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Program Requirements and Opportunities

The information listed below is a direct excerpt from the 2013-14 Course Catalog.

Published annually, the Course Catalog sets out the requirements of the academic programs--the majors, minors, and concentrations. Each Bryn Mawr student must declare her major before the end of her sophomore year. Students may also declare a minor or a concentration, but neither is required for the A.B. degree. Students must comply with the requirements published in the Course Catalog at the time when they declare the major, minor and/or concentration.

The Course Catalog also sets out the College requirements. Students must comply with the College requirements published at the time they enter Bryn Mawr College.

2012-13 Catalog
2011-12 Catalog
2010-11 Catalog
2009-10 Catalog


The desire to understand human and animal behavior in terms of nervous system structure and function is long standing. Historically, this task has been approached from a variety of disciplines including medicine, biology, psychology, philosophy and physiology. The field of neuroscience emerged as an interdisciplinary approach, combining techniques and perspectives from these disciplines, as well as emerging fields such as computation and cognitive science, to yield new insights into the workings of the nervous system and behavior.

Students may complete a minor in Neuroscience as an adjunct to any major at Bryn Mawr or Haverford pending approval of the student's coursework plan by their respective Neuroscience adviser. The minor in Neuroscience is designed to allow students to pursue their interests in behavior and the nervous system across disciplines. The first requirement for the minor is a course that acts as a gateway to the discipline and should be taken early in a student's academic plan.

Advisory Committee

    Peter D. Brodfuehrer, Adviser for Biology
    Rebecca Compton, Adviser Psychology at Haverford College
    Karen F. Greif, Biology
    Andrea Morris, Adviser for Biology at Haverford College
    Leslie Rescorla, Psychology
    Wendy F. Sternberg, Psychology at Haverford College
    Anjali Thapar, Psychology
    Earl Thomas, Adviser for Psychology

Minor Requirements

  1. HC Psych 217 (Biological Psychology) or BMC Psych 218 (Behavioral Neuroscience) or BMC Bio 202 (Introduction to Neuroscience [previously Neurobiology and Behavior]).
  2. Five credits from advanced courses on the following lists, with these constraints:
    • The five credits must sample from three different disciplines.
    • At least three of the five credits must be from List A (neuroscience courses); the remainder can be from List A or B (courses from allied disciplines).
    • 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.
    • With permission of major and minor advisers, a student may count no more than two of the six minor credits towards the student's major.

List of Courses

List A: Neuroscience courses

BIOL B244 Behavioral Endocrinology
BIOL B304 Cell and Molecular Neurobiology
BIOL B321 Neuroethology
BIOL B322 From Channels to Behavior
BIOL B364 Developmental Neurobiology
BIOL B401 Supervised Research in Neural & Behavioral Sciences
BIOL H309 Molecular Neurobiology
BIOL H330 Laboratory in Neural and Behavioral Science
BIOL H350 Pattern Formation in the Nervous System
BIOL H357 Topics in Protein Science [protein aggregation in neurodegenerative disease]
BIOL H403 Senior Research Tutorial in Protein Folding and Design
BIOL H409 Senior Research Tutorial in Molecular Neurobiology

PSYC B323 Cognitive Neuroscience
PSYC B395 Psychopharmacology
PSYC H240 Psychology of Pain and Pain Inhibition
PSYC H260 Cognitive Neuroscience
PSYC B401 Supervised Research in Neural and Behavioral Sciences
PSYC H370 Neuroscience of Mental Illness
PSYC H394 Senior Research Tutorial in Biological Psychology
PSYC H395 Senior Research Tutorial in Cognitive Neuroscience

List B: Allied disciplines

BIOL B250 Computational Models in the Sciences
BIOL H302 Cell Architecture
BIOL H306 Inter and Intra Cellular Communication
BIOL H312 Development and Evolution

CMSC B250 Computational Models in the Sciences
CMSC B325 Computational Linguistics
CMSC B361 Emergence
CMSC B361 Cognitive Science
CMSC B372 Introduction to Artificial Intelligence
CMSC B376 Developmental Robotics

LING H113 Introduction to Syntax
LING H114 Introduction to Semantics
LING H245 Phonetics and Phonology

PHIL B244 Philosophy and Cognitive Science
PHIL B319 Philosophy of Mind
PHIL H102 Rational Animals
PHIL H106 Philosophy of Consciousness
PHIL H110 Mind and World
PHIL H112 Mind, Myth, and Memory
PHIL H251 Philosophy of Mind
PHIL H351 Topics in Philosophy of Mind

PSYC B201 Learning Theory and Behavior
PSYC B209 Abnormal Psychology
PSYC B212 Human Cognition
PSYC B350 Developmental Cognitive Disorders
PSYC B351 Developmental Psychopathology
PSYC H213 Memory and Cognition
PSYC H220 Psychology of Time
PSYC H238 Psychology of Language

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