<p>Hi all, first post for me, thanks in advance for the help.</p>
<p>I'm a junior in high school interested in pursuing Behavioral Neuroscience as a major, and I have two questions;
-What colleges have good programs in this field? I see that Northeastern and Columbia have programs but that's about all, and
-What careers are available with this degree? Med school is an obvious one, but other than that I'm not too sure.</p>
<p>Thanks again for all of the help.</p>
<p>Cognitive psychology is a similar field and you can attend graduate psychology programs that have a behavioral neuroscience emphasis. One direction with this is to do research or go into academics and teach (along with still doing research). Other than that and medical school, I’m not sure what else you could do. I’m sure there are websites available with more information on that. </p>
<p>As for finding a good program - you definitely want one that has the appropriate equipment and research opportunities if you are looking to apply to graduate or medical school after your bachelor’s is completed. This will show that you are serious about continuing your education, and such experiences can mean more than grades depending on the route you want to take (but its always best to cover all bases and get stellar grades, too!).</p>
<p>You can’t just go by the title of a major at particular schools. Some programs will be called “Cognitive Neuroscience” so look for that, too. Neuroscience programs fall into 4 basic categories: 1. Programs that are a subconcentration in a biology dept. 2. Programs that are offered in a free-standing neuroscience dept. 3. Programs that are offered as a subconcentration in a psychology dept. 4. Interdisciplinary neuroscience majors offered by participating depts, usually biology and psychology. You also will find “Cognitive Science” programs that are even more interdisciplinary and draw upon course work from biology, psychology, philosophy, linguistics, computer science, etc. Since your interests are in the behavioral aspects, you probably don’t want a program that is primarily a subconcentration in a biology dept. Nonetheless, you could still take courses with a behavioral focus in a biology dept, but you’re more likely to find these courses in a psychology dept. Many programs that are not strictly a subconcentration in a psychology dept. still offer coursework or a subspecialty track in the behavioral aspects. There are many good programs: U Pittsburgh, Harvard, Princeton, UCLA, U Washington, U Texas-Dallas, Minnesota, et al. </p>
<p>There are not many job opportunities at the bachelor’s level, apart from relatively low paying lab technician jobs. You really need to go to graduate or professional school. Besides medical school, other options include neuroscience research (in the many fields mentioned above); certain areas of speech & hearing sciences, learning disabilities and certain areas of special education, certain areas of clinical psychology, rehab psychology, physical therapy, pharmacology, certain areas of nursing, gerontology, certain areas of human-factors psychology/engineering, biomedical engineering, etc. To prepare for some of these areas, you need to supplement your neuroscience courses with supporting and pre-requisite course work in other fields, though you don’t necessarily need to have majored in those areas as an undergrad.</p>
<p>MIT, UCSD, Johns Hopkins, Yale, UCSF, Columbia, Boston University, Tufts, Carnegie Mellon, Wustl, and Penn all have good programs (some are in neuroscience, some in cognitive/brain science)</p>
<p>Oops, sorry, I see now that you already mentioned Columbia.</p>
<p>UCSF is not an undergrad school.
Purdue also has one, and you could create one with a school that offers a create your own major option and has a strong neuro program.</p>
<p>Carnegie Mellon has a unique program in Decision Science as does Emory but I’m not sure that’s exactly what you’re looking for.</p>
<p>Thanks for all of the help!!</p>