What do our students say?

I am currently on the MRes, Cognitive NeuroscienceProgramme after recently completing an undergraduate degree in Abnormal and Clinical Psychology. My research interests were mainly focused on the neuroscience of interoceptive processing, metacognition and sensorimotor experiences in healthy populations using EEG. I decided to do the MRes course at ICN as it seemed very interesting and a right approach to me before I apply for a doctorate position. The course brought lots of opportunities for me to gain more experience in programming research experiments, data collection and analyses. The course itself has been amazing so far. During the induction week a poster session was organised by all the research groups at ICN where all MSc/MRes students got a chance to meet potential supervisors and their teams was just perfect. The support sessions from PhD students and research assistants sharing their experiences and career paths has also been worthwhile. The option to approach a potential supervisor yourself with your own research idea or choose one from a list of available projects was great. I chose a project from the list, which aligned quite well with my past research experience and interests, linking neuroscience and enterprise. It was also fascinating to learn EEG programming and analysis in depth. I am feeling much prepared and looking forward to applying for a PhD. 

 I am glad to be an MRes student in such a big and warm institute with so many experienced researchers and fascinating projects on cognitive neuroscience. Also, modules do not burden me with abundant class hours and assessments so that I could spare more time on my research project for the dissertation, more self-study time on computational neuroscience, more leisure time on activities in many societies at UCL, and on my various hobbies. I believe that the one-year MRes program with systematic training in ICN would bring me profound insights into cognitive neuroscience, which I did not have when majoring in mathematics during my undergraduate study.

I completed a BSc in Anthropology at UCL. As an evolutionary anthropologist, I am particularly interested in the evolution of human brain and cognition and plan to do a PhD in Evolutionary Neuroscience. Besides the research excellence of ICN, it was my personal experience that made me to apply to study here. When I was still an undergraduate student, I have been attending the Monday seminars at ICN frequently. I am impressed by how lecture room is often highly packed, the active questions session, the critical thinking, and the enthusiasm for Cognitive Neuroscience shown by the students and researchers. I really wished to become part of this community. With both taught modules and research project, the MSc programme in Cognitive Neuroscience is a nice combination of building up fundamental knowledge and developing research skill. In particular, I really enjoy the rigorous training of critically analysing neuroimaging literature.

The MSc in Cognitive Neuroscience is such a worthwhile year and I thoroughly enjoyed it. The taught part of the course is rigorous, compelling and fully integrates cutting-edge research, as well as case demonstrations where we could meet and learn from patients. The research project gave me a very valuable opportunity to delve deeper into prospective memory and metacognition and work with leaders in the field. It allowed me to enhance my research and analysis skills, as well as providing an excellent stepping stone for those who wish to go on to do a PhD. A particular highlight of the year was working with friends on the course in running Mind the Brain - the ICN's annual neuroscience conference. I think it would be great to do a PhD in the future but for now I am really enjoying working on scientific-related projects at a consulting firm in London.