Prospective Students
We asked our students: Why NGG? Here’s what they said:
“I chose NGG because I felt the sense of community throughout the interview and accepted students’ visit. Students support each other and are peer advocates. I also liked the wide range of research labs to explore. Finally, I wanted to experience city life, and Philadelphia was just big enough for me!”
— Fernanda Holloman, 3rd year
“NGG had everything I could want and more. There was a great community filled with a wide variety of backgrounds, supportive faculty, great facilities, an endless number of resources, and Philadelphia is a great city to live in. I truly felt supported and motivated I could achieve my goals in this program.”
— Angelina Baltazar, 1st year
“I chose NGG because of the supportive community. Many graduate programs say that they are collaborative and that students support each other, but Penn was the only place that I truly felt this and felt at home!”
— Anna Voss, 3rd year
“All the students, from senior to junior, come together and take care of each other. You always know a familiar face when walking through the halls. That sense of belonging isn’t only there for you during the good times, but there is going to be support for you in the slumps and pitfalls you will find during graduate school.
This is largely a student run program, which is exemplified by GLIA. Through GLIA, you have the opportunity to participate in a wide range of community outreach events both at Penn and in the greater Philadelphia community.
NGG stands by diversity, both in its student body and in research interests. This is not a stagnant program, but one which is constantly looking to find ways to be inclusive and understand the needs of its students.
Overall, I think what you find here is a sense of family paired with a top tier education, which I don’t think you can find anywhere else.”
— Joseph Gallegos, 6th year
“There are hundreds of labs in every possible area of neuroscience; in Core classes, every single lecture is given by an expert in the field.”
“Everyone associated with the program, from PIs to administrators to my fellow grad students, is motivated to support students; it’s the opposite of sink-or-swim.”
– Hannah Shoenhard, recent graduate
“One of the reasons I really love Penn is that they like having larger classes and getting people from really diverse backgrounds. They want computational, molecular, e. phys, and behavior people all to be represented in each cohort. There’s always someone I can go to when I have questions outside my field.”
“Community outreach is also a huge emphasis, and that was really appealing to me. NGG as a group is rather self-selecting in that we work really hard, but we very much believe in having lives outside of grad school.”
– Julia Kahn, recent graduate
“My cohort has been one of the best parts of NGG so far - they are really cool, fun, and interesting people from all over the world, and I have been really enjoying getting to know them. The classes have been really interesting so far, and the professors genuinely care about their students actually learning rather than just doing well on exams. Many of the PIs I have spoken to about rotations have been incredibly welcoming and do very interesting research. I am excited about all of my rotations!”
– Carly Seligman, 1st year
“NGG is great because the students here are so excited to become involved and STAY involved even as they age through the program. The faculty and administration are very easy to talk to and, while there may at times be disagreements, I think that NGG admin has the students best interests at heart.”
– Jafar Bhatti, 3rd year
Want more info?
Contact a student! We’ll make sure your question gets to the person best qualified to answer your questions or address your concerns.
Are you a URM applying to UPenn’s Neuroscience Graduate Program?
To increase the diversity and equity efforts of the Neuroscience Graduate Group, NGG’s Action Against Bias (AAB) committee is implementing the URM Application Support Program available for underrepresented minority (URM) applicants to submit their CV and/or research statement to one faculty member and one graduate student for review. NIH has identified the following groups as underrepresented minorities in biomedical research: Black/African American, Hispanic/Latinx, American Indian/Alaska Native, Pacific Islanders. We are expanding this definition to include first generation, low-income, neurodivergent, and disabled applicants.
The purpose of this program is not to “pre-screen” applicants, but to provide URM applicants with the mentorship and resources that they may lack to prepare a competitive PhD application. Once responding to this form, applicants will be paired with a current NGG student or faculty member and have the opportunity to send them either their CV and/or research statement.