The institute sets the policies for its admissions, curriculum, stipend levels, student evaluations and Ph.D. requirements.
In the Chronicle of Higher Education's 2007 Faculty Scholarly Productivity Index, the Vilcek Institute ranked as the number 8 Biomedical Sciences program, nationally.
[2] Vilcek Institute's degree programs are: In their first year, all students take half of their course work in a core curriculum (biochemistry, cellular and molecular biology, cell signaling, bio-informatics and genetics) and the remainder in a wide variety of electives.
At the end of the second year, Vilcek students must also pass qualifying examinations before moving on to thesis research.
Following allegations of mass addiction caused by the promotion of opioids by the Sackler family and associated companies, NYU announces that "continuing to use the Sackler name as inconsistent with our institution’s values and incompatible with our mission, which is dedicated to patient care, education, and research to improve human health.