The Graduate School of Arts and Sciences offers a variety of PhD programs in the life sciences that allow students to pursue cutting-edge research with the close supervision of NYU’s internationally recognized research faculty. For more information on offerings and the PhD admissions process, visit the GSAS PhD programs webpage.

The tables below contain data from five GSAS PhD programs for the years 2016-2020:

Read on for information on admissions, completion rates, enrollment, and time to degree.

(Note: In the tables that follow, any value less than five is indicated as "N/A.")

Admissions Selectivity

Biology

Term
Applied For
Applicants Admits Matriculants Selectivity
Rate
Yield
Rate
Fall 2016 177 37 12 21% 32%
Fall 2017 139 35 13 25% 37%
Fall 2018 151 39 12 26% 31%
Fall 2019 194 42 15 22% 36%
Fall 2020 200 34 19 17% 56%

Cognition & Perception

Term Applied For Applicants Admits Matriculants Selectivity Rate Yield Rate
Fall 2016 102 17 10 17% 59%
Fall 2017 124 16 7 13% 44%
Fall 2018 128 21 11 16% 52%
Fall 2019 134 24 12 18% 50%
Fall 2020 169 19 12 11% 63%

Environmental Health Sciences

Term Applied For Applicants Admits Matriculants Selectivity Rate Yield Rate
Fall 2016 66 24 10 36% 42%
Fall 2017 N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A
Fall 2018 N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A
Fall 2019 24 10 5 42% 50%
Fall 2020 18 10 8 56% 80%

Neural Science

Term Applied For Applicants Admits Matriculants Selectivity Rate Yield Rate
Fall 2016 435 20 8 5% 40%
Fall 2017 485 20 7 4% 35%
Fall 2018 495 19 8 4% 42%
Fall 2019 478 21 7 4% 33%
Fall 2020 445 18 8 4% 44%

Completion Rates

Completion Rates by Program

Program Students Completed PhD Completion Rate
Biology 47 31 66%
Cognition & Perception 43 36 84%
Computational Biology 8 7 88%
Environmental Health Sciences
36 27 75%
Neural Science 37 30 54%

Program Completion Rates - Female

Program Enrolled Entry Cohort Headcount
Completed PhD Completion Rate
Biology 27 17 63%
Cognition & Perception 24 20 83%
Computational Biology N/A N/A N/A
Environmental Health Sciences 19 15 79%
Neural Science 15 8 53%

Program Completion Rates - Male

Program Enrolled Entry Cohort Headcount
Completed PhD Completion Rate
Biology
20 14 70%
Cognition & Perception 19 16 84%
Computational Biology N/A N/A N/A
Environmental Health Sciences 17 12 71%
Neural Science 22 12 55%

Enrollment

Enrollment by Demographic Groups

Program US Minorities Other US/Unknown International Grand Total
Biology 13 44 54 111
Cognition & Perception 8 40 35 83
Computational Biology N/A N/A N/A N/A
Environmental Health Sciences
N/A N/A N/A N/A
Neural Science 10 41 33 84

Enrollment by Demographics Distribution

Program US Minorities Other US/Unknown International Grand Total
Biology 12% 40% 49% 100%
Cognition & Perception 10% 48% 42% 100%
Computational Biology N/A N/A N/A N/A
Environmental Health Sciences
N/A N/A N/A N/A
Neural Science 12% 49% 39% 100%

Enrollment by Sex

Program Female Male Total
Biology 58 (52%) 53 (48%) 111 (100%)
Cognition & Perception 51 (61%) 32 (39%) 83 (100%)
Computational Biology N/A N/A N/A
Environmental Health Sciences
31 (57%) 23 (43%) 54 (100%
Neural Science 33 (39%) 51 (61%) 84 (100%)

Time to Degree (in years)

Median Time to Degree by Program

Number of degrees awarded per year is in parentheses

Program 2014 & 2015 2016 & 2017 2018 & 2019
Biology 6.294 (19) 6.115 (16) 5.936 (17)
Cognition & Perception
5.298 (15) 4.939 (19) 4.958 (19)
Computational Biology
N/A
5.692 (5) N/A
Environmental Health Sciences
4.936 (17) 4.939 (19) 5.298 (11)
Neural Science 5.692 (11) 5.936 (9) 5.711 (17)

Median Time to Degree in Each Program, by Sex

Number of degrees awarded per year is in parentheses

Program Female Male Average Total
Biology 6.3 (32) 6.1 (20) 6.3 (52)
Cognition & Perception 5.0 (30) 5.0 (23) 5.0 (53)
Computational Biology 5.7 (6) 5.5 (6) 5.7 (12)
Environmental Health Science
4.8 (28) 5.9 (19) 4.9 (47)
Neural Science 5.7 (19) 5.9 (18) 5.9 (37)

Median Time to Degree by Demographic Group*

Number of degrees awarded per year is in parentheses

Demographic Group
2014 & 2015 2016 & 2017 2018 & 2019
US Minorities 6.3 (9) 5.7 (9) 5.9 (16)
Other US/Unknown 5.7 (86) 5.9 (76) 5.9 (71)
International 5.7 (32) 5.7 (50) 5.7 (57)
Grand Total
5.7 (127) 5.7 (135) 5.9 (144)

*This data represents combined data from Vilcek disciplines and GSAS programs.