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 major in CBN online at mymajor.sas.rutgers.edu

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

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

Courses required for the CBN Major:

1. Life Sciences Core Courses

DN Course Name Course Number Credits Suggested Years
R1 General Biology I 01:119:115 4 1st
General Biology II 01:119:116 4 1st
Biological Research Lab 01:119:117 2 1st
R2

General Chemistry I (1st semester)

can be substituted with 01:160:163 (Honors Gen Chem I)

01:160:161 4 1st

General Chemistry II (2nd semester)

can be substituted with 01:160:164 (Honors Gen Chem II)

01:160:162 4 1st
Intro to Experimentation 01:160:171 1 1st
R3

Organic Chemistry I (1st semester)

can be substituted with 01:160:315 (Honors Org Chem I)

01:160:307 4 2nd/3rd

Organic Chemistry II (2nd semester)

can be substituted with 01:160:316 (Honors Org Chem II)

01:160:308 4 2nd/3rd

Organic Chemistry Lab

can be substituted with both 01:160:313+314 (Summer courses)

01:160:311 2 2nd/3rd
R4

General Physics I (1st semester) 

can be substituted with
01:750:193 (Physics for Sciences) or
01:750:201 (Ext Gen Physics) or
01:750:271 (Honors Physics I) or
01:750:124 (Analytical Physics I)

01:750:203 3 2nd/3rd

General Physics II (2nd semester)

can be substituted with
01:750:194 (Physics for Sciences) or
01:750:202 (Ext Gen Physics) or
01:750:272 (Honors Physics II) or
01:750:227 (Analytical Physics IIA)

01:750:204 3 2nd/3rd
R5

General Physics Lab (1st semester)

this Lab is included in
01:750:193 (Physics for Sciences Lab) or 01:750:201 (Ext Gen Physics Lab) or 01:750:123+124 (Analytical Physics IA+IB)

can be substituted with
01:750:275 (Classical Physics I Lab)

01:750:205 1 2nd/3rd

General Physics Lab (2nd semester)

this Lab is included in
01:750:194 (Physics for Sciences Lab) or 01:750:202 (Ext Gen Physics Lab)

can be substituted with
01:750:276 (Classical Physics II Lab)
01:750:229 (Analytic Physics II Lab)

 01:750:206  1  2nd/3rd
R6

Calculus for Life/Soc Sciences I

can be substituted with 01:640:151 (Calc I for Math/Phys)

01:640:135 4 1st/2nd

Basic Statistics for Research

can be substituted with 01:960:379 (Basic Prob and Stat) or Statistics II (01:960:212 for students who have credits for 01:960:211), or
01:640:136 (Calc II Life/Soc), or 01:640:152 (Calc II Math/Phys)

01:960:401 3 1st/2nd
R7 Genetics 01:447:380 4 3rd
R9

Biochemistry for Life Sciences

01:694:395 Biochemistry for Life Sciences will replace discontinued 01:694:301 Introduction to Biochemistry, Molecular Biology (alternative courses 01:694:407 Mol Bio Biochemistry will no longer be offered, or 11:115:301 Intro Biochemistry will no longer be equivalent and will not be accepted)

01:694:395 3 3rd

 

2. CBN Core Courses

DN Course Name Semester Course Number Credits Suggested Year
R8 Fundamentals of Neurobiology Fall/Spring 01:146:245 3 2nd/3rd
Fundamentals of Cell Biology Fall/Spring 01:146:270 3 2nd/3rd

R10

(Choose 3)

Synapses, Neurons and Circuits (formerly Advanced Neurobiology I) Fall 01:146:445 3 4th
Clinical Neurobiology (formerly Advanced Neurobiology II) Fall/Spring 01:146:447 3 4th
Neurobiology of Pain and Addiction (formerly 01:146:464) Fall/Spring 01:146:465 3 4th
Developmental Biology (formerly Advanced Developmental Biology) Spring 01:146:472 3 4th
Genetic Regulation in Cell Biology (replaces 01:146:470 Advanced Cell Biology I) credits will not be given for this course and either 01:146:470 or 01:146:480 (partial overlap with both) Fall 01:146:473 3 4th
Immunology Fall 01:146:474 3 4th
Honors Immunology Spring 01:146:476 3 4th
 Protein Dynamics in Cell Biology (replaces 01:146:480 Advanced Cell Biology II) credits will not be given for this course and either 01:146:470 or 01:146:480 (partial overlap with both)  Spring  01:146:481  3  4th

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.
- Only 3 Advanced courses are required. Adv Neuro I and II, and Adv Cell Bio courses I and II are NOT sequences and can be taken independently. Courses designated as I (Fall) and II (Spring) cover different topics and are taught by different professors; they can be taken alone or in combination (mix and match!).
- 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

DN Course Name Course Number Credits Suggested Year
R11 1 Life Science Elective See list of Approved Electives 3 3rd/4th
R12 1 Lab or Research See list of Approved Labs 1 3rd/4th

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:

DN Course Name Semester Course Number Credits Suggested Year
R12 Honors Seminars Spring 01:146:405 3 4th
R13 Honors Research in CBN Fall 01:146:408 3 4th
Honors Research in CBN Spring 01:146:409 3 4th

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.