Your degree will be a Master of Science in Biological Sciences, with a Specialization in Bioinformatics.
The department of Biological Sciences offers a Ph.D. degree. This degree requires a significant amount of original research, conducted under the direction of one of the department's faculty. There is no specific bioinformatics Ph.D. program, but you can study with one of the bioinformatics faculty. If you like, you can also get a Certificate of Graduate Study in Bioinformatics during your time in the Ph.D. program. Please look below for more details on the Certificate program.
Bioinformatics is a mixture of biology and computer science. Most students enter the program without a sufficient background in one of these fields, and they need to take lower-level "deficiency" courses during their time in the program. Having a deficiency is not an obstacle for admission.
Before entering the program you must have taken the equivalent of 2 junior-level biology courses: BIOS 300, Cell Biology and BIOS 308, Genetics. In addition, you must take the equivalent of two computer science classes: CSCI 240, Computer Programming in C; and CSCI 241, Intermediate Programming in C and C++. The computer science classes are considered deficiencies, courses which may be taken early in your time in the bioinformatics program. Please note that courses numbered below 400 don't count toward the 30 hours of credit needed to graduate from the bioinformatics program.
You will need to complete both BIOS 300 and BIOS 308 before you can enroll in the first bioinformatics course, BIOS 545.
Note that both of the biology courses have pre-requisites of their own. A prospective student with no biology training would be advised to take an introductory biology sequence, and introductory chemistry sequence, and an organic chemistry sequence before entering the program. These courses can be taken at NIU, but they are also available at most community colleges.
The computer science courses can also be taken at community colleges. Please note that we require programming-intensive courses; lecture-only courses, or "short" courses will generally not be acceptable. Practical computer programming experience may be substituted as the department's discretion.
In general we discourage starting the program at times other than the Fall semester.
Both of these courses involve individual research projects. An Independent Study project is pursued with the guidance on an NIU faculty member. Independent Study projects generally involve extensive computer programming, and thus they can be started only after you take BIOS 546. Cooperative Education projects are pursued at a location off the NIU campus, with a private company or government lab. You will need to arrange most of the details yourself, and your supervisor will need to file a report with the NIU Bioinformatics coordinator at the end of your project.
For students with a biology background, we prefer a bachelor's degree with an emphasis on the genetics, cell, molecular, and biochemical aspects of biology. However, other types of degree are acceptable. We look more favorably upon applications that show course work in the listed fields and in computer science.
Most of our financial aid is in the form of teaching assistantships, which will require you to teach 2-3 sections of a biology lab course, under the guidance of the lab instructor. These assistantships are given on a competitive basis among all the biology graduate students. Most assistantships are awarded during the Spring semester, and they start in the Fall (about August 15). Thus, if you want financial aid, it is imperative that you apply by February 15!
There are also a small number of tuition waivers granted every year. These are awarded at the same time as the teaching assistantships. Research assistantships are only awarded by individual faculty members, and generally only to students who are already at NIU and who have demonstrated their abilities.
NIU's Computer Science department cooperates with the Bioinformatics program by allowing our students to take CSCI 240, CSCI 241, and CSCI 330 (The Unix System). Upper level classes (above 400) require you to take CSCI 360 (Computer Programming in Assembler Language) as a pre-requisite. Most of our students don't do this, as it is difficult to fit into an already full schedule.
Computer science classes are programming-intensive: homework assignments are due almost every week, and every assignment will require 10-20 hours of work to complete. The classes themselves involve 3 hours of lecture and 1 hour of recitation (which is compulsory) per week.
Much current bioinformatics work is done on microorganisms, which have small, easily sequenced genomes. A student interested in this field should take BIOS 535, Molecular Genetics of Prokaryotes, as part of his/her program. This course has a pre-requisite of BIOS 313, Microbiology, in addition to the other bioinformatics deficiency classes.
Your schedule needs to be discussed with the bioinformatics advisor, but here are some facts that need to be considered.
A Certificate of Graduate Study is a new concept at NIU: it is issued to students who have completed approximately one year of prescribed course work. The requirements for a Certificate in Bioinformatics are listed here (link). Students studying for the certificate can be graduate students in the Biology department or another department, or they can be "students-at-large". A student-at-large is a person taking graduate courses for credit who has not been formally admitted to the NIU Graduate School. If you wish to enter the Certificate program as a student-at-large, you will need to register with the Graduate School, which can be done on-lin or through the mail. This procedure requires you to submit an application, including a transcript showing that you hold an undergraduate degree. Financial aid is not available to students in the Certificate program. At the completion of your studies, the Bioinformatics advisor will send a letter to the Graduate School, which issues the Certificate.
You must apply to the bioinformatics program through the NIU Gradute School. Applications can be obtained here. Here is a link to the NIU main home page. It takes several weeks for applications to reach the Biology department, so please be patient!