<p>Hi everybody.
I'm really confused about this major and where to pursue it. I've done some reading (here, and google results) and everyone keeps saying UC or MIT. I don't know if those are feasible choices.
Some info about my situation:
30 year old, broke, white male
From Seattle, want to stay on the west coast
1st gen to attend
3.5 GPA in basic Associates Bio curriculum
will still need to finish O-Chem series after transfer (credits/aid ran out)
Did not finish high school (GED) but over 90 cred CC
No SAT/ACT
Strong personal statement and recommendations
Lead Science Tutor @ CC</p>
<p>As you can see, MIT/Harvard/etc are not going to be an option with a 3.5 and no SAT.</p>
<p>UC offers it on nearly all campuses. Their application only runs during Nov. I have obviously missed that (wouldn't have been able to apply anyway, I'm just now finishing the foreign language at CC).</p>
<p>University of Washington is my ideal choice for school based on location, but it only offers Psychology BA/BS or Neurobiology. The NBio only takes 50 or so students per year with UW students having priority... the advisor told me if I had a 3.8-4.0 I'd have about a 10% chance getting in as a transfer app.
U of Oregon and OSU are the same scenario. Psych or Nbio ONLY... no biopsych, no cog sci, no applied psych.
ASU has applied psych, which I applied for.</p>
<p>I don't want to do just psych. I love biology as well and want that background in my studies. I don't want to do just NBio, as I really enjoy psych and want my focus to be there with some hard science background.
My ultimate goal is to do well on the MCAT, attend med school, and become a psychiatrist (MD).
My 2nd goal would be to do research on perception and other Biopsych fields (PhD). This is why its important to me to do the Biopsych/CogSci/Applied Psych major.</p>
<p>Can anyone recommend any schools that offer biopsych, that I may have a fighting chance at attending?
Given my goals, am I going about this the right way?
Should I wait a year and just work/study for MCAT while I wait for UC's app to re-open? Would I even have a shot at UC?
Should I attend UW (local, pretty good school) and just do the BS in Psych? I feel like this option is 'settling' and not going for what I really want... </p>
<p>What do you guys think?
Sorry this is so long, just wanted to get all the details out there. Thank you in advance.</p>
<p>Ouch. 274 views and no replies 
Either what I’m trying to do is totally unfeasible, or no one is interested in this major…
or my post was too long lol</p>
<p>OK, I’ll start.</p>
<ol>
<li><p>Congratulations on your 3.5 gpa
You certainly should be able to get in somewhere.</p></li>
<li><p>Lack of high school diploma and SAT/ACT won’t matter, because of your cc credits.</p></li>
<li><p>Even if you could get into a UC, they are not generous with OOS aid.</p></li>
<li><p>Why so specific for undergrad degree?</p></li>
</ol>
<p>Thank you. It’s good to know that the high school/SAT scenario isn’t going to ruin me here.
It seems that most OOS financial aid options are pretty crappy. Although, I do qualify for Pell grants and State Need grants here in WA (I assume this would not work in a state where I wasn’t a resident? How does this cross-over – if at all?)
I’ve also been able to get a couple small scholarships here and there due to my background and ok GPA.</p>
<p>Why so specific? Hmmm… good question.
Efficiency, I guess? Since I am 30 I don’t want to spend another decade completing a degree.
I enjoy psychology thoroughly, and even ran a website to help troubled/depressed teens and work with relationship issues. I had fun learning and helping people. I just feel like a Psych B.A./B.S. is kind of the “cop-out” degree that everyone takes when parents force them into college (no offense to anyone…but you know the stigma about it) and it wouldn’t offer much in the way of a return for my fiscal investment in college.
I also don’t want to ignore the science. I love bio, critical thinking, analyzing why things happen at a molecular level, etc. </p>
<p>If I go the route of a PhD and decide to commit my life to research/education, then I will DEFINITELY want to be in a BioPsych program.
