Carleton neuroscience admission requirements: Advanced Functions, two sciences and a 78% BSc cut-off range

The degree is called Neuroscience and Mental Health, and it is a Bachelor of Science. Carleton says you will study the nervous system from molecules and cells up to whole organisms. The goal is to understand links between thought and action, sensation and behaviour, and the basis of neurological disease and mental health.

Carleton says its Department of Neuroscience is Canada's first independent academic department to deliver its own undergraduate neuroscience programs. Specialized neuroscience courses start in first year. Lab work includes recording neuron activity, brain tissue dissection and imaging, and disease modelling in cell cultures.

You need an Ontario Secondary School Diploma with six Grade 12 courses at the 4U or 4M level. For this program, those must include Advanced Functions and two credits from Biology, Chemistry, Earth and Space Science or Physics. Carleton strongly recommends Calculus and Vectors, and recommends English 4U for every degree.

Prerequisites must be at the 4U level, with no single grade below 60%. Grade 12 co-op work experience credits do not count as one of your six courses. Recommended courses are not mandatory, and the calendar says you are not disadvantaged without them. Biology and Chemistry are the natural pair, because first year includes both. Use our course planner to fit them in.

Carleton's requirements tool lists Neuroscience and Mental Health under Science (BSc) and shows a cut-off range of 78%. That range applies to your overall average and your prerequisite average. Carleton sets the required average each year, program by program. All programs have limited enrolment, so admission is not guaranteed.

The conditional-offer page is a different measure. It is for students who already hold a conditional offer for 2027-2028. To keep it, a BSc Honours student needs a 75% overall average in final grades. You also need a 70% combined average in Advanced Functions and two of Biology, Chemistry, Physics or Earth and Space Science. Carleton must get final grades by August 15. If you fall below, it will withdraw the offer, and may suggest another program.

So 78% is the number to beat to get in, and 75% is the floor to stay in. The calendar adds that a 70% average is normally the minimum to be considered at all. Carleton does not publish an admitted average for this program. Check where you stand with our Top 6 average calculator.

Carleton's requirements tool lists no supplementary application, essay, portfolio or interview for the BSc. The decision rests on your grades. The only extra form in this area is for Prestige Scholarships, which need an application and a reference letter.

There are three versions of the degree. The BSc Honours and the BSc Major are each 20.0 credits. The general BSc is 15.0 credits. There is also a Combined Honours in Neuroscience and Biology, which the admissions page describes as more advanced biology and more lab research.

First year includes NEUR 1202 and NEUR 1203, two courses on the neuroscience of mental health and of psychiatric and neurological conditions. You also take Foundations of Biology I and II and General Chemistry I and II. You add a pair from computer science, physics or psychology, and one half credit of calculus or linear algebra.

Upper years include research methods, statistics, neuropharmacology and systems neuroscience. Honours students finish with a thesis, essay, workshop or research project. Options include a course on Indigenous community wellness.

Co-op is open to students in the BSc Honours or the Combined Honours Neuroscience and Biology. You can ask for co-op when you apply from high school. Carleton then reviews your university grades two terms to one year before your first work term.

To start work terms you need 5.0 or more credits and COOP 1000. You also need an overall CGPA of at least 6.50 and a major CGPA of at least 8.00, and you must keep them up. You complete three work terms to earn the co-op designation. The work term course is NEUR 3999.

Carleton also has a Bachelor of Cognitive Science. One Honours option is a Concentration in the Biological Foundations of Cognition. Its requirements tool lists only English as a required course, with a 75% cut-off range. Its 2026-27 Ontario first-year fee is $7,624.02.

The two degrees feel different. Neuroscience is a lab science with biology and chemistry from day one. Cognitive Science Honours concentrations cover philosophy, language and linguistics, psychology, computation and the biology of cognition. Cognitive Science Honours students take either NEUR 1202 or a human neuropsychology course. If psychology is your main interest, compare our Carleton Psychology page.

Ontario high school students apply on OUAC by January 15, 2027 for the fall term. Within five days you get an email with your Carleton applicant number and MC1 username. You track your file in Carleton360.

If you get a conditional offer, Carleton reassesses it when final grades arrive. Students admitted on or before May 31, 2027 are offered a place in residence. See our Ontario deadlines page to line up Carleton with other schools.

Carleton's 2026-27 Ontario fee table lists the Bachelor of Science at $7,637.46 for first year and $7,627.00 for each later year. That covers fall plus winter at 2.0 or more billing hours per term. Compulsory fees and the U-Pass are included.

Our estimate, not Carleton's: four years at these rates come to about $30,518 before books, housing and later increases. Co-op students also pay co-op fees.

If you are admitted for fall entry with an 85% average or better, Carleton automatically considers you for a renewable Entrance Scholarship. It must get your complete application and all required grades by June 15. Prestige Scholarships need a 90% admission average, an application and a reference letter by March 1. See our Carleton financial aid guide for the full list.

The two numbers on Carleton's site measure different things, so read them carefully. The 78% range is about getting an offer. The 75% and 70% figures are the conditions your child must hold in final Grade 12 marks to keep that offer.

Sample careers on the program page include health care, medicine, neuroscience research, the pharmaceutical industry and policy analysis. Many of these need more school after the BSc. The department notes research projects with faculty from first year onward.