Neuroscience Major

Major Requirements

The Neuroscience curriculum is organized into three sets of courses, namely a common core set of courses and two sets of elective courses. 

Entrance into Major

• Students must complete NEUR 170 - Introduction to Neuroscience to be eligible to enter the major.

Core Requirements

• NEUR 170 - Introduction to Neuroscience (should be completed by the end of the second year)
• CHEM 101 - General Chemistry I (normally completed in the fall of the first year)
• CHEM 102 - General Chemistry II (normally completed in the spring of the first year)
   Eligible students may take  and  in place of the CHEM 101 and CHEM 102 requirement
• BIOL 182 - Molecules, Cells, and Genes (normally completed before the end of the second year)
• NEUR 201 - Strategies & Discoveries in Neuroscience
• PSYC 309 - Quantitative Methods in Behavioral Research  or  
  PSYC 309 is ideally taken by the end of the junior year; if necessary, it may be taken in the fall of the senior year.
• NEUR 498 - Senior Thesis

Core Electives

Courses fulfilling this requirement have an attribute of NECE in the course offerings.

One of the following:

• Any 300-level biology course (excluding courses based in Ecology and those listed as neuroscience core or general electives)
• CHEM 263 - Organic Chemistry I
• COSC 101 - Introduction for Computing I and  
• MATH 214 - Linear Algebra
• MATH 315 - Mathematical Biology
• PHIL 225 - Logic I
• PHYS 112 - Fundamental Physics II and  
• Any 300-level psychological science course (excluding , , or those crosslisted as NEUR)

General Electives

Three courses from the following, with at least one taken from each cluster:

Cellular & Molecular Neuroscience

Courses fulfilling this requirement have an attribute of NECM in the course offerings.

• / PSYC 376 - Functional Neuroanatomy
• NEUR 378 - Topics in Neuroscience (when it carries the NECM attribute)
• /  
• NEUR 380 - Neuroimmunology
• / 
• / 
• // and // 
• /        

Systems Neuroscience

Courses fulfilling this requirement have an attribute of NESN in the course offerings.

• /  
• /   
• NEUR 374 - Computational Neuroscience
• /  
• /  
• NEUR 378 - Topics in Neuroscience (when it carries the NESN attribute)

Senior Thesis

 (one semester) must be taken in the fall or spring of the senior year. During the spring semester of the junior year, students will be asked to identify several areas of interest for their senior-year research experience. Students are then assigned to faculty research supervisors and assigned to the fall or spring semester sections based upon students' interests and the availability of resources.

Students planning honors research are required to enroll in  in the fall of the senior year, followed by NEUR 499 in the spring of the senior year. On occasion, students who are not pursuing honors or high honors may complete two semesters of senior research by taking  in the fall and  in the spring.

GPA Requirement

An overall GPA of at least 2.00 is required in all courses counting toward the neuroscience major. A passing grade (D- or higher) must be received for a course to satisfy a major requirement.

Honors and High Honors

The requirements for achieving honors and high honors in neuroscience are as follows:

Honors

• Overall GPA of 3.30 or better
• Major GPA of 3.50 or better, calculated across all courses counting toward the major
• A two-semester independent research project of high quality ( and ) 
• Satisfactory oral examination performance on the subject matter of the senior thesis and related fields

High Honors

• Overall GPA of 3.50 or better
• Major GPA of 3.70 or better, calculated across all courses counting toward the major
• A two-semester independent research project of very high quality ( and )
• An oral examination performance that demonstrates mastery of the senior thesis and related fields

Neuroscience Program

For more information about the department, including Faculty, transfer credit, awards, etc., please visit the  catalog page.