Course Offerings

Registration is the first step in your study at Weill Cornell Graduate School (WCGS). Once registered with the WCGS, you will have established your student status and be able to use Weill Cornell’s many resources. You must be registered each Fall and Spring Term until you finish your degree or withdraw from the program. You do not have to register if you are granted a leave of absence. The Office of the Registrar determines student registration status. In order to be considered a registered student, a student must:

• Enroll in at least one course, or enroll in a graduate Dissertation/Thesis Research course

You must notify WCGS and the Registrar’s Office if you wish to withdraw, take a leave of absence, or otherwise cease to be registered.

Follow these steps to register for courses:

1. Review current course offerings and other important registration instructions posted here.
1. Fall Term (Quarter I and II) – September to January
2. Spring Term (Quarter III and IV) – January to June
3. Summer Term (Quarter V) – June to September
2. Log into LEARN, the online registration system;
3. Review the Lab Rotation List before registering in LEARN;
4. All PhD new incoming students must register and complete the Responsible Conduct of Research Course (RCRP 9010) during their first Fall Term

All Graduate students must register within the first three weeks of each academic term by logging into the LEARN System. This includes:

1. All PhD students, even those who have completed their required course work and are taking strictly “Dissertation/Thesis Research;”
2. All MD/PhD students who are in their WCGS PhD degree phase, even those who have completed their required coursework and are taking strictly “Dissertation/Thesis Research;”

Anyone that is not full admitted into the Graduate School, but seeking to take a PhD-level course, please contact the Registrar’s Office on how to apply as a Non-Degree Graduate Student.

Students are permitted to audit a course, whereby they regularly attend classes without participating in all graded aspects of the course. Students must obtain approval from the course director and their home department, before they may audit a course. The audited course will appear on the student’s transcript as AU. Deadlines to declare an audit and to add/drop a course are outlined in the academic calendar. Students may not audit a course and later retake the same course for credit. Courses taken as an audit do not fulfill program degree requirements.

The Graduate School does not use a credit or a GPA grading scale. Check with individual Graduate Programs for other grading policies specific to the Program. Presently grades are recorded as follows:

H=Honors; HP=High Pass; LP=Low Pass; P=Pass, F=Fail. I=Incomplete; AUD=Audit; W=Withdrawn, EX=Except; NG=Non-graded Course; WIP=Work in Progress

• Incompletes: A professor may assign an Incomplete to students who do not finish all of the course work by the end of the course, in order to allow time to finish. However, this is at the discretion of the professor. The professor may instead deduct unfinished work from your final course grade.
• Dropping Courses: Review the Academic Calendar for the last day to drop a course without having a Withdrawn posted on a transcript.

Questions or concerns regarding registration? Please contact the Office of the Registrar:
registrar@med.cornell.edu
(646) 962-3470
1300 York Avenue, Room C-114, New York, NY 10065

If a student believes that there is a credible basis to assert that a course evaluation, including examination and narrative assessment, rotation or annual committee report, or grade awarded does not reflect the student’s objective course/laboratory performance, the student must first seek the guidance of the course director or program director, respectively. This must be done within 30 days of the posting of the grade or submission of the report to the student’s file. If a discussion with the course director/program director does not resolve the issue, the student must present the concerns in writing to the Associate Dean of Academic Affairs for a request for review of the grade or evaluation no later than 45 calendar days following the posting of the grade or report. Grades/evaluations may not be appealed after this 45-day deadline has passed. The student should set forth the reasons for his or her request for review of the grade/evaluation. In consultation with the faculty involved, the Associate Dean of Academic Affairs has discretion to request documents and relevant information that would be needed to conduct a full and fair assessment of the evaluation or grade under review. The Dean shall determine a final resolution, and communicate this to the student and to the appropriate course director/PI within 30 days of the request for evaluation/grade review.

 WCGS offers courses and workshops to help students develop their scientific writing (research papers, grant proposals) and presentation skills. Listed below are courses and workshops available to graduate students.

• ACE preparation workshops: various WCGS programs offer workshops to students to prepare for the ACE. e.g., BCMB offers a 3-session series
• Introduction to Scientific Writing seminar by Dean Nathan, offered in November every year (IMP Program specific)
• Art of Written Scientific Communication course by Ushma Neill, MSK Vice President Scientific Education & Training and Teo Pulvirenti, Executive Editor of the Journal of Experimental Medicine. Anticipated 2 to 4 times per year.
• CTSC Skills Acquisition Workshops (Please check News section on the CTSC website)
  1) Writing and publishing high-impact research manuscripts 
  2) Planning and writing successful grant proposals
• Regular workshops for F31 and NSF predoctoral grants by Dr. Xiaoai Chen
  

  Before each NIH F31 and NSF grant submission deadline the Graduate School offers a series of workshops to help students prepare competitive  applications. As part of the workshop series, students can also avail of one-on-one external consultant services  for scientific editing of their proposals.

  See below for outline of the F31 workshop.
  
  
  
  
• Three Minute Thesis: each November, WCGS holds its annual 3MT competition, which is an opportunity for students to hone and demonstrate their ability to communicate their science to a non-specialist audience.