Career Outcomes

UNC has a long history of training and equipping life science PhD trainees with the skills needed to succeed in a wide array of scientific careers. We are proud to have trainees contributing to the advancement of science through fulfilling careers in many research-intensive and research-related careers in the academic, industry, government, and non-profit sectors.

UNC is consistently ranked in the top 10  among universities in terms of overall research R&D spending, NIH grant funding, and overall federal funding. Since the start of the Biological and Biomedical Sciences Program (BBSP) in 2007, our PhD retention rate is 92.5% – a testament to UNC’s investment in fostering a supportive environment. Similarly, the average time from the first day of new student orientation to PhD graduation ceremony for trainees who enter through BBSP is 5.5 years, far below the national average of 6.9 years (reference).

Alumni Career Placement Data

See below for an interactive tool to explore career placement of UNC life sciences graduates. The data is for roughly 2000 PhD alumni who have graduated since the year 2000 from the life science PhD programs at UNC Chapel Hill. We gather data about our alumni every two years and these data are from the 2021 census.  The positions listed represent the alums’ current position at the time of the most recent alumni census.  (The dashboard may take a moment to load)