<p>Well this is more of a question than a crisis. Is it possible to get into graduate school for some kind of behavioral neuroscience or biological psychology with just a biology B.S. at UCSD? I mean the biology department has a B.S. focused on neuroscience and physiology, but after some reading it doesn't seem like UCSD itself has any behavioral neuroscience graduate program. </p>
<p>I'm just wondering if it could possibly work out, going from straight up neuroscience to behavioral neuroscience, would that be acceptable to universities with a behavioral neuroscience program? I'm also comtemplating cognitive science, but that's a whole other major..</p>
<p>Or perhaps am I mistake? Does UCSD have some kind of biological psychology program for graduate school? </p>
<p>"Our faculty in animal behavioral neuroscience are leaders in their respective specialties, such as behavioral neuroendocrinology, communication, biological rhythms, and learning and memory." --from UCSD's Neuroscience & Behavior program, Dept of Psychology</p>
<p>You don't like that?</p>
<p>My friend graduated with a degree in animal phys/neuroscience, worked for two years in a neuro lab at Salk, and got accepted to neuro-behavior programs at UCSD, Harvard, and Columbia. Your major is important, but what's more important is the research that you carry out. (I visited her in her lab yesterday morning to drop off a package -- she was doing open-brain surgery on a semi-comatose rat, happy as could be. I love grad school.)</p>
<p>That sounds perfect! I didn't know you could get a B.S. in biology and all the sudden switch to psychology. That's perfect, I was all worried that I should have done cognitive science, but this is perfect. </p>
<p>I'm living your advice though, I'm only in this cause I want to unravel the brain and human behavior, since I kind of came from a philosophical background. It's excellente advice :P.</p>
<p>My personal opinion is to take the Psychology BS (Honors) route--classes are relatively easier to score higher grades in, and you'll have more time to dedicate towards 199s and other research outlets. Taking supplemental bio, stats, math, etc. courses will help greatly, too, but not as much as the LoC and experience from the PI you'll be performing research under.</p>
<p>Eh already in the middle of GEs and lower divisions for a biology B.S., but it seems the classes overlap quite a lot. This is quite a hard decision. </p>
<p>I was under the assumption that neuroscience B.S. would prepare me more for behavioral neuroscience, but I guess this may not be the case? I didn't even know they'd be in different departments. </p>
<p>Which major would more likely get me into behavioral science graduate school? </p>
<p>I suppose I have some kind of personal bias against psychology, the kind that is a bit less scientific that is. Need to get to the base of things, I can't just have some midair theory about human behavior based on metaphors and made up concepts, gotta get to the core of it. Maybe I took one too many low level psychology classes.</p>
<p>If you're talking about psychoanalysis--yes, that's the crap that gives psych a bad rep in the science field.</p>
<p>However, modeling after the Biopsychosocial theories of behavior are much more thorough and accepted in the scientific world.</p>
<p>Genotypes can only account for susceptibility to certain behaviors but it's the environment and the contingencies of behavior that determine whether a person will act upon certain stimuli.</p>
<p>Talk to professor Fred Rose if you want to get into this field as he's one of the few behavioral clinical psychologists in UCSD with a grounding in neuroscience.</p>
<p>And if you just want to study the general science of behavior, go through clinical psychology if you're highly competitive (avg acceptance rate into all clinical Ph.D progs in the US is 2-7%) and want to actually work hands-on with patients, behavioral economics if you want to study theory, or cognition and behavioral psychology if you want some kind of mix of both.</p>
<p>This is actually my forte: I'm almost done with my Joint Math/Econ degree and am now working on behavioral research under Edmund Fantino in the psych department. Once I'm finished with my research there, I'll be opting for a position in the autism research center and applying what I've learned so far.</p>
<p>Oh, and I already talked to John Wixted, the dept chair for the Psych Grad program.</p>
<p>He said the Ph.D offered by UCSD is "Experimental Psychology" but is considered very general and candidates can focus their research and dissertation on anything as sciences are focused on experiments and empirical observations anyway.</p>
<p>And, like any other natural or social science professor will tell you, the NUMBER ONE most important component of grad school apps is your undergraduate research. The actual major doesn't matter as long as you have proficiency in your classes, but because essentially the professors in the department will be granting you admission to finance you to work in THEIR labs, they want to know that whoever gets in will be capable of conducting worthwhile research. The coursework is generally the easy part of science Ph.D programs but it's the dissertation and post-doc work that make or break the doctorate candidacies.</p>
<p>Sorry if I rambled--I'm still a little post-Lupe Fiasco right now haha</p>
<p>Thank you for the information! It wasn't rambling because it helped me tremendously. Indeed I was speaking of psycho analysis, having taken three lower division psychology classes for fun I can say that I am horribly turned off. I guess I took far too many humanistic classes, and now I'm going to switch to a more biological look at things. For that reason I'm going to go ahead and get a B.S. in neuroscience instead of psychology. </p>
<p>This experimental psychology degree does sound quite appealing, so much freedom of research fields definitely will help. Now I'm going to look on the website for the details, but does this degree grant you some kind of stipend just like the biology department does? </p>
<p>I'll be sure to focus my junior/senior year on research, thanks a bunch for the tip!</p>
<p>All UCSD Ph.D's provide a full tuition remissions (with TAship and RAship) and stipends. Essentially all respected doctorate programs will be free.</p>