Video: [1 min 23 sec]

Swarthmore students have direct access to faculty research opportunities. Stephen, a Neuroscience major, explains what it was like for him to collaborate with a Biology professor on her neuron research.

The Departments of Psychology and Biology offer a course major and an honors major in Neuroscience. Applications for this special major must be submitted to both departments. Each Neuroscience major will be assigned a primary advisor from whichever of the two departments best reflects the focus of that student's plan of study.

A. Entry Requirements for the Neuroscience Course Major and Honors Major

The study of Neuroscience involves advanced coursework with the following prerequisites. For admission to the Neuroscience special major, students must

a. complete (or otherwise satisfy) the following required courses (up to two credits of these taken at Swarthmore may be counted as Group B electives for the major), and

b. obtain a minimum GPA of 3.0 (B) for these courses overall, as well as within all Biology courses and within all Psychology courses.

Biology BIOL 001: Cellular and Molecular Biology

BIOL 002: Organismal and Population Biology

Chemistry CHEM 010: General Chemistry

CHEM 022: Organic Chemistry I

Math/Stat MATH 015: Elementary Single-Variable Calculus

STAT 011: Statistical Methods

Psychology PSYC 001: Introduction to Psychology

PSYC 025: Research Design and Analysis

The requirement for BIOL 001 and/or BIOL 002 may be satisfied by credit from the Biology AP exam (score of 5) if at least one credit in Biology has been completed at Swarthmore.

The requirement for CHEM 010 will be satisfied if the student has placed out of it and completed CHEM 022.

The requirements for MATH 015 and STAT 011 may be satisfied by placement out of these courses, as determined by the Department of Mathematics and Statistics

The requirement for PSYC 001 may be satisfied with a Psychology AP exam score of 5.

Provisional admission to the special major will normally be granted based on substantial progress in satisfying these entry requirements at the time of application.

B. Neuroscience Course Major Requirements

A special major at Swarthmore must include at least 10 credits and no more than 12 credits. A Neuroscience major will normally include two (2) Entry Requirement Courses (i.e., any two that have been taken at Swarthmore) and eight (8) Elective credits as specified below, including fulfilling the comprehensive requirement. Up to twelve credits may be included in the major, but only ten are required.

1. Electives

Majors will complete at least eight (8) elective credits from the following lists, to include at least one seminar. At least five (5) elective credits must be from Group A including at least one Foundation course and at least one course from each of Psychology and Biology. The remaining three (3) credits can be from either Group A, Group B, or Group C (see restrictions below). It is possible to substitute or add electives from other universities (e.g., Systems Neuroscience at UPenn), including abroadbut students should seek Swarthmore faculty approval for such courses in advance.

Group A: Neuroscience Electives

PSYC 030 Behavioral Neuroscience[Foundation Course*]

BIOL 022 Neurobiology [Foundation Course*]

BIOL 011 Epigenetics (spring 2015 ONLY)

BIOL 020 Animal Physiology

BIOL 029 Developmental Neurobiology

BIOL 030 Animal Behavior

BIOL 120 Sleep and Circadian Rhythms seminar (2 credits)

BIOL 123 Learning and Memory seminar (2 credits)

BIOL 124 Hormones and Behavior seminar (2 credits)

BIOL 131 Animal Communication seminar (2 credits)

BIOL 134 Evolution of Social Behavior (2 credits)

PSYC 031 Cognitive Neuroscience

PSYC 031A Social, Cognitive, and Affective Neuroscience

PSYC 032 Perception

PSYC 091 Advanced Topics in Behavioral Neuroscience

PSYC 130 Behavioral Neuroscience seminar (1 credit)

PSYC 131 Seminar in Cognitive Neuroscience (1 credit seminar)

PSYC 131A Psychology and Neuroscience: The Social Brain (1 credit seminar)

PSYC 132 Perception, Cognition, and Embodiment seminar (1 credit)

*At least one Foundation Course must be included. Both are recommended.

