Honors Program

Most NBB majors participate in undergraduate research during their time at Emory. In their last year, NBB majors with research experience may consider joining the Honors Program to complete a thesis and graduate with honors in research. The choice to pursue a thesis should be made after talking with research mentors, meeting with major advisors, and considering career goals and other opportunities during senior year.

Applications for the NBB Honors Program are due the semester before the student’s last year (June 15 for graduation the following spring, for example). NBB Honors students must meet all Emory College Honors Program requirements, including the cumulative GPA and other guidelines.

Applications for the NBB Honors Program are brief and include basic information such as the mentor's name, project title, and current GPA. Any Emory faculty member in any department can be an NBB honors thesis advisor, but the project must have neuroscience and/or behavioral biology as a major focus or lens.

During senior year, NBB honors students take two research-experience courses titled "Honors Research", NBB 495A and NBB 495BW.

Participation in these courses includes at least 12 hours of work on the research project each week as well as bi-weekly meetings with other NBB researchers to develop professional skills such as navigating research ethics, presentation skills, and connecting their research to academic and professional goals.

Graduate Courses

In addition to the NBB honors research courses, students must take a graduate course. Any graduate course can be approved for this requirement as long as it is 2 credits or more, is taken for a letter grade, and passed with a C or higher.

Most students take the graduate course in spring of their senior year, but it can be taken at any time. Students generally choose the graduate course based on recommendations from their research mentors and course descriptions posted on graduate program websites.

No particular graduate program's courses are preferred, but students often take graduate courses in Psychology, Public Health, and Neuroscience.

Most NBB majors work with faculty mentors in research experiences, and many students co-author manuscripts published in leading peer-reviewed journals. However, only honors students are mentored through the process of writing and defending a thesis. Students may work with any Emory faculty member in any department for their Honors Thesis, but the project must have neuroscience and/or behavioral biology as a major focus or lens.

All student theses are published online through the university library and, after embargo to allow for data to be included in other articles, the theses are available to search.

After writing the thesis, honors students defend their work to a committee of at least three Emory faculty members.

In consultation with their faculty research mentors, honors students form their committees during the first semester of honors. Students submit the written thesis and then present an oral summary of their work to the committee.

The committee questions the student about the rationale, methods, interpretation, and overall importance of the work. Upon completion of the defense, the committee determines whether the student has earned honors.