<p>After seeing the statistics on grad school acceptances and matriculation from liberal arts colleges, I've been exploring the LACs as an undergrad option. Background on me, I'm female from San Diego, going to be a neuroscience major, and planning on getting a PhD. Strong statistics and ECs (more detail at <a href="http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/what-my-chances/1508050-chances-science-undergrad-new-post.html%5B/url%5D">http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/what-my-chances/1508050-chances-science-undergrad-new-post.html</a>). I'd like to avoid most of the south, and anything located in too rural of an area isn't for me. The rest of the country is open, preferably one of the coasts + philidelphia and chicago. I'd prefer if they were really known for their science programs. I already have Harvey Mudd, Pomona, and Bowdoin on my list. Does anyone have other suggestions as to which LACs might be a good fit, as a reach, target, or safety?</p>
<p>*if you post I'm willing to chance/contribute to one of your threads</p>
<p>Start looking at course catalogs to see if the course offerings at each school are suitable for your interests (and check the schedules to see how frequently each course is offered).</p>
<p>Some schools may not have an explicit neuroscience major, but you can look at curricula at schools that do and see if similar courses can be found at the schools without an explicit neuroscience major (perhaps some other major with appropriate electives, or a design-your-own major can fulfill those interests).</p>
<p>See, I prefer schools that do have a dedicated major/department. To me, that helps show that neuroscience is valued at that school. I would love to be with other biology (specifically neuroscience of course), majors who also see the value of a LAC and enjoy writing/history in addition to the hard sciences. I love the idea of being surrounded by well rounded, intellectual, and motivated people</p>
<p>Not sure how strong it is in neuroscience, but Wesleyan is strong in sciences because it has some graduate science programs. It has stronger research than most lac’s and funding, etc. Might be worth a look.</p>
<p>Although it may be more rural than you prefer, I wouldn’t eliminate Williams as it has much of what you’re looking for. Strong sciences, a well respected neuroscience interdisciplinary program with excellent graduate school and medical school placements. Williams has a lot of cultural overlaps with Pomona.</p>
<p>I’ve been looking into wesleyan, there is a neuroscience program but unfortunately the program is run by the bio/psych departments. Despite this, it looks like a robust major with a number of classes I’d love to take. The campus and area seem beautiful. Best of all, it looks like I may have a fair shot at getting in. I’ll add it to my list!</p>
<p>I know you said not Southern - but you may want to consider Trinity University (San Antonio, TX). Strong neuroscience major and good track record of getting students into med school.</p>
<p>I’ve heard good things about Trinity, and thank you for the suggestion. It would certainly be a hurdle to adjust to southern culture. I’ve grown up in a liberal, LGBT friendly, tolerant environment. I’m all for getting out of my comfort zone, and I love a good debate with someone who doesn’t share my views. But I draw the line at a lack of tolerance for other kinds/colors/creeds of people, which seems all too common in certain areas of the south. I’m trying not to stereotype, and I do know some lovely and open minded people who live in the south. In fact, one of my closest friends is a New Orleans resident. I’m sure many big southern cities have much to offer. However, outside of Durham and Austin, I worry that my personal code of ethics/political views may just be too far outside of the norm, and I’d be cast as an outsider. I invite people to try and prove me wrong, but after visiting various regions of the south multiple times (Houston, New Orleans, Nashville, and Atlanta to name a few) I found the environment just a little too close minded. I know I’m making generalizations, but I’m trying my best to base my observations off experience rather than reputation.</p>
<p>You are falling into the stereotyping trap, neuromajor. Big cities tend to be relatively liberal, even if they’re in a conservative state.</p>
<p>Houston has a gay mayor. Atlanta and New Orleans have had many black mayors, and you can make an argument that Atlanta was the most important American city when it comes to civil rights. My daughter lives in Nashville, which is a very creative and friendly city.</p>
<p>I’m sorry, but you’re the one with a closed mind.</p>
<p>Being in an isolated city that values one set of beliefs is a different story the the entirety of the state, which statistically is majority anti LGBT and anti other things I support. Most college campuses do tend to be liberal. Atlanta was crucial in the civil rights movement, due to the dramatic discrimination that existed in that city. I understand that was a long time ago, and everywhere has a past (often full of unsavoravle bits of history). I have tried to keep an open mind in my consideration of southern schools. Perhaps I’ve just had a bad experience when I have visited those locations. I recall one incident where I felt uncomfortable walking alongside a mixed race male friend, as people were openly staring as if we had done something wrong. On another occasion, a college (who I won’t name) in the south made an offhand remark about the lack of women at their school due to “the gender not being cut out for such hard thinking” that stuck me as highly offensive. There are other stories I could tell that do not flatter the region. It’s possible I had a string of bad experiences. I’ve heard wonderful things about southern hospitality, and as stated I know there are plenty of exceptions. No one place has all of one kind of people. But my experiences have not been kind to my perception of varying areas. And there are other considerations besides those experiences I’m taking into account. Namely, I prefer a green, wet, and colder atmosphere, and being near a coast. Hence why I’m considering Duke even though it is in North Carolina. I don’t want to start a flame war on CC, and I understand there are great merits and contributions coming from intelligent, tolerant people in the south. I just don’t think it’s for me, that’s all. It may be a perfect fit for someone else, in fact I have a few friends looking to mostly southern schools. I didn’t mean to offend anyone.</p>
<p>you profess tolerance yet you just painted an entire region with a broad brush, based on a stereotype for which you have no basis . “I’ve grown up in a liberal, LGBT friendly, tolerant environment” you actually sound very ignorant .
