<p>hey. I'm currently a junior, and I'm really interested in pursuing a major in neuroscience as well as being in the pre med program. I want to become a neurologist. Does anyone know what college would best suit that? I heard that UCSD, Johns Hopkins, and the University of Pittsburgh are good choices. What do you guys think? Are there any other colleges you suggest? Also, a college that has more diversity would be nice.</p>
<p>The ones you have are really good for the neuroscience/premed combo. I would also suggest Rice and Duke, and maybe also Emory. Any Ivy would probably do okay as well. Oh yeah, and Brandeis is top-notch for neuroscience - I have no idea about whether it's premed-friendly.</p>
<p>Yale and Penn</p>
<p>i agree that an ivy would be really good, but i'm leaning more toward a non ivy since an ivy is so competitive to get into.</p>
<p>also, if you had to pick one of the three colleges i listed, which one would you pick?</p>
<p>Depending on your stat; JHU if you have competitive stats, Pitts if not.</p>
<p>UCLA comes to mind.</p>
<p>and in picking a college with a good neuroscience major to go with premed, why would u pick that one as opposed to other colleges?</p>
<p>The Neuro department at Brown is pretty amazing.</p>
<p>Colgate, U Rochester, U Miami</p>
<p>Rugg’s Recommendations</p>
<p>NEUROSCIENCE
Claremont McKenna
Pitzer
Pomona
Scripps
UC Berkeley
UCLA
UCSD
Colorado College
Northwestern
Bates
Bowdoin
Colby
Johns Hopkins
Amherst
Boston U
Brandeis
Harvard
Mt Holyoke
Wellesley
Colgate
Columbia
Cornell
Hamilton
NYU
Duke
Franklin and Marshall
Lehigh
Brown
Rice
Washington and Lee</p>
<p>BIOPSYCHOLOGY
Earlham
U Michigan
Washington U St Louis
Barnard
Hamilton
Vassar
Bucknell
Carnegie Mellon
Franklin and Marshall
William and Mary</p>
<p>Gourman Report ranking for neuroscience GRADUATE programs</p>
<p>YALE UNIVERSITY 1 4.93
HARVARD UNIVERSITY 2 4.92
UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA-SAN FRANCISCO 3 4.91
UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA-SAN DIEGO 4 4.90
UMBIA UNIVERSITY 5 4.87
COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY 5 4.87
JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY 6 4.83
STANFORD UNIVERSITY 7 4.83
UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA-BERKELEY 8 4.81
CALIFORNIA INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY 9 4.78
UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA 10 4.75
WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY 11 4.73
ROCKEFELLER UNIVERSI1Y 12 4.72
DUKE UNIVERSITY 13 4.68
UNIVERSITY OF WASHINGTON 14 4.67
CASE WESTERN RESERVE UNIVERSITY 15 4.64
UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA-LOS ANGELES 16 4.62
MASSACHUSETIS INSTITUTE OF TECHNOlOGY 17 4.61
UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN-ANN ARBOR 18 4.57
UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO 19 4.53
BAYLOR COLLEGE OF MEDICINE 20 4.51
UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA-IRVINE 21 4.48
CORNELL UNIVERSITY 22 4.45
NORTHWESTERN UNIVERSITY 23 4.40
UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN-MADISON 24 4.36
UNIVERSITY OF NORTH CAROLINA-CHAPEL HILL 25 4.33
VANDERBILT UNIVERSITY 26 4.31
ALBERT EINSTEIN COLLEGE OF MEDICINE OF YESHIVA UNIVERSITY 27. 4.30
UNIVERSITY OF IOWA 28 4.24
STATE UNIVERSITY OF NEW YORK AT STONY BROOK 29 4.22
UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA 30 4.19
MAYO MEDICAL SCHOOL 31 4,17
BRANDEIS UNIVERSITY 32 4.14
EMORY UNIVERSITY 33 4.13
UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA-TWIN CITIES 34 4.11
UNIVERSITY OF OREGON 35 4.10</p>
<p>If you would consider Ivy, I would be sure to look at Dartmouth, which has a functional MRI just for the use of undergrads.</p>
<p>Grinnell is an excellent LAC and started a Neuroscience Concentration in 2006 and it is supposed to be wonderful. It is a very diverse college. Not sure if you have ever considered a LAC, but they have an incredible science department and top notch facilities as well. </p>
<p>They have great need based aid and excellent merit scholarships as well. They have a very high acceptance rate into med school. There are no TA’s and have one of the best endowments per capita around. </p>
<p>Grinnell also has a lot of opportunities for research and projects. Because they have not TA’s you will work very closely with your professors. Nice bonus going to a small LAC that is so well endowed. TA’s do not teach anything there.</p>
<p>[Neuroscience</a> / Neurobiology - Biological Sciences - Graduate Schools - Education - US News and World Report](<a href=“http://grad-schools.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/best-graduate-schools/top-biological-sciences-programs/neurosciences]Neuroscience”>http://grad-schools.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/best-graduate-schools/top-biological-sciences-programs/neurosciences)</p>
<p>I would say Harvard or Johns Hopkins (not sure about Stanford) as having the best undergraduate Neuroscience program.</p>
<p>USNews: Neurobiology/Neuroscience (graduate)</p>
<p>1 Harvard University
2 Stanford University
3 Johns Hopkins University
4 Massachusetts Institute of Technology
5 University of California–San Diego
6 University of California–San Francisco
7 Rockefeller University
Yale University
9 Washington University in St. Louis
10 California Institute of Technology
Columbia University</p>
<p>If ur interested in LACs: the big 3 are Oberlin, Amherst and Pomona (but there are alot of other less selective options)
If you have a good shot at these schools, a good safety would be Franklin and Marshall: they offer Neuroscience, Scientific and Philosophical Studies of the Mind, and Animal Behavior majors</p>
<p>Some other ones to consider Brown, UC Davis/UCSD, Carnegie Mellon, U of R </p>
<p>Wash U and Emory offer some really interesting interdisciplinary nuero/cog sci programs</p>
<p>I would pick Pitt over JHU…Pitt has crap tons of money in their program and are doing some of the newest research with UPMC. Plus it’s way cheaper than any of the others and is arguabley one of the strongest programs. They let you cross register with CMU</p>
<p>Neither Harvard, Yale or Stanford offer an UNDERGRADUATE neuroscience major. </p>
<p>The Johns Hopkins neuroscience interdisciplinary program is very small with 3 to 4 students majoring every year.</p>
<p>Duke has also recently started offering an interdisciplinary neuroscience program. Can’t tell how popular it is. </p>
<p>MIT has by far the best established undergraduate neuroscience department among private universities as well as the largest neuroscience research lab in the world. Around 50 undergrads major in the department every year.