Group B: Course Electives in Related/Overlapping Scientific Areas

BIOL 010 Genetics

BIOL 014 Cell Biology

BIOL 019 Omics

BIOL 021 Comparative Vertebrate Anatomy

BIOL 024 Developmental Biology

BIOL 026 Invertebrate Biology

BIOL 034 Evolution

BIOL/CPSC 068 Bioinformatics

BIOL 110 Human Genetics seminar (2 credits)

BIOL 112 From Cells to Organs (2 credits)

BIOL 125 Frontiers in Developmental Biology seminar (2 credits)

BIOL 119 Genomics and Systems Biology seminar (2 credits)

BIOL 126 Biomechanics seminar (2 credits)

BIOL 136 Molecular Ecology and Evolution seminar (2 credits)

CHEM 038 Biological Chemistry

COGS 001 Introduction to Cognitive Science

CPSC 021 Introduction to Computer Science

MATH 056 Modeling

PSYC 033 Cognitive Psychology

PSYC 034 Psychology of Language

PSYC 035 Social Psychology

PSYC 036 Thinking, Judgment & Decision Making

PSYC 038 Clinical Psychology

PSYC 039 Developmental Psychology

PSYC 133 Metaphor and Mind seminar (1 credit)

PSYC 134 Psycholinguistics seminar (1 credit)

PSYC 138 Clinical Psychology seminar (1 credit)

PSYC 139 Developmental Psychology seminar (1 credit)

Group C: Research Electives

One unit of research (of up to 2 credits) in neuroscience from the following may be counted toward the minimum required 10 credits of the major. Additional research units may be counted for optional credits up to 12. Research electives are one way of fulfilling the comprehensive requirement (see below) for the Neuroscience major.

BIOL 098 Neuroscience Thesis Research

PSYC 096/097 Senior Thesis (2 credits)

PSYC099 Senior Neuroscience Thesis

PSYC 102 Research Practicum in Perception and Cognition

PSYC 103 Research Practicum in Behavioral Neuropharmacology

PSYC 104 Research Practicum in Mind and Language

PSYC 105 Research Practicum in Psychology and Neuroscience

PSYC 110 Research Practicum in Cognitive Neuroscience

2. Comprehensive Requirement

The comprehensive requirement is a Neuroscience Research Thesis, a complete scientific paper based on a research project conducted in Biology or Psychology or some other area related to neuroscience. The Research Thesis may either (1) be a research paper from a Group C elective, or (2) be based on a separate research project, such as might occur during a summer (whether at Swarthmore or at another institution) or as part of a laboratory project in a Neuroscience Elective (e.g., a 2-credit Biology seminar *).

In either case, a proposal will be submitted no later than the beginning of the senior year that explains the student's plan for conducting or completing the comprehensive requirement. If option 2 is selected, the proposal must be detailed. Upon approval of an option 2 proposal, students will register for a 0.5 credit unit of Neuroscience Thesis during either (but not both) semester of the senior year.; a 2-credit thesis will be evaluated by two faculty members, typically from two different departments.

*Students in Biology seminars often work on group projects and sometimes produce multi-authored research papers. Such a project may serve as the basis of a Neuroscience Research Thesis, but the paper must be a unique product of the student who submits it as his/her Thesis.

Neuroscience Research Thesis: Guidelines for content and organization.

The thesis should be organized in the format of a formal scientific paper, including the following sections: abstract, introduction, materials and methods, results, discussion, acknowledgments, and literature cited.

The thesis should report new empirical data on a research project that was conducted by the student.

As the comprehensive exercise for an interdisciplinary special major, students should endeavor to explain their scientific question(s) and how their work is related to larger questions or themes in neuroscience in the thesis introduction and/or discussion.

The length of the thesis is to be no more than 20 pages, double-spaced (exclusive of figures, tables, and references).

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