New PhD students interested in the medical and biological sciences at Carolina enroll in the Biomedical and Biological Sciences Program (BBSP) for their first year of sciences training.
New PhD students interested in the medical and biological sciences at Carolina enroll in the Biomedical and Biological Sciences Program (BBSP) for their first year of sciences training.
BBSP for a week-long orientation featuring sessions on effective habits of graduate students, time management, lab math refresher courses, and informational sessions about the 15 BBSP member PhD programs available to them at the end of their first year of training.
The BBSP class of 2014-15 is 50% female, 50% male and about 14% of the class are students from groups traditionally underrepresented in the sciences. The incoming students have a wide variety of research interests including biophysics, epigenetics, drug delivery and virology. During their first year at UNC they will do research rotations in BBSP faculty member labs while taking courses offered through the BBSP member programs. In April, BBSP students join one of the BBSP member PhD programs and select a thesis advisor and lab in which to do their thesis research.
We asked a few of these incoming students, “Why did you choose Carolina?”
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Daniel Bloodgood “It’s great to be able to work in a lab and have the hospital right there, everything is all together. I’m really excited about the translation medical program here, that was a big draw for me.” |
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Edhriz Siraliev-Perez “When I came to do the PREP program here, I really enjoyed it and I fell in love with UNC, so I could confirm what my interests were in research. I really like the support system and they really seem to care about their students.” |
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Chris Uyehara “When I asked people how much competition there was between the other grad students, I was told it didn’t happen here, people are always willing to help you and is into their own interests and that really appealed to me.” |
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Adele Musicant
“I had so many people tell me how much they loved UNC and how supportive the program was and once I applied and had gone through my interview, I was just so impressed with how much effort was put into this program.” |
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Angela Lovett “When I was interviewing here two factors influenced my decision. The science, of course, and it seems like UNC has a lot to offer. The second part was the community and support. They have so many programs and people here that I feel could help me to be a better scientist.” |
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Rachel Shaffer “I’m interested in environmental health and toxicology and that’s the type of policy work that I was doing while I was in D.C. So coming to UNC and getting the opportunity to continue to do scientific research but also have really strong connections with the EPA and the NIEHS here at the Research Triangle Park, that was really the draw for me.” |
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Naihan Chen “I came here for recruitment weekend and I really liked it. I talked to a lot of the faculty members during the interviews and the program sounded really cool. The research is interesting and the students are happy and nice and so I thought it was a good place for me.” |