Graduate Course Work
The minimum course requirements for the Ph.D. set by the Graduate School is 27 courses. The graduate program is designed both to encourage students to complete necessary coursework and to gain extensive research experience. Although there are some standard requirements (shown below), each student may take such courses as are needed in consideration of prior coursework and of the student's goals. Students begin doing research in their first year, devote more than half of their time to research in the second year, and nearly all of their effort in subsequent years. The doctoral program in BBC can be completed in four or five years; the actual time taken depends largely on the background of the individual student. The major requirements are:
Key courses in Brain, Behavior, & Cognition
Key courses in Brain, Behavior, & Cognition are listed below. In addition to the required courses, six elective courses are to be selected in consultation with the faculty adviser. Note that Northwestern operates on a quarter system.
- Required Courses
- Psych 401-1 Psychology Proseminar (1)
- Psych 401-2 Psychology Proseminar (2)
- Psych 450 Fundamentals of Statistics (may be waived under some circumstances)
- Psych 451 Statistics in Experimental Design
- CSD 406 Functional Neuroanatomy or
NUIN 440 Advanced Neuroanatomy
- Electives (partial list)
- Psych 312-1,2 Neurobiology and Behavior
- Psych 314 Topics Courses (when relevant)
- Psych 321 Neuroscience and Behavior Lab
- Psych 324 Perception
- Psych 342 Biological Bases of Mental Illness
- Psych 360 Human Memory and Cognition
- Psych 361 Brain Damage and the Mind
- Psych 363 Images of Cognition
- Psych 364 Topics in Cognitive Neuroscience
- Psych 405 Psychometric Theory
- Psych 421 Psychopathology
- Psych 422 Child Psychopathology
- Psych 442 Experimental Approaches to Personality
- Psych 453 Linear Models: Correlation, & Regression
- Psych 460 Topics in Cognition
- Psych 470 Topics in BBC
- Psych 471 Cognitive Neuroscience
- CSD 303 Brain and Cognition
- CSD 310 Biological Foundations of Speech and Music
- CSD 425 Electrophysiology of the Human Auditory System
- CSD 495 Aphasia I: Disorders of Language
- CSD 507 Neural Correlates of Language Processing
- CSD 525 Central Auditory Neuroscience
- NUIN 401-1,2,3 Fundamentals of Neuroscience
- NUIN 433 Neurobiology of Disease
- NUIN 434 Developmental Neurobiology
- NUIN 447 Neural Plasticity
- NUIN 452 Sensorimotor Integration
- NUIN 455 Instrumentation
- NUIN 460 Computational Methods
- NUIN 470 Cellular and Molecular Bases of Information Storage
- NUIN 473 Aging and Dementia
- NUIN 485 Genes, Brain, and Behavior
- Biol Sci 306 Fundamentals of Neurobiology II
- Biol Sci 314 Mind and Brain
- Biol Sci 324 Neurobiology of Biological Clocks
- Biol Sci 325 Systems Physiology
- Biol Sci 326 Neurobiology of Learning & Memory
- Biol Sci 377 Sensory Neurobiology
- Biol Sci 392 Developmental Neurobiology
