In late August, the newest graduate student cohort arrived at Rockefeller University. But most did not set foot in a laboratory until October. Instead, they played the role of an “experimental group” in a reimagined first-year curriculum running throughout September. Prior first-year programming at Rockefeller continued until winter, running in parallel with laboratory rotations and elective coursework. This time, before starting coursework and rotations, first-year students spent their first month together in an accelerated, boot camp-style program that maintained some key elements of prior first-year programs while featuring new additions.
This year’s first-year program was a departure from the historical experiences of new graduate students at Rockefeller. From its founding in 1901 as a biomedical research institute, Rockefeller historically followed an apprenticeship model, wherein graduate students directly joined the laboratories where they would complete their thesis research. It would be decades before rotations emerged to allow both students and faculty to test out different arrangements for research and personality compatibility. Recent years have seen more programs in the United States adopt a short but dense boot camp-style model, much like the one trialed by Rockefeller this September.
Most notably, this year introduced a new course titled Thriving in Graduate School (abbreviated as TiGS) that integrated a medley of themes. Some meetings acted as group advising sessions on topics like choosing a rotation or thesis laboratory. Other meetings featured guest workshops by Rockefeller’s Rita and Frits Markus Library staff highlighting the tools available to graduate students, as well as a lecture from Rockefeller’s newest faculty member, Dr. Avi Flamholz, entitled “Quantitative Thinking in Biology.” Alongside TiGS, the returning Experiment and Theory introductory course, taught this year by Tim Stearns and Sandy Simon, utilized primary literature to analyze the scientific method and prepare students to design their research questions.
As in previous years, Rockefeller faculty gave research talks describing their lab’s research focus and highlighting ongoing projects, but this time with an abbreviated half-hour time limit. This encouraged faculty to distill their talks to the essence of their research questions. To complement this approach, the new curriculum put the brakes on lab rotations, at least for a short time. Students were asked to establish no more than one of their rotations in the summer before their arrival. With all faculty research talks taking place in September, this approach left students’ rotation schedules open for new research directions.
The Goal
Overhauling an established curriculum, planning new courses, and scheduling over fifty faculty research talks in a single month is no small logistical feat—so why do it? We spoke with Deans Andrea Morris and Tim Stearns about the motivation and philosophy behind the changes, which were implemented with input from the Rockefeller Faculty Academic Council and Student Representative Committee.
Community building and peer learning were key aims. Whereas prior cohorts interacted as a group just a few times per week, this year’s first-year students spent virtually the entire month of September together. The sustained close contact without the obligations of rotations provided strong support for social bonds to form, while also creating an opportunity to build a common knowledge base among students coming from diverse academic and professional backgrounds. For those few weeks before entering the specialized spaces of rotation labs, immunologists, molecular biologists, neuroscientists, computational biologists, and more, all worked side by side, exchanging ideas and perspectives.
At the same time, the new curriculum aimed not to undermine a key feature of Rockefeller’s graduate program: academic independence. While students could set up only one of their rotations before October 1, the duration and number of rotations a student completes is still an unrestricted personal choice. Under the new curriculum, students are free from first-year classes after September, leaving them free to focus fully on lab work, elective courses, and settling into their new life in New York City.
Feedback from students
Ultimately, this year’s first-year class represents a real-time experiment—and no experiment is complete without collecting and analyzing the data. We spoke with first-year students to gather some early impressions of the new curriculum. Impressions were overall positive, with students reporting an easy transition to life at Rockefeller and feelings of social integration. Gabriella Reis liked that “[first-year students] were all having the same experience at the same time” during the first month on campus, and Libby Tseng felt that first-year courses and research talks “made it easy to feel like I am a part of the community.” From her experiences, Cameron Chapa recommended to future first-year students to “get to know everyone in your cohort because you will undoubtedly learn valuable insights from them.”
Scheduling all faculty research talks before the rotation period began was a major change intended to introduce students to the scope of research done at Rockefeller. Students largely reported that they had arrived at Rockefeller with a rough plan for their rotations. Most had formally set up one rotation, and some had spoken tentatively with other faculty as well. Overall, the faculty research talks seemed to have a limited impact on students’ rotation plans, although some students reported that, by the end of September, they had a greater interest in some unexpected labs where they are considering rotating later in the academic year.
Without lab meetings, and experiments to hurry back to, students frequently spent downtime together and ate lunch as a group. As a result, many first-year students highly rated the social cohesiveness of the cohort after September’s programming. Libby Tseng observed that “[the cohort is] close-knit and [spends] quite a bit of time together doing non-science activities.” Students were positive about the balance struck between preparing students for research at Rockefeller and allowing them free time to explore New York City and socialize with classmates. Rohit Gokhale shared that “[the schedule] allowed me time to settle into the rhythm of grad school and the NYC life.” After September’s end, the Friday Lecture Series, programming by the Office for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, and informal social gatherings have kept many students in contact after completing first-year classes.
Looking to the future, first-year students will continue to provide feedback to the Dean’s Office about their experiences, both anonymously and in group sessions. Plans are already underway to transform TiGS into an ongoing series for the broader Rockefeller student population, in response to interest from current graduate students. Future sessions aim to connect students with Rockefeller alumni, highlight post-graduation career opportunities, and address key milestones in the graduate program. Expanded programming might focus, for example, on steps like assembling a Faculty Advisory Committee for second-year students, or career advising for senior graduate students. The first year, after all, is only the beginning of thriving as a graduate student.
Since its founding over a century ago, Rockefeller has been no stranger to change. The redesign of its first-year graduate curriculum highlights the university’s adaptability and demonstrates a commitment to helping all students—both new and senior—to thrive in their graduate studies and beyond.