Hello everyone, this is my first time posting on CC. I will be applying to colleges this fall, and I am really interested in neuroscience and philosophy on the pre-med track. However, I am stuck between applying to Brown or to Yale in the early round. Which has a better neuroscience (I know Yale does not have a neuroscience major- I am referring to the track within the Psychology major) and/or philosophy department? I know both are great schools with probably little difference in their faculty/departments, but nevertheless any help would be appreciated. Thank you!
Hey @paradoxicalpat,
I have a lot of experience with these kinds of questions because I’m currently an undergraduate student at brown who is majoring in neuroscience. The best way I could help you would be to tell you whether you have a good chance to get into the brown neuro department (I work at student admissions). Could you post your stats?
@loxcubit37, no need to wait for OP to post up stats. It would be a great service to the forum if you could tell us official information that you know about who has a “good chance”, as you say, based on criteria such as GPA, SAT/ACT, SAT2, ECs, essays, recommendations, and anything else you know to be relevant.
And just to clarify, Brown has different admissions standards for applicants who say they intend to be Neuroscience concentrators, from those who say they intend to choose other concentrations?
This would help all applicants, not just the OP
Regarding @fenwaypark 's comment - Would Brown look at my application differently if I applied as a Chemistry concentration versus a Neuroscience concentration? Would applying as one give me an “advantage”, persay?
No, pretty sure loxcubit is lying, hence that being their one and only post on CC. There is no “getting into” a department. Once admitted to Brown, you can declare for any concentration you wish.
Intended concentration can play a tiny role in admissions (obviously the school doesn’t want/can’t handle everyone pursuing the same concentration) but it also has to be congruent with the rest of your app. If everything you’ve done screams chemistry or neuro and you say the opposite, it’s going to raise an eyebrow. This is more a concern when dealing with concentrations with vastly different popularities/academic areas. I would not consider neuro vs. chem to be in that realm.
EDIT: Also, it’s per se.