8. Summary

Most graduate training programs in the neural sciences continue to be located in Schools of Medicine or in Schools of Arts & Sciences. However, there is a recent trend to link neuroscientists in multiple departments in a university-wide program that spans both Schools of Medicine and Schools of Arts & Sciences. 

The administrative structure of graduate programs in the neural sciences is quite varied. Most training is now conducted in interdisciplinary programs rather than in departments offering degrees in neuroscience or in other disciplines. Graduate students are now much more likely to be awarded a Ph.D. degree in Neuroscience than in another discipline.

Graduate faculty in the neural sciences now play a very substantial role in undergraduate education, both by teaching undergraduate courses and by providing opportunities for undergraduate students to become involved in research projects.

There are ~26 faculty per program, on average, in the graduate programs surveyed. Almost 90% of the faculty have tenure-stream positions. The annual turnover in these positions is only ~10%, whereas it is ~20% in nontenure-stream positions. Approximately half the tenure-stream faculty members are full professors, while one-fourth each are assistant or associate professors.

The annual number of applications for graduate training in the neural sciences has tripled during the past 15 years, and is now ~71 per program, while the number of matriculants has doubled and is now ~7 students per program. Nonetheless, the academic quality of incoming graduate students has remained high, as suggested by their undergraduate GPA (average = 3.5), their scores on the GRE (average = ~78th percentile), and their research experience. 

Only 18% of the incoming students had an undergraduate major in Neuroscience or Behavioral Neuroscience. Other common majors were Biology (29%), Psychology (12%), and Chemistry (10%), and an additional 11% had dual majors including one or more of these disciplines. 

The number of Ph.D. degrees in Neuroscience awarded annually per program has increased little in recent years and is now 3.5, while the time to degree has stabilized at ~5.5 years. Most new graduates pursue further research training in postdoctoral positions (61%), while many go to medical school (14%). Fewer than 10% of predoctoral trainees leave the program without obtaining a Ph.D. degree; they do so on average after 2.1 years of graduate study, often (39%) obtaining a terminal M.S. degree. Predoctoral students who are women, U.S. racial and ethnic minorities, or non-U.S. citizens are equally likely to obtain their Ph.D. degree, and in the same time frame,as one another and as the Caucasian male American majority. 

Approximately 80% of postdoctoral trainees in the neural sciences have only a Ph.D. degree. Postdoctoral trainees usually leave their position either to pursue further training or to accept a faculty position. Almost all graduates with a Ph.D. degree in Neuroscience are employed in scientific positions, and very few are employed outside the field or are not employed at all. 

Women represent 47% of predoctoral trainees and 40% of postdoctoral trainees, but they are very under-represented as tenure-stream faculty members (21%), especially at the full professor level (14%). However, they constitute 43% of the nontenure-stream faculty.

U.S. racial and ethnic minorities represent almost 20% of predoctoral trainees, but less than 10% each of postdoctoral trainees and tenure-stream faculty members. Most of them are Asian-American or Hispanic-American.

Predoctoral trainees who are not U.S. citizens come predominantly from Asia and Europe. They also represent almost 20% of predoctoral trainees, as they have during the past 10 years. In contrast, their presence as postdoctoral trainees has increased progressively, and they now represent more than 50% of that population.Nonetheless, they occupy less than 5% of all tenure-stream graduate faculty positions.

Almost all predoctoral students receive stipend support, primarily from university funds (first-year students) and from research grant funds (advanced students). Research grant funds also are the major source of support for postdoctoral trainees, almost exclusively so for non-U.S. citizens. 

Much less information was available from undergraduate programs in the neural sciences, but available evidence indicates that most programs are interdepartmental in administrative structure, and most tenure-stream faculty are Caucasian, American, male, full professors (95%, 99%, 75%, 60%, respectively). Although the number of tenure-stream faculty positions is relatively small (~8 per program) and has increased by only 13% during the past two years, the number of undergraduate students with
majors in Neuroscience has almost doubled during that same time period (to 54 per program, on average).