I am set and stone in these majors but I don’t know which one I should pick. I’ve considered other factors regarding the choice between these two schools. Now I am down to the majors. Can I please get some perspective on both majors and their differences? Can anyone from UCSD or UCSB tell me what their experiences were like? Any recommendations?
Thank you!
Are you planning to go to graduate school or medical school? UCSD has way more opportunities for research and internships in the area, as well as a top tier bio program and many hospitals on campus. They’re also opening a new bio building for undergraduate education this fall. Is there anything that’s pushing you towards UCSB?
Edit: think I misunderstood your question. Neurobiology will obviously have a much stronger neuroscience focus than biopsych, which is fundamentally a psychology major. That could affect your ability to pursue further studies in biology or certain job opportunities? Don’t know much about it tbh
UCSB has plenty of research opportunities. Particularly as an undergraduate, you wouldn’t necessarily have any trouble chasing opportunities there.
Decoding UCSB’s biopsychology major is kind of difficult, but in general, biopsychology is far broader than neuroscience. It’s also known as biological psychology, and it’s about the ways in which your biological structure and function is intertwined with your mind, brain, and psychological functioning. Some of that is neurological: a biopsychologist might be interested in how brain chemistry affects emotions or how stress impacts cognitive function in the brain. But much of it isn’t: some biopsychologists are interested in whole-body physiological reactions to stress; pain and its psychological effects; drug use and its effects on behavior; happiness and the physiological impact of such; etc. A lot of biopsychologists do research in health psychology, looking at how psychological and neurological mechanisms and solutions can be used to understand and treat physical symptoms and illnesses.
Neurobiology is the biological study of the nervous system. There’s definitely some overlap, but generally speaking you’ll be much more focused on the structure and biological functioning of the nervous system than you would be with psychology and behavioral studies.
The biopsychology major at UCSB includes a lot of biology and chemistry classes, so I could imagine a major in that field advancing and doing graduate work in biology, particularly if they supplemented well.