Admission
Program Requirements
Course Descriptions
Suggested Course Sequence

Admission

There will be one intake of Psychology and Behavioural Neuroscience Majors each year. Admission to the Major programs is competitive and selective. Students who wish to enter these programs must submit a completed online application form by June 1 for Fall semester registration  (NOTE: the online application link will become active during the Winter semester around mid-March for Fall 2025 semester applications).

As per clause 11.11.1. in the Calendar, students are considered eligible for admission if they have completed the 24 credit hours as listed below. A minimum average of 65% in PSYC 1000/1001, and a minimum average of 60% overall in PSYC/MATH/CRW is required.

a. Psychology 1000, 1001;
b. Six credit hours in Critical Reading and Writing (CRW) courses, including at least 3 credit hours in English courses;
c. One of Mathematics 1000, 1006 or Statistics 1500, or two of Mathematics 1090, 1050, and 1051;
d. Six credit hours of electives (9CH if Mathematics 1000, 1006 or Statistics 1500 is successfully completed).

Note: as admission is highly competitive, satisfying minimum course grade requirements does not guarantee a successful admission. These minimum averages are used to determine eligibility for inclusion in the applicant pool, from which admission to the major will be determined as follows:

To determine a student’s position on the list of students who are eligible for admission, academic averages will be calculated in 2 different ways:

1. The course grades that a student received in their last 2 full-time semesters will be averaged.
2. The course grades that a student received for all of their MUN courses to date will be averaged (i.e., a cumulative GPA).

The higher of these 2 averages will be used to determine a student’s position on the list of students who are eligible for admission.   Transfer credits for the above requirements are accepted. A student must have obtained at least three numeric grades in Memorial University courses in order to be considered for admission.

If one or more of the required courses is in progress at the time of application (i.e., it is being completed in the Intercession or Spring semester), a student may still apply for admission but a decision on admission will not be made until the final grades are received by the Department (normally, late August). Students in this circumstance may receive a conditional acceptance that will either be confirmed or denied prior to the start of the Fall semester.

A portion of seats (normally ~10- 15%) will be reserved to be considered for allocation to applicants who have exceptional circumstances, such as a required course(s) in progress, deferred exams, delays in confirmation of grades for transfer courses, etc. Applicants who are eligible for admission but not accepted initially will be put on a waitlist. Acceptance from the waitlist will be confirmed with students no later than the second week of classes in the Fall semester.

In order to be considered for admission, students must submit the online application form before June 1 (even if they are waiting on deferred exams or are finishing the required courses over the Intercession or Spring terms). We will not consider any applications received after June 1. Applicants who will be writing deferred exams and/or taking required courses at the time of application should note such in the Comments field.

Continuing for Fall 2023 Admission to the majors in Psychology and BHNR, we will be running a pilot project to allocate a specific number of seats for under-represented students, as described in the application form. Please direct any questions to psychdeputyhead@mun.ca

Suggested Course Sequence for Behavioural Neuroscience Students

It is a student’s responsibility to ensure that they are registered for the appropriate courses and are familiar with all program regulations. The University Calendar is the authority on university regulations.

Year 1

Students interested in pursuing a major in Behavioural Neuroscience should follow the Academic Advising Centre suggested first year courses.

Year 2

Science
Fall Semester	Winter Semester
Psychology 2910	Psychology 2911
Psychology 2930 or 2521	Psychology 2521 or 2930
Chemistry 1050 or Physics 1020 (1050)	Chemistry 1051 or Physics 1021 (1051)
Science course which satisfies 11.11.6.3	Science course which satisfies 11.11.6.3
Elective	Elective

Years 3 and 4

Behavioural Neuroscience students must take:

• PSYC 3800: Cellular and Molecular Neuroscience;
• PSYC 3820: Research Techniques in Behavioural Neuroscience;
• ONE of: PSYC 3810, 3830, 3840, 3860, or the former 3250;
• And ONE of the following 7 PSYC courses: 

3050 Developmental Psychology
3100 Social Psychology
3251 Learning
3350 Perception
3450 Human Cognition
3620 Personality Theory and Research
3650 Abnormal Psychology
3750 Animal Behaviour

Students must take two 4000-level courses, one of which must be a research experience course, and one of which must be a selected topics course. It is recommended that if the research experience course taken is PSYC 4870 (Research Experience in BHNR), then the selected topics course should be in a different area of Psychology. Conversely, if the selected topics course is in BHNR (e.g., PSYC 4850, 4851, etc.), then the research experience course should be in a different area of Psychology.

The required 18 Credit Hours in at least two “other” Sciences at the 2000- (or above) level would be completed in Years 3 and 4.

A total of at least 120 Credit Hours must be completed in order to graduate with a BA, BSc, BA (Hons), or BSc (Hons).

Additional information on the major programs can be found in the Calendar here: https://www.mun.ca/regoff/calendar/sectionNo=SCI-1626

AND

Additional course information can be found in the Calendar here: https://www.mun.ca/regoff/calendar/sectionNo=SCI-1702