<p>I'm looking around at various graduate programs for Cognitive Science. I primarily want to study Neurodegenerative disorders such as Alzheimer's, Parkinson's and Huntington's. I currently attend the University of Arizona in their NSCS Program and I'm in the Honors College (previously affiliated with Phi Theta Kappa - International Honor Society for Community Colleges). I'm also an RA in the Down Syndrome Research Group run by Dr. Lynn Nadel and Dr. Jamie Edgin and will have 2 years experience by September (and I will probably be in this lab until I graduate, should add to 4 years total). I received a grant to do my own research from the Honors College on Alzheimer's disease in Down Syndrome and was invited to present that research at Harvard and was also the only undergrad to present at the Arizona Alzheimer's Consortium. My Honors thesis will also be on AD in DS.</p>
<p>The reason I mention all that is because, with the digging I have done, top-tier (Harvard, MIT, etc.) Universities have come up with the best programs. And while I would love the opportunity to attend one of those Universities, I know that's a bit of a reach. Since it will be a while before I will graduate, if anyone has any insight on what schools to keep an eye on in terms of developing a great program, or schools that have great programs now and are continuing to grow - that would be amazing. =)</p>
<p>My opinion is solely mine, of course, and others may have different ones. But personally, I think you should aim high for PhD programs, with the goal of gaining admission to a top-tier one. In some fields it makes less sense to attend mid-ranked programs because the field is glutted and chances of getting a position somewhere as a professor are smaller. While cognitive science/neuroscience is not necessarily one of those fields (I simply don’t know), it IS true that the more competitive/reputable your PhD program is, the more competitive/reputable jobs you can compete for.</p>
<p>First of all, a lot of people are under the impression that if they went to an undergraduate school that they consider “lesser” (public universities, less-well-known privates, etc.) that they cannot get into top schools solely because of that. That is NOT true. While students who went to top schools for undergrad may be underrepresented at these top programs, it’s not necessarily because they are biased towards those students. Part of it is definitely because the X departments at the top schools are simply better than the X department at Podunk State - 2 years of research with the best underwater basketweavers in the country is probably better, qualitatively, than 2 years of research with some unknown but pretty good underwater basketweavers.</p>
<p>But with that said, the reason that schools like Harvard and Swarthmore are overrepresented is also because of self-selection bias. Kids who went to HYP are more likely to have parents with graduate degrees; they’re more likely to have intended a graduate degree all along and need one to do the career they want. Most public colleges, and many small private colleges, are made up mostly of students who want to get their BA and move on with life. They may not even really know much about graduate programs and wouldn’t have considered them before they fell into research. So maybe 50% of the Harvard philosophy department wants to go get a PhD every year, where only 10% of the UA seniors want to.</p>
<p>Down to specifics - UA is a RU/VH university (so I’m betting that your lab is well-established and has government grants). By the time you graduate, you will have 4 years of research experience. You already have a grant; you’ve already given a research presentation and you are already planning your honors thesis. Assuming that you keep along the road you are on and achieve at least around a 3.5 GPA and above-average GRE scores, you would be a competitive candidate for top neuroscience/cognitive science programs! Don’t sell yourself short, and don’t feel like you have to look at a mid-tier program or a new/growing program because you go to UA (or whatever other reason it is).</p>
<p>If you still have 2 years in school to go, you have plenty of time to MAKE yourself into a competitive candidate. Apply for an REU this summer (do a Google search for “REU” and your field; you may also want to search something like “summer undergraduate research cognitive science” because some summer research programs are not called REUs, but SURFs or SROPs or SRPUs or whatever). Deadlines are usually between January and March, but I’ve seen some as early as November.</p>