<p>I have been interested in a neuroscience major for a while now and have been looking at the Claremont schools, particularly CMC and Pomona. Does anyone have any insight into the difference between pursuing neuroscience at CMC or Pomona? What are the requirements? Any suggestions for other schools too are also greatly appreciated!</p>
<p>Pomona’s neuroscience department is much better, in my opinion, than that offered by Keck Science (ie. the science department at CMC/Scripps/Mudd). The neuroscience program is the third most popular major at Pomona, there are more neuroscience professors, and the facilities for neuroscience are graduate-level. I’ve taken a neuroscience course at Keck and while it was good, Keck has shortages due to overwhelming demand and a lack of resources relative to Pomona.</p>
<p>^^ Way to go, Nostalgic! Are there any posts that the answer is not composed of a:</p>
<ol>
<li>Some blah, blah pretending to address the issue</li>
<li>A conclusion that in your opinion Pomona is … better? </li>
</ol>
<p>I guess that you should be better off continuing to spew your silly statistics on admission and the “somewhat” true story of turning down schools via QB on the Pomona forum, and stick to posting facts. Have you considered that the “shortage” at Keck is due to higher demand versus a lack of resources? </p>
<p>Have you checked lately what Keck stands for? Sure that it includes Mudd? But those are details. Here’s what more salient since you mentioned faculty resources:</p>
<p><a href=“https://www.jsd.claremont.edu/faculty/”>https://www.jsd.claremont.edu/faculty/</a></p>
<p>Since the major in Neuroscience is an INTERDISCIPLINARY PROGRAM, the entire faculty plays a role. Are you pretending that the faculty at Pomona numbering (look it up below – that is all seven of them) is serving sufficient students at Pomona to be the third most popular major? </p>
<p><a href=“Neuroscience Department | Pomona College in Claremont, California - Pomona College”>http://www.pomona.edu/academics/departments/neuroscience/</a> </p>
<p>If you really want to post helpful messages, you might consider posting links to the actual sites and comment with a modicum of integrity. Perhaps by graduation time, you will have discovered that the consortium’s greatest attribute is the sum of its parts. </p>
<p>I don’t always suggest that Pomona is better…I’m speaking on behalf of one department. In the case of Pomona’s neuroscience, the research opportunities and community is more robust than in Keck.This is coming from my personal experience as a prospective neuroscience major who’s taken neuroscience at both schools and gotten a chance to view the facilities at both.</p>
<p>I’m not sure how having an interdisciplinary faculty changes anything for Keck vs Pomona (and obviously, I made a quick error in including Mudd when I meant to say Pitzer), considering that the neuroscience track at Pomona is very interdisciplinary by itself.</p>
<p>The reason it’s important to make distinctions clear with neuroscience is because A) Keck is overfilled with too many science majors and B) Pomona neuroscience does not allow that many students from the other colleges to cross register. In such a scenario, the viability of cross-enrollment is severely limited.</p>
<p>I’m sorry if you think my posts are indicative of some “elitism” towards Pomona but I’ve always been a proponent for all of these schools. However, to deny that one school may be better than another under your idealistic view misses the realities of some of these departments- such as limitations in cross-enrollment and facility differences. I’m not trying to imply that Pomona is better in every case, because it’s not. </p>
<p>Well, here is your opportunity. Name three departments or majors that are better at CMC than at Pomona! </p>
<p>What a silly discussion to pretend there is a big difference between the 5th and 8th ranked LAC. Since they are the most selective LAC’s in the country few students will suffer through this decision. Besides you can take classes at both and no grad school or employer will see them as different. Maybe one can make an argument in favor of Amherst or Williams but other than that all the rest of the top 10 are virtually identical. </p>