Student who wish to pursue a MSc in Neuroscience in the Neuroeconomics Laboratory can through the University of Victoria's graduate program in Neuroscience. CLICK HERE for program information.
Important Information for Prospective Students:
1. Contact Dr. Krigolson to see if he is currently looking for new students. There is a maximum effective capacity of supervision, as such, Dr. Krigolson may not be taking on new students at any given time.
2. If Dr. Krigolson is taking in students, apply to the program. CLICK HERE for information on the application process.
3. Secure Funding. To be accepted into the Neuroscience Program you need to have $20,000 CDN in funding secured. Students typically secure their own funding from national competitions (NSERC, CIHR) or from another external source. Occasionally, the laboratory will have grant paid graduate positions - but these are rare! It is your responsibility to apply for and pursue external funding. Securing external funding is the easiest way to be accepted into graduate school, the Neuroscience Program, and the Krigolson Lab. Again, we emphasize IT IS YOUR RESPONSIBILITY to apply for and secure funding for Graduate School.
The MSc in Neuroscience Course Program
In the first year of the MSc in Neuroscience program students take four courses, NRSC 500, NRSC 501B, NRSC 595, and an ELECTIVE - typically EPHE 591. In the second year of the program, students take NRSC 502B and NRSC 599. In terms of semester progression:
Fall, Year One: NRSC 500, NRSC 501B, NRSC 595
Spring, Year One: NRSC 500, NRSC 501B, EPHE 591
Summer, Year One: NRSC 599
Fall, Year Two: NRSC 502B, NRSC 599
Spring, Year Two: NRSC 502B, NRSC 599
Summer, Year Two: NRSC 599
A note on tuition. Tuition fees are approximately $2500 for the fall semester and $2000 for the spring and summer semesters for each year.
YEAR ONE
NRSC 500 (3.0 Units) A year long course covering the basics. The course is team taught by various instructors in the Neuroscience program. The first semester is devoted to Cellular Neuroscience, the second to Systems Neuroscience. Typically, the course meets once a week from 8:30 to 11:20 am on Tuesdays.
NRSC 501B (1.5 Units) A weekly journal club / seminar for Cognitive Neuroscience (CLICK HERE for details). Students have a choice of NRSC 501A or NRSC 501B but we recommend NRSC 501B. For NRSC 501B students attend the weekly Cognitive Seminar on Fridays from 3:00pm to 4:20pm and are required to present once during the calendar year to the group. Note, this course runs through both the Fall and Spring semesters.
NRSC 595 (1.5 Units) Thesis Preparation. Essentially, this is a shell course as there is no actual class - you meet with your supervisor to prepare for your thesis proposal on a weekly basis (see below for details about Theses ).
ELECTIVE (1.5 Units) In your elective slot Dr. Krigolson requires you take a statistics course - there are no exceptions to this rule. We recommend you take EPHE 591 (1.5), a directed studies statistics course with Dr. Krigolson. This course would take the form of weekly meetings with problems being assigned for you to work through on your own. NOTE, although this course is listed to only last one semester it typically takes students a full year to complete the course requirements. Your other choices for a statistics course to fulfill your elective requirement would be either be PSYC 532, PSYC 533, PSYC 534, or PSYC 537.
YEAR TWO
NRSC 502B (1.5 Units). Neuroscience students are required to be enrolled in the journal club course series for both years of their program. As such, in the their second year students can continue to attend the weekly Cognitive Seminar (i.e., 501B) or at their discretion can switch and attend 502A, Cellular Neuroscience. Dr. Krigolson recommends you take 502B. As with 501B, 502B meets Fridays from 3:00pm to 4:20pm. Note, this course runs through both the Fall and Spring semesters.
NRSC 599 (As need, typically 9.0 to 12.0 Units). Thesis. Upon completion of NRSC 595 students immediately move into NRSC 599. For example, if your thesis proposal was in the Spring of your first year you would move into NRSC 599 in the summer semester to maintain full time status. As with NRSC 595, there is no assigned class time for NRSC 599 - you meet with supervisor as needed to complete your thesis.
