"During the first block out study was split into three distinct tracks. The lab-bound behavioural neuroscience students had spent their time dissecting fundamental questions through the use of electrodes, lasers, and Petrie dishes. Meanwhile, the cognitive science students had pondered the deep questions, while devising complex computational models. Somewhere in the middle of these two, us cognitive neuroscience students had spent our days exploring all the different ways that we could image the human brain through MRI, EEG, and much more.

In short, any person may have been a relative stranger to two-thirds of their peers. We had briefly been introduced in our first week-long intensive course, but we hadn’t had the time to form lasting bonds. After all, the next block had us each take our own electives in which we would interact with people from different tracks and even different programmes."

"The trip highlights included a host of fascinating lectures at the Donders Institute, where we also met the Dondrite student committee, going for a run to the German border (it wasn’t very far), and cooking a frankly obscene number of pancakes for dinner one evening. The Freedom Museum and a day of exploring Nijmegen as a city were also welcome additions to the trip. In the end, the trip to Nijmegen was an incredibly enjoyable addition to the course that served the invaluable purpose of bringing our cohort closer together and establishing bonds that will carry us through the rest of the programme and beyond."