It wouldn’t do me any good to have a basic Psych only degree and try to get into a grad program for biopsych … would it?</p>
<p>I appreciate any info anyone can give me on this – whether it’s schools to look into, financial aid stuff for out-of-state, academic path, etc.</p>
<p>Thank you</p>
<p>UC San Diego is an obvious choice given your interests. The school is strong in cognitive psychology, bio, and neuroscience. It was also the first school in the world to establish a cognitive science department.</p>
<p>However, the UCs are all very California-centric. The out-of-state tuition is nearly three times the in-state tution, and transfer students are expected to have completed the IGETC (transfer curriculum for UCs) at a California Community College. If you haven’t completed IGETC, you can still get accepted to a UC, but you may be in for a surprise when you’re told that you still have to take a bunch of general ed courses at the UC. </p>
<p>Making matters worse, California schools have just experienced a decade of rapid tuition hikes – tuitions nearly tripled since 2000. On the other hand, the UCs are supposedly accepting more out-of-state students these days (so they can get more $$$).</p>
<p>Honestly, I think it’s very risky to take on a lot of debt for an undergrad psych or cognitive science degree. One option you have is to move out to California, establish residency, and complete IGETC at the same time, but that could take you two years or so. Given your age, you’re probably eager to get your career started. Personally, I think your best option is go with a school like UW and try to tailor your coursework to fit your long term career goals. I think you already have the right idea about focusing more on the hard sciences – I think that will get you further in your education. I once shared an apartment with a cognitive psych phd candidate and I was surprised to learn that his undergrad and master’s degrees were in engineering (his psych research dealt with vision). He told me that his science and math background gave him a huge advantage, and when I looked him up recently, I found that he’s now an assistant professor in China.</p>
<p>Interesting! Thank you for shedding some light on the situation!
Yeah, no matter where I go I would like to eventually come back to the northwest. I absolutely love it here, so my stay in CA would only be to finish school/grad school/maybe work a bit to get that “experience” and then search for jobs back here in WA.</p>
<p>It never hurts to apply, and if I’m accepted, see what kind of financial package they’d offer me. If I qualify for any kind of grants or scholarships, it may kinda be a wash (I’d think?)</p>
<p>What do you mean by ‘tailoring’ coursework?
I think I follow you, but the big challenge at UW is that their neurobiology program only takes 56 students/year due to lack of funding for the labs. The advisor directly told me that as a non-UW student transferring in, I’d have about a 10% chance of being accepted <em>IF</em> I had a 3.8-4.0 GPA. Talk about a dream crusher.</p>
<p>is it possible to do a psych B.S. and add in some neurobio courses? That would probably cure my itch for the hard sci, and keep me local around friends, fam, and easy grants :)</p>
<p>If I end up doing well on the MCAT and can get into a med-school for psychiatry, none of it will matter. I’d probably do the B.S. psych and just try to wedge in as much nbio/biochem/whatever as I can.
It’s my back-up plan that I’m concerned with.
Getting into biopsych research without a biopsych undergrad seems, well… unlikely.</p>
<p>Are you suggesting maybe I just look into a human bio B.S. that’s easier to get into than the neurobio specifically, then just wedge in the psych stuff somehow?
That may be a better alternative than the opposite. </p>
<p>Sorry, I have tons of questions and am not 100% on how it all works. The advisor just basically said “You need __credits for the bachelors, you can double major in both, or pick one or the other, and B.S. psych requires an additional calc statistics course”.
That’s really all I took from it haha…</p>
<p>Also, how does one go from an Engineering B.S. into cogsci phd?
That’s possible? lol :)</p>
<p>Well, my former roommate explained to me that he was working on a joint research project (while he was finishing his Master’s degree in China), with some folks at the UC. One of the professors basically brought him over here to work for him as a phd student. So basically, if a professor wants you, you’ll get in.</p>
<p>I think you already understand what I meant by “tailoring” your coursework. If the degree programs offered at UW aren’t ideal for you, take a look at the curriculum for your ideal school and major (easily found online) and see if you can take similar courses at UW to fulfill your major electives.</p>
<p>I’m an engineering grad student, so I don’t have a whole lot of advice to offer you. I guess my last word advice is that, based on my experience, community college advisers don’t always know what they’re talking about. I also transfered from a community college, and I was given a lot of false information by the CC advisers as well as from other students. For instance, I heard similar things about some of the UC schools (that you need to have a 3.8 or higher to get accepted) which turned out not to be true. So if you’re interested in the neurobiology program, I encourage you to apply anyway, regardless of what the adviser says.</p>
<p>Good luck!</p>
<p>Oh, it was the NBio advisor at UW that told me that, not at CC 
I take CC advisors with a grain of salt lol</p>