Bi-College Interdisciplinary Neuroscience Program

Haverford’s major and minor in Neuroscience, offered in partnership with Bryn Mawr, is designed for undergraduates interested in exploring the workings of the nervous system and its impact on behavior.

We are a tight-knit program with expansive reach, offering our students close mentorship as well as a broad range of academic and research opportunities. Our core faculty possess expertise in a variety of approaches to neuroscience—from molecular neurobiology, to behavioral neuroscience, to cognitive neuroscience. Active researchers, they are exceptionally committed to engaging students in cutting-edge projects and to helping them discover and hone their interests in this fast-moving field.

Curriculum & Courses

Our curriculum aims to ground students in the field of neuroscience while allowing them to explore the range of interconnected disciplines. All majors must complete an Introduction to Neuroscience course, four foundational science courses, four upper-level neuroscience courses, one credit of laboratory coursework, and a thesis or capstone project. All minors must complete a “gateway” course in Neuroscience, followed by three core neuroscience courses, and at least one course from an affiliated discipline (typically Computer Science, Linguistics, or Philosophy classes). Though not required, minors can choose to enroll in neuroscience-based lab courses.

  • Major Requirements

    • Introduction to Neuroscience (1 credit)
      • NEUR H100
    • Foundational Science Courses (4 credits)
      • 1 semester of General Chemistry (CHEM H111, CHEM H113, CHEM H115, CHEM B103)
      • 1 semester of Introductory Biology (BIOL H200BIOL B110 or BIOL B111)
      • 1 semester of Introductory Psychology (PSYC H100 or PSYC B105)
      • 1 semester of Statistics (PSYC H200, PSYC B205; MATH H103 or MATH H203, MATH B104, or ECON H203
    • Upper-level Neuroscience Courses with Breadth Requirement (4 credits)
      • Students must take 4 credits of upper-level neuroscience courses
      • Upper-level Neuroscience courses are divided into three categories: Cellular/Molecular, Behavioral/Systems, and Cognitive. Students must take courses from at least two of the three categories to fulfil the breadth requirement.
      • A list of approved courses and their categories is linked from the Neuroscience website.
    • Laboratory Coursework in Neuroscience (1 credit)
      • In order to gain hands-on experience with some of the tools, methods, and paradigms of Neuroscience, majors are required to take 1 credit of neuroscience laboratory coursework. This can be accomplished in several ways (e.g., 2 half-credit psych labs, 1 full-credit psych lab, 1 full-credit neuroscience SuperLab).
      • A list of approved laboratory courses is linked from the Neuroscience website.
    • Thesis or Capstone in Neuroscience (1 credit)
      • To culminate their experience as a Neuroscience major, students are required to complete one course of thesis or capstone work. This may take the form of a 2-semester laboratory thesis project or a 1-semester capstone course.
  • Minor Requirements

    • One “gateway” course from the following list:
    • Five additional credits, beyond the gateway course, with these constraints:
      • ​​Three of the five credits must come from the list of approved upper-level neuroscience courses.
      • Two of the five credits must come from the list of approved allied courses.
      • At least one of the credits must be at the 300-level or higher.
      • One of the five credits may come from supervised senior research in neuroscience.
      • No more than two of the six minor credits may come from institutions outside of the Bi-Co.
      • No more than two of the six minor credits may be double-counted towards a major.

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You can find detailed instructions and information on the Application Instructions page. If you need to contact us directly, please send an email to admission@haverford.edu.

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