Thanks for the inputs. Yes my daughter is trying to improve the SAT score. Currently at 1300 and not sure how much can she go. If she is not able to bump up significantly as you UVA is a tough admit.
Thanks. Would you have some numbers that UVA is looking for admits in terms of GPA, SAT and other parameters?
No, not really, I am not a UVA admissions person. I believe they look at how kids did in their classes , rigor, ECās, and take an holistic approach to admissions. Donāt think that SATās would be the most important factor but the thing is that the instate kids are competing against the best students in the state for admission. There just arenāt enough seats in the class to accept all very good students in the state. So, best to keep options open and figure out the budget.
Are you the parent or the student? The school guidance department should hopefully be able to help you with suggestions, guidance about schools . You can look at the Common Data Set info related to the schools of interest .
Iām a neuroscience professor so I want to offer some additional advice based on my perspective.
This is absolutely true. In fact, if you truly want a career in neuroscience, you should to plan on doing a PhD. Neuro majors are kind of a trendy new thing, but the job market is pretty bad without a graduate degree.
You should be able to get into a high quality neuroscience PhD program regardless of which college you attend. The most important things are to learn a lot in your classes and get good grades, and ideally do some undergraduate research. You should also think carefully during this time about if you even like doing research (donāt do the PhD if you dislike research). This can absolutely be done at smaller schools. But one advantage of a larger school is that youāll get to see what grad school is like if you work with grad students on research.
The good news is that neuroscience PhD programs are all fully funded: you get free tuition and a pretty good stipend. (If thatās not the case for a program then donāt do it). Masterās degrees in neuroscience have fallen out of favor and should only be pursued in very special circumstances. They are NOT usually funded, which is another reason to avoid them.
2 Likes
Everything that @DadTwoGirls and @ColdWombat have written.
However, a comment on smaller colleges. My daughter is majoring in Neuroscience at Middlebury. She has spent the last two summers (a bit less than 3 months each time) working in a neuroscience lab at U Chicago. Most LACs have connections with research universities to get research experience in a large lab.
That being said, in the same way that students at large universities have to work a bit more to create connections with faculty compared to students at LACs, students at LACs need to work a bit more in order to get experience in working in a lab at a R1.
1 Like
Virginia has amazing in-state publics. Youāre very fortunate. In addition to applying to UVA and VA Tech, you may want to select a third Virginia public that you are extremely likely to be accepted to, as both UVA and VA Tech are no longer safeties for in-state students.
Most colleges offer merit aid. Only at the most competitive/selective schools in the country is there generally no merit aid. This site might be helpful to provide information on many popular schools, but if a school is not listed here, check out its Common Data Set (search the web for the colllegeās name plus āCommon Data Setā).
The people who post on this forum self-select to participate. But here are a few threads from the last admission cycle where people shared their admission results, and usually their academic stats along with it. I didnāt see a Virginia Tech RD thread, though.
If you need help thinking of out-of-state possibilities, let us know what youāre interested in. What size of school? Do you prefer urban/suburban/rural locations? Is there a particular region or weather that you want to have? How do you feel about an active sports life or Greek life? Do you want more of a pre-professional vibe or a crunchy, hippie vibe (or something else entirely)? What would you like to get out of your college experience? And, most importantly, what is your budget?
Thanks for the input. i am a parent. The school does not provide specific guidance. What you say is right about UVA selection. Difficulty lies in seeing through what is lacking in the student based on past statistics of acceptance. Also, last year 70% students have submitted SAT. Does this mean, they looked at SAT too despite saying test optional.
Thanks. We are planning to apply EA.
Thanks for the reply. We did a VA 529 prepaid college for VA schools. However, we are also looking at out of state schools like Univ of Pittsburg, UPenn, Brandeis University, Case Western. We can transfer the VA 529 prepaid amount to out of state school and can afford about extra 15 K a year and not more.
Thanks. Agreed that one can get into a good Phd program from UVA or VATech. My thinking as a parent is, what if my daughter changes mind to not do a Phd. What should be the backup, that would get her a job.
If she doesnāt want to do a PhD, the best backup is to get a chem or bio or psych degree rather than a neuroscience degree so that she is not stuck with a super-specialized degree that doesnāt have a clear job market. The chem is the most marketable out of all of those, but your daughter needs to do something sheās interested in.
Thank you for clarifying that you are a parent. Another post of yours from yesterday said you were a rising 12th grader in an IB program with a 1300 SAT. So, I was confused.
Yes that is correct. Walking a thin line between interest and future opportunity.
A neuroscience program within biology or which is heavily biology focused may have or share classes with lots of premeds who are likely to be aggressive in academic competition.
1 Like
Thanks. Yes it is good to know the fact and go prepared to do the best.
Neuroscience and related majors are not great in terms of post-graduation outcomes.
From VTās career survey at Virginia Tech Post Graduation Report: Detailed Salary
| Major | Median Pay |
|---|---|
| Biochemistry | $27000 |
| Biological Sciences | $29120 |
| Chemistry | NA |
| Clinical Neuroscience | $34424 |
| Cognitive and Behavioral Neuroscience | $35000 |
| Experimental Neuroscience | NA |
| Psychology | $39444 |
Yes, and much depends on major at any college these days.
VT post grad survey results 2020-21. Median salary and not everyone reports.
Whole university $63,000
Engineering $70,500
Liberal Arts $42,000
Science $45,000
Business $60,500
This topic was automatically closed 180 days after the last reply. New replies are no longer allowed.