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 (1st semester) can be substituted with 01:160:163 (Honors Gen Chem) |
01:160:161 | 4 | 1st |
General Chemistry (2nd semester) can be substituted with 01:160:164 (Honors Gen Chem) |
01:160:162 | 4 | 1st | |
Intro to Experimentation | 01:160:171 | 1 | 1st | |
R3 |
Organic Chemistry (1st semester) can be substituted with 01:160:315 (Honors Org Chem) |
01:160:307 | 4 | 2nd/3rd |
Organic Chemistry (2nd semester) can be substituted with 01:160:316 (Honors Org Chem) |
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 (1st semester) can be substituted with |
01:750:203 | 3 | 2nd/3rd |
General Physics (2nd semester) can be substituted with |
01:750:204 | 3 | 2nd/3rd | |
R5 |
General Physics Lab (1st semester) this Lab is included in can be substituted with |
01:750:205 | 1 | 2nd/3rd |
General Physics Lab (2nd semester) this Lab is included in can be substituted with |
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 |
01:960:401 | 3 | 1st/2nd | |
R7 | Genetics | 01:447:380 | 4 | 3rd |
R9 |
Intro Biochemistry & Molecular Biology can be substituted with 01:694:407 (Mol Bio Biochem) or 11:115:301 (Intro Biochem) |
01:694:301 | 3 | 3rd |
2. CBN Core Courses
DN | Course Name | Course Number | Credits | Suggested Year |
R8 |
Fundamentals of Neurobiology |
01:146:245 |
3 |
2nd/3rd |
Fundamentals of Cell and Dev Bio |
01:146:270 |
3 |
2nd/3rd |
|
R10 (Choose 3) |
Advanced Neurobiology I (Fall) | 01:146:445 | 3 | 4th |
Advanced Neurobiology II (Spring) | 01:146:447 | 3 | 4th | |
Advanced Cell Biology I (Fall) | 01:146:470 | 3 | 4th | |
Advanced Cell Biology II (Spring) | 01:146:480 | 3 | 4th | |
Advanced Devel Biology (Spring) | 01:146:472 | 3 | 4th | |
Immunology (Fall) can be substituted with Honors Immunology (Spring) 01:146:476 |
01:146:474 | 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 | 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
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.