Academic Information for BMI students
Stanford Academic Calendar (for all matriculated students)
BMI Student Journal Club series (attendance is required for BMI students) - held every Tuesday 12:15-1:15 PM in Lusted Library (x-275), MSOB
Where to find Course Listings and Class Descriptions
The Registrar's Office maintains the Stanford Bulletin, the course listings and class descriptions for the University. The registrar's office also maintains the new Explore Courses site: http://explorecourses.stanford.edu/CourseSearch/
The School of Medicine maintains the medical school course catalog . Some of these courses are listed in the Bulletin but others are reserved for medical students and are not listed in the Bulletin. Some courses are open to non-medical students if there is space available. Check the description for each class and contact the course instructor as necessary.
The Stanford Center for Professional Development maintains the course catalog for all University courses which are available via the Internet. If you are a matriculated Stanford student, you can see the lecture videos at https://myvideosu.stanford.edu. To view lectures from previous quarters
Read about our the BMI distance education programs at this website. If you need help finding courses for the BMI program contact the BMI Program.
The School of Medicine also tapes courses and maintains an archive of class lectures. If you are a BMI HCP student you are allowed to enroll for these courses. However, it is not a given that you will be allowed to enroll in the class as a remote student. The SOM does not maintain a list of courses with all lectures taped vs. courses which offer multi-media supplemental material. Contact the instructor for each class to request permission. You will find some resources to access these courses using the Curriculum Web Portal (CWP). The SOM is migrating resources off CWP. Classes will be supported by Coursework.
Course listings for the other Schools, including the Law School and Graduate School of Business can be found at the websites for each individual school. Some courses in these schools are especially suitable for the Social and Ethical Issues class requirement for the BMI program.
Where to find Advice about courses
Each BMI student will have an academic advisor assigned before they arrive on campus.
In addition, discussions with senior students are invaluable as class content changes rapidly. Some of the students have posted comments about courses on the BMI student WIKI (see the left-hand navigation bar under "For Current Students"). If you are having trouble locating someone who has taken a class, contact the student Czars (see Student Life)and place a request to poll the BMI student body via one of the internal mailing lists or to organize a student discussion around this topic.
More generally, Stanford students have found endless ways to share opinions about courses. Solutions abound and it is a question of how you prefer to connect. Courserank is a student-initiated and University supported site (for now). There are other, more unofficial sites and venues. It is beyond the scope of this site to track all the various means and methods.
For all First Year Students
Advisors
Every student is assigned an academic advisor upon entrance to the program. You will plan your course of study with your academic advisor through a series of meetings held regularly over the academic year. Plan to meet with your academic advisor about one month before the start of the quarter in order to form your study list.
Coterminal MS students will need to meet with their undergraduate AND graduate academic advisor. See the page "BMI coterms" on the left hand navigation bar.
Your second advisor is your research advisor. You will have the opportunity to participate in research rotations to help identify your research advisor. Your academic advisor will also help direct your attention to faculty members with research projects that coincide with your interests. There are numerous seminars where appropriate faculty present their work. This is the fastest, most general method of finding active projects in your area of interest.
Study List
Register for courses by submitting your Study List on Axess. The Academic Calendar lists the deadline every quarter. Failure to submit your study list has serious consequences. It will affect your standing in the program (you will not be listed as an "active" student), stop your stipend, your health insurance, your tuition and incur fines. If you are unsure about a class, it is better to sign up for the class and submit the list early. You can add or drop courses after the study list deadline.
Coterminal MS students will need to be cautious about adding courses to either their "graduate" career or their "undergraduate" career using the study list. However, if you do make a mistake, this can be corrected by submitting a form to the Registrar's Office.
If a class is cross-listed in two or more departments and one of them is Biomedical Informatics, you will need to register for the class using the "biomedin" course code.
General Class Requirements
Full time students will need to sign up for 10 units of courses per quarter in order to fulfill the residency requirements for the MS or PhD. Coterms will probably need to sign up for more than 10 units. If you don't need to sign up for a formal class, you may sign up for Biomedin 299 Directed Reading and Research to earn credit for your research.
Students are required to sign up for seminar units - one unit of Biomedin 201 and one other unit from a relevant seminar series (such as Biomedin 200 or Biomedin 205 or other).
In order for a class to fulfill a degree requirement, you must take it for a grade. If a class is offered pass/fail, then ask for an informal grade from the instructor or TA at the beginning of the quarter. The instructor can email the grade to the Student Services Officer stating that "had this class offered grades, you would have earned a grade of --."
National Science Foundation Graduate Fellowships
First Year PhD students: Start looking into this - you are required to submit an application in your second year.
Second Year PhD students who are eligible (US citizens or permanent residents) must apply for the National Science Foundation fellowship and First Year PhD students may apply, if they wish. The deadline is usually around November.
This is a competitive fellowship program which can be considered a real feather in a student's cap and CV, if the student is awarded the fellowship. In addition, it sometimes can be deferred and then used after a current fellowship runs out. It is an excellent chance to get grant-writing experience.
Class Waivers - Due in Autumn Quarter
Many students enter the BMI program with courses that are equivalent to some of the required courses in the BMI curriculum. Each student should review their previous training with their academic advisor and identify courses with high equivalency. Course descriptions or syllabi are especially useful if these are still available. The student should compose a request for class waivers addressed to the BMI executive committee which explains why the courses are equivalent. Please submit the request to Mary Jeanne Oliva, the Student Services Officer. She will collate all the requests and respond once the committee has completed its review.
The Semi-Annual Progress Reports
You will find links to the semi-annual progress report forms and instructions at "Current Students->Forms" or "Current Students->Degree Milestones". These progress reports are due every year in January and June. You will need to schedule a meeting(s )with your advisor(s). Since some faculty have very tight schedules, ask for a meeting 3 months ahead of time. For very busy faculty, you may have to schedule a back-up time just in case.
Due to the nature of this program, these progress reports are the only way for us to assess your performance. There are unfortunate consequences if you fail to file a progress report. Until the report is filed, your status is "failure to progress towards the degree". If you miss two progress reports, then the BMI executive committee will take action including expulsion from the program. If you are missing any reports, you will not be allowed to proceed with your qualifying exam, pre-proposal, proposal defense or final talk. Your travel funds will be suspended (except for mandated travel to the NLM training meeting) from the time of the missing report until six (6) months after the submission of the report.
If, for reasons beyond your control, you cannot file your report on time, please contact the Student Services Officer.
Research Rotations
All Academic MS and PhD students are required to participate in two (2) research rotations during the first year. For PhD students, a third research rotation is optional.
Summary
The requirements for the program are diverse and explanations are spread throughout this webpage. A summary description of all the requirements can be found on the "Degree Milestones" page.
