Neuropsychology

College Majors Science Majors
1

<p>Hi, I am new to CC and I'm a sophomore in high school. After reading about neuroscience/neuropsychology, I became very interested on the subject.
However, when I try to look up things about getting a degree in neuropsychology, I have trouble finding out the requirements to do so and what I can do with it. Can someone please help me out?</p>

<p>What classes should I be taking in high school and in college? Should I major in psychology or neuroscience? What are my options? What career options do I have?
Thanks so much! :)</p>

2

<p>I would definitely take AP biology and psychology in high school to prepare you for college, and to give you an idea of what it would be like. In addition, you will need a lot of math, so be prepared for that. Different colleges call similar majors different things - for example, UC Davis calls it Neurology, Physiology and Behavior, while UC Santa Barbara calls it Biopsychology. I would imagine that teaching is always an option, and other careers, such as neurosurgeon, neuropsychologist and neurophysicist are all options as well (pretty much anything with neuro- or psych- in the title). I hope this is helpful, because I’m going down a similar path, haha.</p>

3

<p>OP, here are the most common options for majoring in neuroscience:

  1. A subspecialty track within a psychology major;
  2. A subspecialty track within a biology major; or,
  3. A standalone interdisciplinary major in neuroscience (sometimes, primarily drawing on courses from other departments (mostly from biology and psychology); sometimes, it’s own department).
    As the previous poster indicated, these programs might have titles at different schools.</p>

<p>Any of these is an acceptable pathway for a neuroscience major. Although, as expected, a track within a psychology dept. might require more coursework in other areas of psychology (e.g, cognitive psychology), whereas, a track within a bioscience dept., will require more coursework in other subfields of biology (e.g., genetics, evolution, cell biology, etc.). It’s really a matter of emphasis, depending on what areas of neuroscience interests you. It’s a broad and interdisciplinary field.</p>

<p>If you do a neuroscience major in a biology dept., you will be required to take supporting courses in other sciences and math (two semesters each of general chemistry, organic chemistry, general physics, calculus, and sometimes, statistics). This is in line with requirements for bioscience majors across most subspecialty tracks. Those supporting courses also happen to coincide with the usual pre-med requirements. If you do a neuroscience major in a psychology dept., you might not be required to take as much coursework in supporting sciences (maybe general chemistry and/or general physics, calculus, statistics), The strongest programs tend to require more coursework in supporting sciences and math. In comparison, a major in general psychology, usually will not require these courses (though it is becoming more common to require at least calculus and general physics or chemistry, especially if a dept. offers a BS option). You can check the requirements at particular schools by going to their websites.</p>

<p>You can enter these majors without having taken AP courses in high school, but taking such courses will strengthen your preparation for a difficult major (especially if you do the major in a bioscience dept.). AP chemistry and biology will be good to take, calculus, too. AP physics is less important, especially if it emphasizes mechanics, as it does at some schools. IMO, AP psychology doesn’t offer any advantage, except possibly testing out of an intro psychology requirement. Regular high school psychology is generally a waste of time. </p>

<p>Most of the career options for a neuroscience major will require graduate/professional study:
Clinical psychology (especially, specialties in clinical neuropsychology, rehabilitation psychology, health psychology, gerontology, developmental disabilities); Experimental Psychology, including cognitive and/or biological subfields of psychology (for teaching & research); psychopharmacology/ neuropharmacology (teaching & research); Physical Therapy; Occupational Therapy; Human Factors & Engineering Psychology; Interdisciplinary Gerontology (research & teaching and/or clinical practice); Speech & Language Pathology/Communication Disorders/Audiology (though you’ll need to make up some undergrad pre-requisites, unless you do a double major or major-minor); Medical School (especially useful background if you go into specialties such as developmental disabilities, neurology, neurosurgery; geriatrics, rehabilitation medicine, psychiatry); Biomedical Ethics (teaching & research and/or practice): History of Science/Medicine (teaching & research); Special Education (brain-injuries; learning disabilities; developmental disabilities); Cognitive Science (teaching & research); Nursing (MSN–neurological nursing).</p>