MCB trains some of the highest achieving graduate students in the world
- Since 2000, 15 MCB students have received the Harold M. Weintraub Award, a national award that recognizes outstanding achievement during graduate studies in the biological sciences.
- Since 2000, 155 MCB students have been awarded National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowships. Berkeley graduate students receive more NSF Fellowships than any other university in the country.
- MCB students publish their high impact research in top-tier journals.
MCB graduate students work directly with faculty who are leaders in their fields. Of the approximately 99 active faculty members with whom MCB students can train:
- 18 are Investigators of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute
- 26 are members of the National Academy of Sciences
- 29 have won Pew, Searle, or Burroughs Wellcome Fund Young Investigators Awards
- 14 have won the NIH Director's Pioneer or Innovator Award
- 5 have received MacArthur Genius fellowships
- 3 have received the Nobel Prize
Research in the MCB graduate program is world class across many disciplines, which allows students to explore diverse research interests before joining their thesis labs.
- Research topics include: Biochemistry, Cancer Biology, Cell Biology, Computational Biology, Developmental Biology, Genetics, Genomics, Immunology, Infectious Disease, Microbiology, Neurobiology, Stem Cell Biology, Structural Biology, Synthetic Biology, and Systems Biology.
- The latest National Research Council rankings rate each of MCB's scientific divisions among the top 3 doctoral programs in their fields when compared to all U.S. universities.
The MCB graduate program is collaborative, diverse, and flexible
- Approximately 30-40 graduate students join our program each year, ensuring a mix of students with diverse backgrounds and interests.
- Students can perform lab rotations with any faculty member in MCB or affiliated with MCB.
- MCB students can perform research under the joint mentorship of 2 faculty members, choose from a variety of courses within MCB or other departments, and even organize their own courses.
- MCB hosts seminar series in each major research area, including the Koshland seminar series, for which students select, invite, and host outside speakers
You get to live in Berkeley!
- Berkeley is a thriving, urban community surrounded by parks and open space and is only 20 minutes from San Francisco.
- In Berkeley you have easy access to mountains, beaches, and the wine country.
- Living in Berkeley is generally more afforable than San Francisco and the Peninsular.
The average rent for a 1 bedroom apartment is $2500
The average rent (per person) an MCB student pays for a shared apartment or house is $1150