<p>Emory’s environment (even among pre-meds, especially in majors like neuroscience where only like a couple of courses have to be curved because of the difficulty) is actually not really competitive at all. Also, I do think Emory’s neuroscience is a decent fit for someone who does not necessarily want to pursue medicine as it is a very interdisciplinary major. You can take classes in anthro, bio, psyche, and even physics, and CS (physical biology and computational neuroscience. In fact, there is actually a computational neuroscience fellowship: [College</a> - Computational Neuroscience Training Program Department of Emory University Homepage](<a href=“http://compneurosci.college.emory.edu/]College”>http://compneurosci.college.emory.edu/) .This program is often populated by neuroscience and bio majors who are not pre-med). In addition, they are now even focusing on making it even more friendly to those who do not plan to become clinicians of any sorts: [Faculty</a> committees at work on strategies to advance Emory College plan | Emory University | Atlanta, GA](<a href=“Faculty committees at work on strategies to advance Emory College plan”>Faculty committees at work on strategies to advance Emory College plan)</p>
<p>I think more competitive environments usually occur in classes/departments that grade on harsher than normal curves (organic chemistry for example). There are not too many difficult courses in NBB. Only exception is 301(one of the true science/problem solving oriented courses in the dept) and I’ve observed quite a collaborative environment in that course. Your daughter will have to go through gen. chem., biology, and physics which are dominated by pre-meds, but gen. biology is fairly straightforward and is not really curved because it isn’t that difficult (so people collaborate) and gen. chem is difficult to many but not curved (so people tend to band together), and physics is kind of like biology where it is fairly straight forward if you take the 14x series. However, I honestly recommend 15x (with calc) physics if you are not pre-med as it will build a better quantitative foundation and open up the possibility for you to take more quantitative science courses which…will have less pre-meds and kind of a less “grade-oriented” environment. </p>
<p>Even when pre-meds aren’t cut-throat or competitive, many can take away from the atmosphere in some classes because of the whining or constantly asking if something will be on a test. If you really want to learn the neuroscience, one should open up the possibility of taking more courses where the professor doesn’t more or less fear the students and thus tend to test or teach material in one way that merely keeps the crowd happy with their chances at getting a great grade as opposed to in a way that is actually stimulating. That’s why I recommend looking into things such as the computational neuroscience training program. I would also, of course, check out classes like physical bio (this was a very rigorous course, it makes all of the pre-med science cores and NBB 301 seem like cake, but it was one of the most awesome experiences and environments ever. It was basically all about problem solving and using math and computation to figure out the dynamics of various biological phenomenon. The class was evenly split between graduate and advanced undergraduates so it was very interesting) if she has or can develop a math background. The psyche courses are good as many of them are smaller and don’t just stick to a traditional lecture format. </p>
<p>She can also consider grad. levels. Usually teachers there (either in psyche or in grad. level neuro or bio) really try to engage students or build discourse. If one is interested in pursuing science in a non-clinical fashion, then exposure to this way of learning and approaching science is important (and so is building quantitative ability. And in the case of neuroscience, computational ability is also very useful now-a-days). The point is, no, Emory is not competitive, and yes it will help your daughter train herself in what she wants to do (whether it is more behavioral neuroscience, cognitive, neuropharm, whatever). Non-premeds can easily find a path for themselves in the science programs if they choose the right courses and don’t simply follow the crowd. One needs to really think about what they expect to get out of a class before choosing them if you aren’t necessarily into just fulfilling requirements and getting high grades. Also, even though it is not required for the NBB major and your daughter isn’t pre-med, I would recommend at least one semester of organic chemistry (as it will help understand things like drug action and molecule, receptor interactions on a molecular level). Surprisingly, it actually often makes more sense for non-premed science majors to take that course than it does for pre-meds in my opinion.</p>