<p>I'm in the midst of applying to various schools for graduate school and am having a difficult time deciding what programs at each school to apply to. I'm coming straight out of undergrad majoring in Neuroscience/Cell and Molecular Biology and my research experience has all been in molecular neurobiology. My main issue is that while I have loved the field I've been working in I have no exposure to anything else and therefore can't say I wouldn't like another area just as much if not more. Because of this I've been tempted by some schools that offer undeclared programs in biomedical science with more broad-based course work and the opportunity to do rotations in a number of different areas. However, my entire application is really geared toward neuroscience: my degree/research/publications are all in neuroscience. I don't want to apply to a generalized biomedical science program and have them look at my application and think that I'm flaking out on what I'd been focusing on. Should I stick to applying to Neuroscience specific programs where my experience is more relevant? For that matter is there a general consensus as to what type of program would be more difficult to get accepted in to? Any advice from either an applications or personal experience standpoint would be much appreciated!</p>
<p>I was in exactly the same position when I applied – I almost could have written this post myself. I had double-majored in neuroscience and biology, and all of my research was in neuroscience, but I wasn’t sure whether I wanted to let a few decisions I’d made when I was 18 decide the course of my PhD. </p>
<p>I applied to biomedical sciences umbrella programs, and I am attending one of them. I was never given the impression in interviews that it was odd or problematic for an applicant with a background in neuroscience to apply to biomedical sciences programs. After all, many neuroscience faculty are affiliated themselves with biomedical sciences umbrella programs, and the point of an umbrella program is partly to allow incoming grad students to explore their academic interests. I was accepted to all the programs to which I applied.</p>
<p>As it happened, I ended up in a neuroscience thesis lab, so I suppose I could have just applied to neuroscience programs in the first place. 
But I didn’t know that at the time. As a bonus, I got to take classes I was much more interested in – the neuro program at my school is pretty electrophys-heavy, and the neuro students have to take a more restricted set of courses than the biomedical sciences students do.</p>