From Psychology to Neuroscience PhD advice

Graduate School
1

Hi all,

Apologies for the long post in advance!

My question is less about what my chances of acceptance are and more about which Universities will be realistic to apply into as an international student. I don’t mind the location at all. I do realise that choosing an university depends on labs, professors, research interests, etc., however I am struggling to get my university search started. I will be applying both in UK and the USA (preferably the latter as I prefer the general structure of the PhD programmes) and while I am very well familiar with the UK universities and application process, I have gaps in my knowledge about the US system. I am interested in any suggestion about suitable US universities, where you think I have best chances of success, as I feel the very best well known such as Harvard, MIT, Stanford, UCLA, and Hopkins may be out of reach for me, so please do share your opinions. Just a little bit of background:

BSc (Hons) in Psychology - 1st class honours (top 5 in the class) from UK
I will be starting an MSc this year part time, and thus it will take 2 years for completion. The MSc is in Cognitive and Clinical Neuroscience with a concentration in research methods and my aim is to obtain a distinction.
I have a vocation certification and Management and Economics (secondary school), and thus my background in sciences such as biology and chemistry is not very strong, which I am trying to catch up on with self-study… However, I have strong background in statistics (not maths) and have taken advanced statistics classes during my BSc.

Have not taken the GRE, starting to prepare now. In fact I was wondering would taking a GRE in Psychology benefit me in any way? If not, would you recommend any GRE subject exam and which one?

Work Experience:

Research related:
Will have an MSc thesis if I complete my masters (hopefully) and get it published!
BSc Research Project in Cognitive neuroscience - working on a draft expect to have first author publication.
Research Assistant (5 months) -psychology - second author publication
Clinical Trials Research Assistant - administering cognitive assessments - 7 months
Few short volunteer research intern-ships
I have also peer-tutored and led workshops for first and second year university students, so I have experience in actually working within a higher education institution alongside programme leaders and I am an ad-hoc reviewer for one undergraduate neuroscience journal and for one graduate clinical psychology journal… I have been volunteering at conferences as well…

Clinical
Support Assistant - learning disabilities and mental health 2 years;
Carer - elderly - intergeneration - 6 months

I also have some other working experience not directly related to my studying such as retail and while I realise a lot of the experience I have so far may not be directly research all of the above helped me to develop valuable transferable skills and establish a variety of contacts in different fields and professions.

Publication wise, apart from the expected couple mention above, I have a couple of other that are not peer-reviewed publication but found in secondary sources, e.g. book/national organisation’s newsletter.

My research main research interests are in the area of cognitive neuroscience but I am also fascinated by molecular and cellular neuroscience. More specifically, neurodegeneration, memory and attentional systems, perception, neuroplasticity, and neuropharmacology.Also, it is very important to me that the PhD programme offers an opportunity to teach - the more varied the better… My secondary academic interests are in transpersonal and anomalous psychology from a cognitive perspective…

Any advice will be appreciated, Apologies for the long post again and thank you for the help!

2

It seems like you’re a competitive applicant, but as you pointed out, one of the big challenges is figuring out where to apply. There are a couple of ways I went about doing this. The first is to just ask people (professors, graduate students) for their recommendations. That can point you in the right direction. Also, look at papers that interest you and see where those professors are from. Then look up these professors and see who/where they collaborate with. This should get you a pretty big list. Then start to narrow it down by looking at the websites. Look at the departments’ websites and see what their research focii are and how that fits with your interests. Arguably the most important thing is research fit (even though you’re not applying directly to a professor like in the UK).

Keep a somewhat open mind, though; if you find a strong department in your field of interest but don’t see a professor doing exactly what you want, it can still be worth applying. Professors often have a lot of ideas and potential projects waiting for the right student to come along, so the perfect project for you might not show up on their website (and also lab websites are almost always out of date). That’s the one thing I wish I’d done differently in my application process, though I’m still very happy with the options I have.

3

Look up a few schools of interest, and you will see the application requirements are varied, but in general, if you were a Psych major, you won’t need the Psych subject test. Just ace the GRE. Aim for 16x if you are seeking the very top schools. Get some research experience, and some pubs.

Good luck.

4

Thank you for the replies and the advice :). Do you thing GRE in a science subject may help?

5

Not all places will require the subject area GRE, and they won’t look at those scores if they don’t require them. So make your application list first, then find out what each of them requires.

6

No, don’t randomly take GRE subject tests. Only take a subject test that is required or strongly recommended by the programs to which you are applying. If they don’t mention it, then don’t waste your money and time.

7

My daughter purposely only applied to schools that did not require Subject GRE and got accepted into 3 Chemistry PHD programs. So it is definitely a way to go. Don’t waste time and money if not necessary.