I plan to concentrate in neuroscience and linguistics, with some focus on cognitive neuroscience as well as neurobiology. My question is, how difficult is it to find research opportunities in these fields? I’ve heard it’s relatively easy to find research in linguistics, fairly difficult to find research to find research in cognitive neuroscience, and somewhat easy to find research in the more wet lab side of neuroscience–how accurate do you guys think this is?
I’m between Brown and JHU at the moment, and I know the research opportunities at Brown won’t quite match up with those at Hopkins, but I really did like the atmosphere, location, student body, and curriculum much more at Brown…my only concern right now before I decide is research opportunities, which could be a make-or-break for me.
It may be a bit late, but I strongly recommend you send an email to targeted faculty at each institution inquiring about research opportunities in their labs. The replies might help you decide which school would best accommodate your research interests.
Research is important, but you can definitely find opportunities at both schools. I know people who have worked in all three of the areas you mention as Brown undergrads.
When you talk about Brown not matching up with JHU for research opportunities you mean because of breadth and scientific impact, right? When it comes to opportunities for undergrads to get involved, the question is whether JHU stacks up to Brown. No school makes it easier for undergrads to do research than brown does.
If grad school is on your horizon, you’ll be far more competitive having had your own project in a small not so well known lab than being a humanized automated pipetting machine in a Nobel laureate’s lab. That’s good advice for either school. You always have to put in the grunt work, but make sure the lab will let you spread your wings rather than just being an extra set of hands for a post doc or grad student.
To OP: I find it necessary to add a few more comments here. It is one thing to find research work in a lab, but quite another to find a faculty who is going to mentor you, create research opportunities for you and is willing and even eager to guide and support you throughout your academic studies and beyond. So that you know, there are such individuals out there. If you communicate with them, you would be able to better gauge their level of interest and willingness to support their students.
My D identified and contacted individual faculty members with similar research interests in several universities and inquired about undergraduate research opportunities in their labs. She traveled to each place and met with them. It is quite telling to hear about the treatment and responses she has received. While one faculty was a bit dismissive (kind of “I don’t have time for you”) the others have been quite supportive and accommodating.
I think this is more of a personality trait-- how the researcher views (undergraduate) students and his or her role as an educator/mentor. It makes your experience much more rewarding if you can identify such individuals beforehand, if research experience/accomplishment is important to you.