<p>Hello! I am making a last-minute decision on which college to attend as an undergraduate. My decision has come down to Macalester vs. Grinnell.</p>
<p>I am interested in studying Neuroscience. For awhile, I had been leaning towards Grinnell, but have noticed that offers solely a Concentration in Neuroscience.</p>
<p>Is there any significant difference between a concentration and a major at the undergraduate level? And how would this possibly affect graduate school study in Neuroscience? </p>
<p>Thank you very much!</p>
<p>What is a “concentration” at Grinnell? Is that equivalent to a minor?</p>
<p>Don’t worry about it. Just major in Biology or Psychology, do the Neuroscience concentration, complete a strong core in supporting science courses (pretty much equivalent to premed requirements), and get some research experience. That will be just fine for graduate study in neuroscience.</p>
<p>Also, see my post in this thread:
<a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/science-majors/1034342-neuroscience.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/science-majors/1034342-neuroscience.html</a></p>
<p>I checked on the Macalester website, and while they call it a major, the actual course requirements primarily come from other departments, so it is an interdisciplinary program, just as it is at Grinnell. I’d be shocked if a graduate school didn’t accept you because it appeared on your transcript as a “concentration” rather than a “major.” While I know nothing about neuroscience, I’d hazard a guess that many students apply for graduate neuroscience with degrees in other sciences anyway. Undergrad is for learning foundational skills in science, and graduate school is for specialization.</p>
<p>Mac is a wonderful school, too, but if you’re leaning towards Grinnell anyway, I wouldn’t worry about this distinction, because you will get a fabulous education, with opportunities for research (did you see the Neuroscience journal Grinnell publishes?), the resources of a brand new science facility. BTW, the facility was built with the intention of encouraging inter-disciplinary work among the sciences, which seems to be important for neurosciences.</p>
<p>fwiw, my own son picked Grinnell even though it had a concentration, not a major, in something he’s very interested in. He decided based on fit, and knowing there were so many things he wants to study that there would be plenty to keep him engaged.</p>
<p>Please understand the neuroscience is a very advanced field that combines a number of different subfields. And it is still evolving. First, neuroscience demands enormous expenditures in equipment. You can learn about neuroscience but you really can’t do neuroscience without access to MRI machines. It is dependent on doing an MRI of the brain during activities. Neuroscience programs, even at the largest universities, are very often attached to medical schools for this reason. Second, neuroscience is as an activity is very, very time and expertise intensive. Meaning it takes a long time to get institutional approval to actually engage in the studies and the actual experiments are very difficult, and I hate to say this but the chances of an undergraduate having anything but the most peripheral engagement in this type of work is not very good. Third, neuroscience is very inter-disciplinary, as one of the other commenters has mentioned and they all come at it from a different perspective. There is neuroscience and psychology (read Barsalou if you get a chance), there is neuroscience and education (read neurons to neighborhoods if you get a chance), there is neuroscience and computer science. </p>
<p>My advice is this, so to a really good college but don’t think in terms of something as specialized as neuroscience. Become a psychology major with an emphasis in a cognitive science concentration (which I believe they have at Grinnell). Take courses in computers, linguistics, anthropology and education (get as wide a breadth as you can because undergraduate is where you are supposed to do this). And then if you are still interested apply to a top neuroscience program at Yale, UC San Diego, Stanford or something like that.</p>
<p>D is completing a neuroscience concentration at Grinnell. She is majoring in Psychology but has taken the courses typically taken by pre-meds (chem, ochem, several bios, physics, calculus) along with the neuroscience courses. She completed a NSF neuroscience internship last summer and is doing another this summer. Last summer’s work involved manipulating mice with knockout genes, drug exposure, studying brain slices and running a lot of statistical data for the principal researcher. Most of the students from last summer’s neuro program were biology majors with the strong chemistry background. She was the only PSY major at her internship and feels the strong basic science background gave her an edge in being selected. She is looking at graduate programs and is fairly confident that she has the right background (getting in is another story!)</p>
<p>Thank you so much to everyone who replied to this thread; your responses were incredibly insightful. You all presented me with so many rich and thoughtful messages; I cannot thank you enough.</p>
<p>In case anyone is wondering, I decided on Macalester for a couple of reasons unrelated to this concentration issue.</p>
<p>thank you for letting us know. I do always wonder what people decided!</p>
<p>Macalester was one of my personal favorites when I toured colleges with my kids; and when we sent the “no” envelope for my D (my Grinnellian son did not apply), I felt really badly about having to put that one in the mailbox!</p>