<p>My D is a junior neuroscience major who, by fall semester, will have had research experience at her undergrad liberal arts college, a top 30 research university, and an Ivy (Princeton). Although she hasn't yet taken the GRE, she has a high enough GPA to qualify her for many top programs. As we all know, "qualifying" doesn't mean getting in, so she'll need a range of schools when she applies for graduate programs in the fall.</p>
<p>Right now, her top choices are Stanford, Princeton (new Brain and Cognition program), and Pitt. Although she really needs to talk to her advisor at greater length about possible places to apply, she is consumed with finishing up the semester and hasn't gotten around to it. In the meantime, I thought I'd ask CC people, particularly those who just went through the grad application cycle, what other schools she might want to look into. Obviously, she'll have to do the research for each to see whether they match her interests.</p>
<p>So . . . in your opinion, what are some of the best Ph.D. programs for cognitive neuroscience? What are some good (not top tier but still solid) options?</p>
<p>While I am not in cognitive neuroscience myself, from what I’ve heard other programs your D may wish to consider are: Harvard Neuroscience, MIT BCS, UCSD Neuroscience, UCSF Neuroscience, Yale BBS/Neuroscience Track, and Rockefeller, not necessarily in that order.</p>
<p>I don’t know too much about cognitive neuroscience programs since I am in systems but from what I have seen, Harvard, UCSF and Rockefeller are heavily systems or cell/molecular but I may be wrong. Harvard psychology will be interesting to look at. The ones that stand out for cog (for me who is not doing cog) are MIT, Princeton, Yale, Vanderbilt,UCSD, Northwestern, Columbia psychology, Brown (perhaps), UCLA, Duke among many others I am sure.</p>
<p>I suspect a pure psychology program will be out since she was not thrilled with the non-neuro psych classes she has taken. But I’ll tell her to take a look at those anyway.</p>
<p>OK.The ones that I have not qualified as psych are certainly integrated neuroscience programs, so they will be good to look at. Also at several places, the cog neurosci people will be in psych department but are accessible via the neuroscience program and will almost always be listed on the neuroscience program as well. good luck to your d!</p>
<p>Yeah, the integrated programs aren’t an issue – obviously, or she wouldn’t be interested in the cognitive side. I just don’t think she would want to take the course work to prepare for qualifying exams in psychology. </p>
<p>Another way to look at this- those are all highly ranked famous programmes. How about her smaller area of focus? Who is an expert in her area? What does she want to ursue as a specialty? Start reading papers in her field, check out the authors, where are they? What is their research publication like?</p>
<p>Yes, she has to do the legwork of narrowing the pool, but I’m interested in giving her a place to start. I think it’s easier to begin with a decent number of possibilities that can be pared down than to look only at a few places. After all, looking at programs and their faculty members can help her rule out (and in) what she wants to specialize in.</p>
<p>I’m sure her advisor will have more thoughts on the matter as well.</p>
<p>One of the very top schools for neuroscience is Columbia. Rockefeller, MIT, UCSD and UCSF also have very good programs-- all of these in more molecular neuroscience, since that’s what I know about. MIT has a new program through the biology department in neuroscience, which could be very interesting. I would caution against staying at princeton, since the department is relatively small and she will already be working with multiple professors while there. I would have her talk to her profs and see what they think-- they are very helpful!</p>
<p>well if she doesnt go to princeton- then definitely apply there! They tend to like to take people from their summer programs–at least in the MOL department. From what i’ve heard the list is princeton, columbia, rockefeller, UCSD, MIT and UCSF. With her stats (good gpa at top school + lots of research opportunities), I wouldn’t be too worried about getting in places. I would mostly apply to the top schools, as the quality of students drops of relatively quickly. </p>
<p>I would have her ask her professors, and also her mentor at princeton (univ. professors might have a better idea of what is going on in the field than LAC profs)</p>
<p>Yes, she’ll be in the MolBio research program but will be in an interdisciplinary lab. She’s really interested in systems and the experimental results gained from its study, but she cannot see herself experimenting on animals for a career, hence the more human-oriented side of cognitive neuroscience.</p>
<p>The tentative list she has compiled is slightly different than the above: Stanford, Princeton, Duke, maybe UPenn because of their new interdisciplinary cognitive studies (she would come from the neuroscience, not the psychology side.) Ruled out Columbia and Rockefeller bc she doesn’t want to live in NYC. She hasn’t yet looked at UCSD, MIT, and UCSF. She looked at UCDavis but knows nothing about its reputation in the field.</p>
<p>One thing you may look at is Brain & Cognitive programs. The University of Rochester is a leading program and it fits with what your D wants to do.</p>
<p>A couple of weeks ago, she talked to one of her PIs, who mentioned Rochester as well, so that information jives with yours. Right now, her list is pretty long; she’ll have to do some paring before it comes time to start applying.</p>
<p>University of Rochester, although a good school, never would have occurred to me as a possibility for graduate study in neuroscience. This illustrates how important it is for students to find out from their professors/PIs (and resources such as College Confidential) which programs might be right for their interests. Graduate programs in any field go beyond the usual suspects.</p>