Microbiology and Immunology (M&I) is one of the Stanford Biosciences home programs that cooperatively train graduate students in the biosciences. Within this collaborative network, students can apply up to three programs and then enter through one. The “home” program serves as the student’s home from which to explore all that Stanford has to offer. Research rotations can be done in any bioscience lab in the University (a total of over 280!) but one must be done in a lab that is part of the home program; in our case, that means over 25 faculty. The final thesis lab is chosen based on these research rotations and while most student ends up staying in the original home program, those who discover a new passion during rotations can transfer to a different home program or simply stay within the M&I home and do their thesis work outside the Department (assuming their thesis work will bear at least some connection to our discipline). In the autumn of their second year, students take their qualifying exam, an on-topic oral defense based on research that a student will be working on at Stanford. In the spring of this same year, each student presents a research proposal that will form the basis of the PhD thesis. All students are required to obtain some teaching experience, usually by serving as a teaching assistant in at least one department course. The normal time for completion of the PhD is about 5 to 5.5 years.

Academic Advising
The Department is committed to providing academic advising in support of graduate student scholarly and professional development. This advising relationship involves collaborative and sustained engagement by both the adviser and student and expectations should be periodically discussed and reviewed to ensure mutual understanding, professionalism and integrity.

Faculty advisors guide students in key areas such as applicable courses, designing and conducting research, developing of teaching pedagogy, navigating policies and degree requirements, and exploring academic opportunities and professional pathways.

Graduate students are also active contributors to the advising relationship, proactively seeking academic and professional guidance and taking responsibility for being informed of policies and degree requirements for their graduate program. Find out more about Graduate Student Academic Advising.