THESIS. (CLICK HERE TO SEE A SAMPLE THESIS) Students in the MSc program in Neuroscience are expected to complete a research thesis. Essentially, a thesis is a large multi-experiment research project during which you become an expert with regard to a specific research question. For example, a thesis topic might be "The impact on reward certainty on reward processing within the medial-frontal cortex". During the initial phase of your thesis work you develop your research question and plan your research studies. Typically, students in Dr. Krigolson's laboratory students conduct two related research studies for a thesis project. In the past, students have completed a single research study combined with a computational modelling project in rare instances a single research project if the project involved the collection of longitudinal data or multiple experimental groups. One the project is planned, students write a thesis proposal. The thesis proposal is a document with two parts - a literature review that frames the proposed thesis project and a methods section that outlines the experiments. Typically, the last section of the thesis proposal outlines the predictions that you have and potential results. Following the generation of this document, students have a proposal meeting during which they give a 15-25 minute presentation of their idea and then answer questions about the proposal from the thesis committee. The thesis committee is the group that evaluates the student's work and typically consists of Dr. Krigolson and two other faculty members with knowledge in the area of the proposed research. If the proposal is unsuccessful, students need to address the committee's concerns and attempt the proposal again. After a successful proposal, students begin to collect their thesis data. When data collection and analysis is completed, students finish their written thesis. Essentially, students write up a results section and discussion for each of the experiments and then add in a general discussion of the overall conclusions. As such, a full thesis would include (in order): Title Page, Dedications, Abstract, General Introduction, Experiment One: Introduction, Methods, Results, Discussion, Experiment Two: Introduction, Methods, Results, Discussion, General Discussion, Conclusions, References, Tables, Figures. One the written document is completed it is submitted "for defence" and a date is set to defend the thesis. The student again gives a 15-25 minute presentation, this time a summary of the overall work and findings. The key part of the defence is the oral questioning during which the student must demonstrate their knowledge of their work and expertise in their research area. Thesis grades at this point are either: Accepted, Accepted with Minor Revisions, Accepted with Major Revisions, Redo, or Fail. Theses that are Accepted or Accepted with Minor Revisions reflect a pass and the student graduates shortly thereafter. With a grade of Accepted with Major Revisions the student is typically being asked to collect more data and/or reanalyze the data and defend their work again. A Redo grade typically means that the student has not demonstrated the level of knowledge and/or expertise necessary to graduate and is given time to fix this issue and go through the thesis defence process again. A Fail grade indicates that the student is not worthy of being awarded a MSc in Neuroscience. NOTE: It is rare that students do poorly in the thesis defence as Dr. Krigolson (or any other supervisor) would not let you defend if he did not think you were ready!
Important Information for Prospective Students:
1. Contact Dr. Krigolson to see if he is currently looking for new students. There is a maximum effective capacity of supervision, as such, Dr. Krigolson may not be taking on new students at any given time.
2. If Dr. Krigolson is taking in students, apply to the program. CLICK HERE for information on the application process.
3. Secure Funding. To be accepted into the Neuroscience Program you need to have $20,000 CDN in funding secured. Students typically secure their own funding from national competitions (NSERC, CIHR) or from another external source. Occasionally, the laboratory will have grant paid graduate positions - but these are rare! It is your responsibility to apply for and pursue external funding. Securing external funding is the easiest way to be accepted into graduate school, the Neuroscience Program, and the Krigolson Lab. Again, we emphasize IT IS YOUR RESPONSIBILITY to apply for and secure funding for Graduate School.
The MSc in Neuroscience Course Program
In the first year of the MSc in Neuroscience program students take four courses, NRSC 500, NRSC 501B, NRSC 595, and an ELECTIVE - typically EPHE 591. In the second year of the program, students take NRSC 502B and NRSC 599. In terms of semester progression:
Fall, Year One: NRSC 500, NRSC 501B, NRSC 595
Spring, Year One: NRSC 500, NRSC 501B, EPHE 591
Summer, Year One: NRSC 599
Fall, Year Two: NRSC 502B, NRSC 599
Spring, Year Two: NRSC 502B, NRSC 599
Summer, Year Two: NRSC 599
A note on tuition. Tuition fees are approximately $2500 for the fall semester and $2000 for the spring and summer semesters for each year.
YEAR ONE
NRSC 500 (3.0 Units) A year long course covering the basics. The course is team taught by various instructors in the Neuroscience program. The first semester is devoted to Cellular Neuroscience, the second to Systems Neuroscience. Typically, the course meets once a week from 8:30 to 11:20 am on Tuesdays.
NRSC 501B (1.5 Units) A weekly journal club / seminar for Cognitive Neuroscience (CLICK HERE for details). Students have a choice of NRSC 501A or NRSC 501B but we recommend NRSC 501B. For NRSC 501B students attend the weekly Cognitive Seminar on Fridays from 3:00pm to 4:20pm and are required to present once during the calendar year to the group. Note, this course runs through both the Fall and Spring semesters.
