<p>I'm a high school senior looking to study neuroscience in college. I'm having a fairly easy time determining my reaches, but I need help choosing schools that I'm more likely to get into.</p>
<p>Stats:</p>
<p>Race/Gender: White Male
Class Year: 2009
GPA: ~3.5 Unweighted
Rigor: My course load has always consisted of mostly AP/honors classes.
SAT I: 610 M, 710 CR, 620 W
SAT II: 700 Physics, 710 M</p>
<p>Notes: I'm fairly confident that my math and writing scores will be at least 30-70 points higher after I take the SAT's again this October. Also, should I take another SAT II? I'm thinking I should take the biology test.</p>
<p>EC's:</p>
<p>One year of JV track.
One year of JV crew.
One year each of JV and varsity volleyball.
One year of reality check club.
I've raised about $1000 for breast cancer research through paddling for a cure over the past two years.
About eight years total of guitar and piano.
Over the summer I began the process of starting a kayaking club at my school.
I, along with a seven other teammates from my video class, won a regional competition sponsored by Time Warner called "How Cool is Your School?". We had to make a video that showed how "cool" our school was. About 30 or so other schools entered. The prizes included $1000 for the school and a trip to NYC to tour the CNN studios there.</p>
<p>Neither my stats nor my EC's are great but I hope to study neuroscience at a good school. Given my stats and EC's, what schools would fit me?</p>
<p>You need to sit down with your parents and talk about how much money is available for your undergraduate education. When you find out how much money they are willing and able to spend, you need to run some financial aid calculators (start at [FinAid</a>! Financial Aid, College Scholarships and Student Loans](<a href=“http://www.finaid.org%5DFinAid”>http://www.finaid.org) ). After you and your parents get over the shock of how big a difference there is between what they think your family can pay, and what the colleges will think that you can pay, you need to go find yourself a nice solid financial safety school. This will probably be a home state public u, or even a community college for the first two years.</p>
<p>The core work for neuroscience (biology, biochemistry, organic chemistry, etc.) is stuff you can take just about anywhere - even at most community colleges. Advanced coursework in neuroscience is a whole 'nother ballgame. You also need to be thinking about whether you want undergraduate work in neuroscience, or a biochem undergraduate degree with neuroscience as a graduate program.</p>
<p>Good luck!</p>
<p>Hey, I’m looking into neuro, too. You can go just about anywhere and find good neuroscience programs – it’s grad school that really matters, as happymomof1 said. It’s not necessary to shell out a ton for neuroscience in undergrad; grad school, though, may be an entirely different story.</p>
<p>(Also, how weird is it that we got the same SAT score and have a similar GPA? Just another way the brain works, it would seem. Wink wink, that was sort of a joke.)</p>
<p>Good luck! Braniacs unite!</p>
<p>@ Skull:</p>
<p>Do you know if any of the SUNY schools offer neuroscience for undergrads? I think a relatively good SUNY would be the perfect financial/academic safety for me. However, reading from the main SUNY site made it seem as though they don’t have neuroscience specific programs.</p>
<p>Also, what are you ultimately looking to study within the field of neuroscience?</p>
<p>“It’s not necessary to shell out a ton for neuroscience in undergrad; grad school, though, may be an entirely different story.”</p>
<p>You should not have to pay one cent for a graduate program in neuroscience. They should pay for you. There is a lot of research going on in this field and, frankly, if after completing your B.S. in bio-whatever you aren’t a good enough candidate to get a tuition waiver and either a teaching assistantship or a research assistantship to cover your living expenses, you have no business pursuing a graduate degree in neuroscience.</p>
<p>No one in their right mind pays out of pocket for a graduate degree in the sciences!</p>
<p>SUNY Binghamton has Behavioral Neuroscience. Stony Brook has Neurobiology.</p>