fyi…NYC is having a terrible time with LGBTQ hate crimes. people in the south contrary to their portrayal by elites in Hollywood and NYC are not inbred close minded homophobic racists.</p>
<p>I don’t happen to live in NYC. In terms of where I live, I was referring to a specific community, not an entire city (although the gay pride in my city is one of the largest in the country, ect.) as mentioned in my previous comment, LGBT rights are only one of many examples. I’m also not making this judgement on things on TV or whatnot, but personal experience (feel free to read my previous post). Lastly, a different culture isn’t necessarily completely a bad thing, just may not be what I’m looking for. The emphasis on friendliness and hospitality in GENERAL in the south is both admirable and charming, and there are other superficial climate reasons why I’ve ruled out much of the south that also apply to a place like North Dakota (I prefer being near large bodies of water, and near greenery, with huge thriving science communities). A place like Austin would meet the majority of my criteria, but fall short on the “near water” requirement which has nothing to do with culture. I’ve also ruled out some other southern schools for different reasons (e.g. Vanderbilt doesn’t have it’s own dedicated department, I’m not a fan of how Rice does housing, ect.) that are the same as why I’ve ruled out some northern schools. I’d appreciate if we all could potentially “agree to disagree” and go back to my original question, which asked about LACs. I’d be w willing to consider southern schools, just as Trinity was suggested and after looking into it ruled out for OTHER reasons than location.</p>
<p>@rhg3rd, reed is appealing except for the very reason mentioned, I really do prefer a school with a dedicated program (otherwise, it looks fantastic. If I was passionate about another field it may be near the top of my list). And pomona is currently tied with Harvey Mudd as my dream LAC. That 13%/19% admit rate with sky high Math SAT scores is frightening though we’ll have to wait and see how the June scores turn out</p>
<p>You shouldn’t constrain your college search to only those universities which offer a formal neuroscience major. Neuroscience grad programs want to see evidence of academic excellence in the classroom and meaningful research experience in the lab. You can certainly get that training at a large or small school, public or private, LAC or tech school. Even if your undergrad institution had no research opportunities whatsoever (which would be rare), you could easily figure out a way to obtain research experience during the summers.</p>
<p>You’re a fairly savvy kid who has oodles of initiative. I bet you could do your undergrad training pretty much anywhere…and still be a strong applicant to neuroscience grad programs. Really.</p>
<p>On a separate note, my sense is that you’re getting a little ahead of yourself here…</p>
<p>You probably go to a great high school. You’ve earned great grades. You’ve done one or two summers of neuroscience research. That’s wonderful. But have you really had enough experience to determine that a career in neuroscience is for you? The fact of the matter is that many techniques used in neuroscience labs are also used in other life science fields. Maybe once you get a taste of other disciplines you’ll find yourself even more interested in cancer research, botany, or marine biology. Heck, you may go off to college and figure out that science really isn’t for you. Perhaps the best approach for you would be to generate a list of colleges that offer strong science programs and liberal arts coursework (so that you can explore other interests as well).</p>
<p>I would add all the good LACs (Carleton, Williams, Amherst, Pomona, etc.) and great universities (HYPS, other Ivy League schools, UCs, Wash U, UW, etc.) to your potential college application list. Cast a wide net. You never know what you might find…</p>
<p>It’s possible, @bartleby007, that I could end up loving another discipline more. I’ve seen the statistics on major switching. I have a personal love of reading, especially scientific journals. What I’ve found is that in addition to my positive lab experience, I near universally gravitate to neuroscience articles. Not just the exciting, headline grabbing popular science articles, but more day to day ones about new techniques in EEG or something that may not be groundbreaking, but still exciting to me. Over the last three years, I’ve been self motivated to go out and read everything I can get my hands on about neuroscience. It’s excited me like no other field has. While I’m slightly interested in other aspects of biology, genetics as an example, it always relates back to neuroscience. I do take all this with a personal, self-reflective grain of salt. I know that a teenage brain doesn’t truly slow development until age 25, when all major neural networks are for the most part in their adult form. Who knows, I may end up in love with something else. </p>
<p>That’s why I’m taking your suggestion as to schools with strong programs all over the spectrum, as well as other factors that are important to me. Some of these factors are as trivial as location (I prefer greenery on campus, a suburban environment, and near a large body of water). It’s also a reason why I’m currently loving the idea of a LAC, hence the existence of this thread. Maybe I’ll end up as a science writer or program lead instead of a lab tech. Maybe I’ll fall in love with a pre-med route. But a school that gives me the opportunity with less of a class number ceiling (an LAC like Pomona, for example, has a large number of neuroscience classes) would allow me to explore my neuroscience passion while also exploring a general love of learning and assorted non-science disciplines like joining theater for “fun” or taking philosophy classes. </p>
<p>I guess I’ve spent a significant amount of time introspectively finding what drives me. For some, it may be fame, recognition, or money. While those things may be nice, I’ve found that I want to explore and discover new things that can truly impact the world and help people. And neuroscience is a discipline that would allow me to do just that. </p>
<p>Lastly, I’d like to thank you, bartleby007. Your comments all over CC (we’ve tended to pick up on similar threads) are always insightful and intelligent even when we don’t agree. I appreciate your contributions tremendously.</p>
we’ll have to wait and see how the June scores turn out</p>