Sophomores declaring a molecular biology major

The MOL Sophomore Open House is Thursday, March 21, 2024 at 4:30pm in Lewis Thomas Lab 118.


The 2024 concentration declaration period is March 28-April 15. If you plan to major in Molecular Biology, there are two steps you must take before you can meet with a MOL Academic Adviser for course advising. It doesn't matter in which order you complete these two steps:

1) Declare MOL as your concentration in Tigerhub. The following day you will have access to the Departmental Academic Planning Form (DAPF). The Office of the Registrar will email you a link through which you can take care of this step.

2) Declare your concentration to our department so that we can assign an Academic Adviser to you. Click here to fill out a short form. The MOL Undergraduate Administrator will generally email you your Academic Adviser assignment within a day after you complete this step. You will receive information on how to contact your Academic Adviser using Microsoft Bookings or another platform. Be sure to submit your completed Departmental Academic Planning Form (DAPF) in TigerHub before meeting with the Academic Adviser.

Choosing a Thesis Adviser

In September of your junior year, the MOL department will host two meetings which will go over the thesis adviser selection process and independent work. Thesis adviser selection takes place in October-November. Students meet with different faculty over a period of weeks, after which they each submit a rank order form. The MOL DUS will match students accordingly and assignments will be announced in early December.

Junior Tutorials

Each MOL junior will be enrolled in a Junior Tutorial. In the Fall, Junior Tutorials, led by postdoctoral instructors, are held once a week for 1.5 hours and are broken into two segments, each with a distinct topic area. At the end of each 4-week segment, students write a short critique of a relevant research paper assigned by the instructor. [Please note that Junior Tutorials are not considered courses and do not count toward satisfying departmental course requirements. However, they are a moderate time commitment and are a requirement of the degree.] 

Over the summer, concentrators in the MOL Class of 2026 will receive an email with instructions on how to designate their Junior Tutorial preferences. More information on Junior Tutorials here.

MOL Academic Advisers:

Dr. Fred Hughson, [email protected]

Dr. Jodi Schottenfeld-Roames, [email protected]

Dr. Tom Silhavy, [email protected] 

Dr. Jared Toettcher, [email protected] 

MOL Undergraduate Administrator: Katie Pyott, [email protected]