NRSC 595 (1.5 Units) Thesis Preparation. Essentially, this is a shell course as there is no actual class - you meet with your supervisor to prepare for your thesis proposal on a weekly basis (see below for details about Theses ).
ELECTIVE (1.5 Units) In your elective slot Dr. Krigolson requires you take a statistics course - there are no exceptions to this rule. We recommend you take EPHE 591 (1.5), a directed studies statistics course with Dr. Krigolson. This course would take the form of weekly meetings with problems being assigned for you to work through on your own. NOTE, although this course is listed to only last one semester it typically takes students a full year to complete the course requirements. Your other choices for a statistics course to fulfill your elective requirement would be either be PSYC 532, PSYC 533, PSYC 534, or PSYC 537.
YEAR TWO
NRSC 502B (1.5 Units). Neuroscience students are required to be enrolled in the journal club course series for both years of their program. As such, in the their second year students can continue to attend the weekly Cognitive Seminar (i.e., 501B) or at their discretion can switch and attend 502A, Cellular Neuroscience. Dr. Krigolson recommends you take 502B. As with 501B, 502B meets Fridays from 3:00pm to 4:20pm. Note, this course runs through both the Fall and Spring semesters.
NRSC 599 (As need, typically 9.0 to 12.0 Units). Thesis. Upon completion of NRSC 595 students immediately move into NRSC 599. For example, if your thesis proposal was in the Spring of your first year you would move into NRSC 599 in the summer semester to maintain full time status. As with NRSC 595, there is no assigned class time for NRSC 599 - you meet with supervisor as needed to complete your thesis.
THESIS. (CLICK HERE TO SEE A SAMPLE THESIS) Students in the MSc program in Neuroscience are expected to complete a research thesis. Essentially, a thesis is a large multi-experiment research project during which you become an expert with regard to a specific research question. For example, a thesis topic might be "The impact on reward certainty on reward processing within the medial-frontal cortex". During the initial phase of your thesis work you develop your research question and plan your research studies. Typically, students in Dr. Krigolson's laboratory students conduct two related research studies for a thesis project. In the past, students have completed a single research study combined with a computational modelling project in rare instances a single research project if the project involved the collection of longitudinal data or multiple experimental groups. One the project is planned, students write a thesis proposal. The thesis proposal is a document with two parts - a literature review that frames the proposed thesis project and a methods section that outlines the experiments. Typically, the last section of the thesis proposal outlines the predictions that you have and potential results. Following the generation of this document, students have a proposal meeting during which they give a 15-25 minute presentation of their idea and then answer questions about the proposal from the thesis committee. The thesis committee is the group that evaluates the student's work and typically consists of Dr. Krigolson and two other faculty members with knowledge in the area of the proposed research. If the proposal is unsuccessful, students need to address the committee's concerns and attempt the proposal again. After a successful proposal, students begin to collect their thesis data. When data collection and analysis is completed, students finish their written thesis. Essentially, students write up a results section and discussion for each of the experiments and then add in a general discussion of the overall conclusions. As such, a full thesis would include (in order): Title Page, Dedications, Abstract, General Introduction, Experiment One: Introduction, Methods, Results, Discussion, Experiment Two: Introduction, Methods, Results, Discussion, General Discussion, Conclusions, References, Tables, Figures. One the written document is completed it is submitted "for defence" and a date is set to defend the thesis. The student again gives a 15-25 minute presentation, this time a summary of the overall work and findings. The key part of the defence is the oral questioning during which the student must demonstrate their knowledge of their work and expertise in their research area. Thesis grades at this point are either: Accepted, Accepted with Minor Revisions, Accepted with Major Revisions, Redo, or Fail. Theses that are Accepted or Accepted with Minor Revisions reflect a pass and the student graduates shortly thereafter. With a grade of Accepted with Major Revisions the student is typically being asked to collect more data and/or reanalyze the data and defend their work again. A Redo grade typically means that the student has not demonstrated the level of knowledge and/or expertise necessary to graduate and is given time to fix this issue and go through the thesis defence process again. A Fail grade indicates that the student is not worthy of being awarded a MSc in Neuroscience. NOTE: It is rare that students do poorly in the thesis defence as Dr. Krigolson (or any other supervisor) would not let you defend if he did not think you were ready!