Cornell Graduate School
The Graduate School at Cornell is organized into ninety different Graduate Fields and a prospective graduate student applies for admission to one or more appropriate Graduate Fields. Each field is comprised of faculty members with common research interests. In some instances membership in a Graduate Field may largely coincide with that of a single departmental faculty. However, in most cases a field includes individuals from a number of departments, sections and schools within the university. Thus the Field system enables faculty who are not necessarily united for the purpose of teaching undergraduate or professional students to join together in the training of graduate students.
Individual faculty members may belong to more than one graduate field. For example, faculty involved of the Field of Pharmacology are are also members of one or more of the following graduate fields: Biochemistry, Molecular & Cell Biology, Neurobiology & Behavior, Physiology, Biophysics, Immunology, Comparative Biomedical Sciences, Toxicology, Chemistry & Chemical Biology, Physics, Biomedical Engineering and Microbiology.
In addition to providing a broad range of research choices by means of its Field system, the Cornell Graduate School tailors the degree requirements to fit each student. High standards, together with flexibility, are achieved by allowing the student's Special Committee to make the decisions concerning competence and achievement that result in granting the advanced degree. The selection of the Special Committee, which consists of a major research advisor, usually a minor subject advisor, and one or two other faculty members, is largely the student's own choice. However, most fields appoint one faculty member to the committee to ensure that field standards and regulations are met.
Cornell Graduate School Home Page
Field of Pharmacology Home Page