.

To assist with the completion of the major requirements prior to declaring the major please use the CBN Major Worksheet.