The goal of the DG graduate program is to promote a high level of student achievement in a supportive and interactive environment. The graduate program administration, the student's research advisor and a faculty advisory committee play an active role in supervising and guiding the student. During the first year, graduate students meet regularly with one of the Program Directors to discuss course choices and laboratory rotations. Each student is also assigned a first year faculty mentor. The first year faculty mentor is a contact person for the students within the program. The mentor will provide the students with information about the different labs in the program to facilitate choosing a rotation lab and about course offers and requirements. The mentor may also discuss the student’s interests in choosing a lab for Ph.D. training. The mentor should be ‘independent' and will likely be a person in whose lab the student has not chosen to do a rotation. The mentor should be a general contact person and should be open to provide scientific and more personal advice about doing research, being a student and life in NY.

After laboratory rotations, each student chooses the laboratory of a DG faculty member. This research advisor supervises the student's independent laboratory research. The student in consultation with the research advisor and the graduate advisor/director chooses a Faculty Advisory Committee, the composition of which is dictated by the department in which the student resides. In general, members of the committee can be chosen from the faculty of the Department of Biology at NYU and the Sackler faculty. The faculty composition of the committee for the preliminary exam and the subsequent thesis committees can but does not need to be the same. After the preliminary exam, the thesis advisory committee meets at least once a year or as determined during the Committee meeting. Once a student has set up and met with his/her thesis committee, which is normally at the end of the 2nd year, at the time of the preliminary exam, the thesis committee members will take over the function of the initial faculty mentor. The members of the Faculty Advisory Committee take active participation in student mentoring and offer the student advice and different points of view. Furthermore, the faculty mentors can provide independent and in-depth evaluation of the student.