<p>What differentiates the program from the University of Rochester, UC Davis, or the University of Pittsburgh?</p>
<p>Pitt is by far the highest regarded as far in Neuroscience out of those schools. At Pitt, undergraduate neuroscience is an independent department, not just a program under a biology department, and it is one of the oldest neuroscience undergraduate programs in the country, so it has a well-oiled, established undergraduate program that offers a plethora of courses in the neurosciences. The Department of Neuroscience (<a href=“http://www.neuroscience.pitt.edu/[/url]”>http://www.neuroscience.pitt.edu/</a>), however, is only one of many components of the very large Neuroscience community at Pitt (see <a href=“http://cnup.neurobio.pitt.edu/[/url]”>http://cnup.neurobio.pitt.edu/</a>). Compared to the other schools, has by far the most research going on, and that research is located right on the undergraduate campus. Pitt is 5th in National Institutes of Health (NIH) funding behind Harvard, John Hopkins, Penn and UCSF. That is the major mechanism academic bioscience research is funded in the US and is thus is directly correlated to the level and amount of research being done at any one institution. Undergraduate research at Pitt is a huge part of undergraduate life, and as neuroscience is a research discipline, having all of these major research facilities on or adjacent to campus makes it not only extremely accessible to undergraduates, but also provides a wealth and variety of such opportunities. </p>
<p>I have a BS in Neuroscience at Pitt, and a PhD in Neuroscience from elsewhere, and can confirm first hand how well Pitt’s undergraduate Neuroscience program trains its students. It is also much better known in the field than any of the other schools.</p>