[MIT</a> : Brain and Cognitive Sciences : About BCS](<a href=“http://bcs.mit.edu/aboutbcs/]MIT”>http://bcs.mit.edu/aboutbcs/)</p>
<p>Princeton offers currently a very popular certificate program in neuroscience for undergrads in conjunction with the new Princeton Neuroscience Institute. It will probably become a full major when the new neuroscience building opens.
[Princeton</a> Neuroscience Institute](<a href=“http://www.princeton.edu/neuroscience/]Princeton”>Princeton Neuroscience Institute)</p>
<p>Brown also has an established neuroscience department offering majors for undergrads.
[Department</a> of Neuroscience](<a href=“http://neuroscience.brown.edu/]Department”>http://neuroscience.brown.edu/)</p>
<p>If you are seriously interested in neuroscience you should:</p>
<ol>
<li><p>Make sure that the major is offered by a dedicated department and that is not just some interdisciplinary program with faculty borrowed from a bunch of departments. This vastly impacts resources, breadth and depth of course offerings and research opportunities. </p></li>
<li><p>make sure it is a BS program. BA programs are essentially glorified psych programs. </p></li>
<li><p>Check how many undergrads actually major in the field at the particular college. That will give you an idea about how popular the program is.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>
Although the major itself is new, undergraduate neuroscience at Duke is not. Previously there were 3 ways to study neuroscience there – biology with a concentration in neuroscience, psychology with a concentration in neuroscience, and neuroscience as a certificate (halfway between a major and minor). All were pretty popular. </p>
<p>
Although it is true that they do not offer a free-standing major in neuroscience, all of them at least offer a neuroscience/neurobiology concentration within the undergraduate biology program (with dedicated neuroscience faculty). As with most subjects, I don’t think any of the three would be a horrible choice. Course offerings would be limited relative to MIT, perhaps, but the number of courses any undergraduate is able/willing to take in the major is limited anyway.</p>
<p>[Harvard:</a> Life Sciences](<a href=“http://isites.harvard.edu:80/icb/icb.do?keyword=k5526&tabgroupid=icb.tabgroup13170]Harvard:”>http://isites.harvard.edu:80/icb/icb.do?keyword=k5526&tabgroupid=icb.tabgroup13170)</p>
<p>[Yale</a> > Molecular Cellular and Developmental Biology > Undergraduate Programs](<a href=“http://www.biology.yale.edu/undergrad/index.html]Yale”>http://www.biology.yale.edu/undergrad/index.html)
[Yale</a> > Molecular Cellular and Developmental Biology > Faculty](<a href=“http://www.biology.yale.edu/research/index.html#neuro]Yale”>http://www.biology.yale.edu/research/index.html#neuro)</p>
<p>[Stanford</a> Neurobiology Requirements](<a href=“http://www.stanford.edu/dept/biology/student_resources/neurobio_FOS.pdf]Stanford”>http://www.stanford.edu/dept/biology/student_resources/neurobio_FOS.pdf)</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>While historically, neurobiology and neuroscience were used interchangeably it is now widely accepted that the two fields are distinct. While neurobiology refers specifically to the biology of the nervous system, neuroscience refers to the entire science of the nervous system. The scope of neuroscience is therefore much broader than neurobiology and includes different approaches used to study the molecular, developmental, structural, functional, evolutionary, computational, and medical aspects of the nervous system. Even the tools and methods used are different. The weapon of choice of neuroscientists is medical imaging most specifically fMRI or PET, not available in biology departments. These systems cost millions of dollars and require dedicated technical staffs. </p>
<p>Most advanced work in neuroscience is now done in dedicated departments and labs not attached to biology departments. A number of top universities have graduate neuroscience departments. These departments with their resources and course offerings are just not accessible to undergrads except at a handful of institutions. At places such as MIT, there is no restriction on what classes undergrads can take and many classes are joint grad/undergrad.</p>