Neuroscience

About This Degree

The primary goal of the doctoral program in neuroscinece is to provide students with a strong educational and research foundation in cellular, cognitive and behavioral neuroscience.

What You Will Learn

Students will apply critical concepts in neuroscience to understanding normal and disordered processes of sensation, movement, cognition, language and communication across the lifespan. This goal will be accomplished through a core set of neuroscience courses, advanced electives and laboratory experiences.

Students in the neuroscience doctoral program are expected to align themselves with a focus area. Currently, these include Translational Neuroscience, Educational Neuroscience, and Lifespan Neuroscience.

Specialization:

Students may choose an emphasis in one of the following areas.

Educational Neuroscience:

This focus area is designed to apply the principles of behavioral, cognitive, and biological neuroscience to core problems in education related to cognition, socialization, learning, and/or teaching.

Lifespan Neuroscience:

This emphasis studies the changes in central and peripheral nervous system structures from infancy to late adulthood with corresponding effects on behavior in cognition, language and emotion.

Translational Neuroscience:

This emphasis focuses on understanding the signal transduction pathways underlying neurophysiological function in normal and disease states at the molecular, cellular, tissue, and system levels.

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At a Glance

College: Emma Eccles Jones College of Education & Human Services , College of Science

Department: Biology Department , Communicative Disorders and Deaf Education Department , Kinesiology and Health Science Department , Psychology Department

USU Locations:

Logan campus

Program Requirements

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Career And Outcomes

Career Opportunities

The Neuroscience PhD program prepares students for careers in research settings. Graduates may find jobs in academic settings as well as in private industry and other research settings.

Job Outlook

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Advising

Ron Gillam

Professor
Email: ron.gillam@usu.edu
Office: ECERC 224
Phone: (435) 797-1704

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USU Locations

LOGAN CAMPUS

Admission

Admission Requirements

All applications are submitted with the USU Graduate School.

As part of the application prospective students must submit the following:

A statement of purpose describing interest in graduate school and relevant experiences and qualifications
A curriculum vita / resume
Three letters of recommendation
GRE scores
Official transcripts from all previous schools attended

Admissions criteria include the following:

GPA for the last 60 credits taken of 3.0 or higher
GRE scores for the verbal and quantitative areas at the 40th percentile or above
Fit with a current faculty member involved in the neuroscience program

Deadlines

Application deadline for Fall admission: January 15th.
Application deadline for Spring admission: July 15th.

Financial Aid

The full-time PhD graduate students in this program will receive graduate research or graduate teaching assistantships to help finance their education. All students with assistantships also receive the doctoral tuition award which covers the tuition for classes taken for the doctoral program.