I am 99% sure that I will be majoring in Economics but I would like to double major and am unsure as to whether I should major in Biology or Neuroscience. I am currently a first year so I have time to decide but it would be nice to have some focus so that I can graduate on time. I am planning on going into high finance so I am not looking at the pre med route. For those of you who have majored/know someone who majored in Biology or Neuroscience, which major is considered to be more interesting and better taught at Emory?
@TheTennisNinja : NBB has more focus and direction and is more consistent (it looks like they designed their requirements with specific learning goals in mind and not just content area exposure and this makes a HUGE difference in terms of the culture of students there and the culture of instruction). Bio is more like “a la carte”. If you jump on board you will likely follow your friends and take all the weakest classes. NBB, assuming that you take at least some of the NBB hosted electives (not those from anthropology, psyche, elsewhere), from an educational standpoint, NBB is a bit better in my opinion. It has a legit focus on research methods in the field and the curriculum reflects it. The four course core starts with NBB 201 which is more evolutionary biology and neuroanatomy based, then goes to 301 which is neurophysiology based (so interdisciplinary science), 302 which more like molecular neuroscience and behavior, and then 401 which focuses on primary literature in writing.
They basically force students to go through a balanced curriculum that exposes them to many different ways of learning and conceiving the field. Biology is more like: “Here are choices within these content areas: You can memorize your way through the curriculum if you want or never learn how to problem solve, write, or even read literature in biology”(I believe the column requirements are oriented such that you can dodge any of the courses with a discussion section or those that expose you to literature). With NBB, you will have to get an experience that at least focuses on more problem solving and analytical thinking and things more associated with good practices science, and this may be something good for one who wants to go into finance. With biology, there seems to be a culture to dodge the more intensive courses and instructors (another thing: seems more instructors in NBB and even psychology are more on board with modern ways of teaching science especially at the upper division levels), so you have to be more deliberate to avoid this culture (I feel like learning beyond recall or basic understanding is totally optional: I’ll give an example curriculum for some majors: Columns: Developmental (A), CVA(B-Starnes is an amazing teacher, but course minus the presentation is mostly rote), Coastal biology or choose very easy evolutionary biology instructor. Electives can consist of the following: Human Physiology, Animal Behavior, biochem, microbiology with Campbell…Add these to the non-bio requirements and you received a BS in biology through memorization!) you can take the cool NBB classes and electives, while also fitting in important or cool biology, chemistry, etc hosted electives that may actually do something more than help you learn to memorize content (trust me, you will not retain it when the class is geared that way). Overall, though, I say you should go by your interests. Neuroscience and biology are by no means separate. You could possibly go through bio, take the better instructors, and choose shared electives between NBB and biology. That is another method. Again, you just need to be very deliberate in your education.
Emory is very strong in science and economics. So there is no problem if you double major in both bio/neuroscience and economics. But, IMHO, if premed is not in consideration, you should concentrate in economics only. You can go back to bio anytime in your life after you have got into High Finance. A 60+ year old friend of mine went back to school to take on Bio because he has interest in it.
Actually, if you swap micro for biology of the eye, then you have a whole bio major with no primary literature reading, writing, or problem solving (except maybe in 141/142 depending on who you took) lol (actually I don’t know if it is funny. Kind of embarassing such a pathway exists for BS science major). Sad…