NEUR 4900 Independent Study
A reading or research course for upper-year students who wish to investigate a particular topic of interest. Worth 0.5 credit each, only 1.0 credit of independent studies can be used toward program requirements. Departmental permission required via application process.
How to Apply
1. Secure a supervisor and discuss interests
2. Submit a course outline for approval
3. Receive an override so you can add the course
Secure a Supervisor
Similar to seeking a volunteer position in a lab or finding an honours capstone project supervisor, the first step is to identify which researcher you’d like to oversee the Independent Study and contact them directly to discuss further. You can modify this email template to draft your initial correspondence.
The NEUR 4900 should be on a topic in which you have a keen interest in exploring to advance your neuroscience education. These projects are usually supervised by a Neuroscience faculty member, but can be supervised by others. A co-supervisor is only required if the supervisor is external to Carleton University.
Within the scope of a neuroscience-based project, a supervisor can be:
- a faculty member in the Dept. of Neuroscience
- a faculty member at Carleton who is cross-appointed with the Dept. of Neuroscience
- a researcher associated with the Dept. of Neuroscience but not employed by Carleton
- a researcher external to Carleton who has supervised our students in the past
- a researcher external to Carleton who is not associated with the Dept. of Neuroscience
- a faculty member at Carleton who is not associated with the Dept. of Neuroscience
A co-supervisor is only required if the supervisor is external to Carleton University. When discussing potential supervision with a researcher outside of Carleton you can ask them if they currently collaborate with a faculty member in the Department of Neuroscience. If so, that would be the first person to approach about co-supervision. If they do not, then you can ask any neuroscience faculty member who does similar research or ask the Undergraduate Chair to take on this role.
You can modify this email template to draft your initial correspondence.
Apply & Register
After discussing interests, you can begin working on the course outline in collaboration with your supervisor. This should be done well in advance of the course start date (which follows the regular academic term) and includes but is not limited to:
- title of the project
- objectives, assignments and grade allocation, a list of topics with assigned readings
- meeting times and dates, assignment due dates
Email the course outline to the Undergraduate Chair or Undergraduate Administrator and CC you supervisor. Alternatively, the supervisor can send the email and CC you. Be sure to do this at least a few days prior to the last day to register in a course. In summer, NEUR 4900 is a full summer course.
Once approved, the Undergraduate Administrator will grant you an override and notify you to proceed with registration.
Other Considerations
- Each NEUR 4900 is worth 0.5 credit and can count in any of the following sections on the audit (but not count toward multiple sections at the same time):
- List of upper-year NEUR course options from which you can choose (e.g. NEUR 3304, NEUR 4306)
- Advanced Science Faculty Elective
- Free Elective
- The work runs for one semester in either fall, winter, or summer. Note, for summer it runs May thru August as a full summer course despite being worth 0.5 credit.
- Formal submission deadlines follow the same as take-home exams, however your supervisor may have other timelines to which you need to adhere.
- Each NEUR 4900 is worth 0.5 credit each, and up to 1.0 credit can be used toward program requirements.