<p>I am going into my Junior year at Brown University and I am starting to think about graduate school admissions. At this point in my academic carreer, I think I want to go to school for computational neuroscience. I was wondering if people could give me feedback and let me know what they think I should start doing to graduate from Brown as a competitive admissions candidate for top computational programs in the united states. </p>
<p>I will graduate in a year and a half with a ScB in Neuroscience and I'll be writing an honors thesis. I have around a 3.8 GPA (Brown doesn't calculate GPA but this is about what it would be if they did.) I have about 5 months of research experience in a computational vision lab and will continue to work in this lab until I graduate. I am also currently working for a computational biology lab at Brown and am finishing up a project with a post doc that is expected to get a publication. I have a decent math background but have not taken linear algebra and am not sure when I will have time to take it. I have some programming experience, mainly in java and python and am working on developing my skills as a programmer. I was thinking I might stay at brown an extra year and get a masters in computer science but that is a very tentative plan. </p>
<p>I'd like suggestions on what else I could be doing, or if there are things that I should be prioritizing.</p>
<p>Smparker- can’t help you directly but would advise poking around another web site “the grad cafe” That site has forums specific to various graduate disciplines, strategies for applying, and an application/acceptance input list (constantly updated by new applicants) where one can discover many things about individual applicants’ acceptances and rejections by school, program, and scores. Beware that Grad school admissions stats can be even more depressing than undergrad.</p>
<p>There is a grad school forum here that would have been the place to post.</p>
<p>I don’t know that you would qualify for the 1 year Master’s, not having majored in a CS concentration or computational bio. That’s one thing to check out.</p>
<p>Your research sounds good and your application will depend on that and your LOR. Great gpa.</p>
<p>Are you thinking PhD? Talk to your professors, they will be your best resource.</p>
<p>It sounds like you’re doing all the right things. You’re getting good research experience (and your honors thesis will be very good experience, as well). You have a good GPA, and you will likely be able to get letters of rec from your lab (but make sure you can still get at least 3, which tends to be the norm). Beyond that, get good GRE scores and write a solid SOP, and you should be in good shape.</p>
<p>Consider consulting professors or graduate students in your labs or in your field. They will often have good advice on weaknesses in your application or what programs you should look at.</p>
<p>@smparker, I cannot answer your question as I am a senior in high school… but I have the exact same interests as you and I have just sent in my Brown ED application to Neuroscience! Could you just enlighten me on how your experience was at Brown Neuroscience? Were there a variety of research positions to choose from and did you get them easily? Are the Neuroscience professors nice and approachable? </p>
<p>I am really excited for university, Brown in particular!! Best of luck in your grad school research!</p>
<p>Thanks in advance!</p>
<p>To smparker, since this post is only a few months old: If you have 5 months of research so far, that means that after your junior year is over you will have something like a year and 5 months. That’s a little below what most competitive neuroscience applicants will have (about 2-3 years). You may want to apply widely to funded MS programs as well as PhD programs, and consider either doing an MS or working as a technician for a year or two after grad school to get extra experience.</p>