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 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)
• BIOL 182 - Molecules, Cells, and Genes (normally completed before the end of the second year)
• PSYC 309 - Quantitative Methods in Behavioral Research  or  BIOL 320 - Biostatistics  
• NEUR 498 - Senior Thesis

Core Electives

One of the following

• NEUR 201 - Strategies & Discoveries in Neuroscience

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 COSC 101L 
• MATH 214 - Linear Algebra
• MATH 315 - Mathematical Biology
• PHIL 225 - Logic I
• PHYS 112 - Fundamental Physics II and PHYS 112L 
• Any 300-level psychological science course (excluding PSYC 309, PSYC 300NE, or those crosslisted as NEUR)

General Electives

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

Cellular & Molecular Neuroscience

• NEUR 376/ PSYC 376 - Functional Neuroanatomy and Neural Development
• NEUR 379/PSYC 379 - Fundamentals of Neurochemistry/Neuropharmacology  and NEUR 379L/PSYC 379L 
• NEUR 381/PSYC 381 - Behavioral Genetics  
• BIOL 384/NEUR 384 - Fundamentals of Neurophysiology  
• BIOL 385/NEUR 385/PSYC 385 - Neuroethology   and BIOL 385L/NEUR 385L/PSYC 385L 
• BIOL 389/NEUR 389 - Molecular Neurobiology   

Systems Neuroscience

• NEUR 353/PSYC 353 - Visual Perception and Cognition   
• NEUR 355/PSYC 355 - Language and Thought    
• NEUR 374 - Computational Neuroscience
• NEUR 375/PSYC 375 - Cognitive Neuroscience   
• NEUR 377/PSYC 377 - Psychopharmacology   

Senior Thesis

NEUR 498 - 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 NEUR 498 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 NEUR 498 in the fall and NEUR 491 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 must be received for a course to satisfy a major requirement.

Honors and High Honors

Students interested in pursuing honors can find the additional requirements on the Neuroscience program page.

Neuroscience Program

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