Neuroscience Major?

Colleges and Universities A-Z Johns Hopkins University
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<p>I will be a freshmen next year at JHU.</p>

<p>How is the Neuroscience Major at Johns Hopkins? Obviously, JHU is well known for its biology department and really anything med-related, so does this include the Neuroscience department?</p>

<p>What is the common perception of the major at JHU? How rigorous is it when compared to other science majors?</p>

<p>If there are any JHU undergraduates here who are majoring in Neuroscience, please tell me your experiences so far.</p>

<p>*Also, I was looking at the major checklist here <a href="http://www.jhu.edu/advising/images/checklists_pdf/Neuroscience.pdf%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.jhu.edu/advising/images/checklists_pdf/Neuroscience.pdf&lt;/a> , and was having a hard time figuring out the major requirements. Obviously, you dont have to take all the classes listed since that would be 25+. Can anyone tell me the requirements to major in Neuroscience. Thanks</p>

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<p>JHU is one of the greatest schools to study neuroscience at in the country/world.</p>

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<p>Hopkins</a> Forums -> Meet JHU_MichelleB</p>

<p>
[quote]
So, yeah, Neuroscience. There are 3 different areas of study that you can choose to “concentrate” on (you have to pick one of them and direct your upper-level neuroscience classes accordingly). The 3 areas are Systems Neuroscience, Cellular & Molecular Neuroscience, and Cognitive Neuroscience.</p>

<p>Systems neuroscience is the study of how the brain works with different systems of the body- the visual system, the auditory system, the somatasensory systems (feeling things when they bump into you on the tube…)</p>

<p>Cellular & Molecular neuroscience (usually shortened to Cell/Molec, or Hell/Molec if you’re feeling stressed about an upcoming test or something) is the study of how the brain works on a cellular and molecular level (go figure). You learn about developmental neuroscience (how the brain uses chemical cues to guide where axons should go in development) and you go really in-depth about the transmission of action potentials and also go even more in depth about the different systems. To give an example, if you’re studying the auditory system in Systems Neuro, you’ll learn how sound waves travel from the air to the cochlea and bones in the ear to the tympanic membrane which uses a place code to determine frequency which is then transmitted via hair cells to the brain. When you study it in Cell/Molec, you spend a week studying the hair cells (but you go really in depth and learn exactly what’s going on with them).</p>

<p>Cognitive neuro is kindof the more unrelated of the 3 concentrations- it deals with how we deal with the world around us. How does our brain break up language? How do our eyes process what we see into….what we see? A lot of what you study in Cog deals with people who have cognitive deficiencies (like, people who only see the left side of things… seriously!) so that’s pretty cool. The experiments in Cog are more like psych experiments than cell/molec experiments, because they deal with people.</p>

<p>You eventually have to pick which are you’d like your area of concentration to be, but don’t worry about deciding right now- you take a class in each of the areas before you have to decide. (Actually, you used to take Cog neuro, Systems neuro, and Cell/Molec as 3 separate classes, but the professors for Systems and Cell/Molec teamed up and turned the class into a year-long class called, I think, “The Nervous System”.) Regardless, you get your dose of all 3 before you have to pick a concentration. Then, AFTER you take the 3 foundation classes, you pick the area you like best and you center your 4 upper- level neuroscience classes that you have to take on your concentration. So, if you wanted to be a Systems concentration, you might elect to take the class on “Primate Brain Function”, or if you were a Cell/Molec concentration you might want to take Behavioral Endocrineology. There are a bunch of upper-level neuroscience electives and you get to shape your schedule.

[/quote]
</p>

<p>The best people to ask about Neuroscience at JHU would be the people who are actually majoring in Neuro at JHU. On the Hopkins Forums, there are several Neuro students who are very familiar with the program and they would be the best people to ask. I do believe that Mandy, Kate, and Michelle are all Neuro majors.</p>

<p>Hopkins</a> Forums -> Meet Current JHU Students</p>

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<p>Excuse me for my ignorance, but if I'm applying for the Biology major as my second choice and if JHU ends up accepting me and they put me in Biology, will I still be able to take those classes usually filled up by Neuroscience majors?</p>

<p>Also, what are some of these neuroscience classes like? Do people usually stick with this major? And also, is JHU one of the few universities that offer this major?</p>

<p>And, is there a specific building or lab that particularly stands out in appearance?</p>

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<p>Applicants ARE NOT admitted into majors at Hopkins. If you are admitted and choose to enroll, you can select any program of study to pursue (with the one exception of BME). So if you want to study Neuroscience instead of Biology you can. And you can always switch once you are a student. </p>

<p>There are very few classes at Hopkins that are restricted to only students in a specific major, and there are many classes that cross-over departments.</p>

<p>Neuroscience is not a major you will find at a lot of schools at the undergraduate level. The JHU program is quite unique in that it is not a specific academic department but rather an interdisciplinary major combining a number of fields of study. Full details:
The</a> Interdepartmental Undergraduate Neuroscience Program of Johns Hopkins University</p>

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<p>I saw that website. It has a lot of information that seemed only helpful to current students who need to check up on certain specific courses.</p>

<p>I don't know. I really liked the fact that JHU had neuroscience as a major. </p>

<p>So everybody who is a neuroscience major is a part of the "Interdpt Undergrad Program"? I originally thought that it was like a specific academic program where they take like 20 kids or something. </p>

<p>Why is BME so hard to get into? Besides the fact that its highly ranked? Just curious.</p>

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<p>Its hard to get into due to supply and demand. Too many applicants apply for the major. If the BME department accepted everyone that applied they would be overwhelmed.</p>

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<p>Well yea (that's pretty obvious...) but WHY do so many people apply? Is it for the prestige?</p>

<p>Whoa why did my post appear before yours??</p>

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<p>i have a bunch of friends majorining in neuroscience..its one of the largest majors at hopkins ( i think 100+) and there are more ppl majoring in neuro than biology..and so far as quality goes, its pretty good, plus they require undergrads to do a major research down at the med campus or kennedy-krieger institute and other places, and there is a ranking..but its for grad school dept based on US news magazine</p>

<p>Biological Sciences Specialty Rankings: Neuroscience/Neurobiology
Ranked in </p>

<p>1 Harvard University Boston, MA
2 Stanford University Stanford, CA
3 Johns Hopkins University Baltimore, MD
4 Massachusetts Institute of Technology Cambridge, MA
5 University of California--San Diego La Jolla, CA
6 University of California--San Francisco San Francisco, CA
7 Rockefeller University New York, NY
Yale University New Haven, CT
9 Washington University in St. Louis St. Louis, MO
10 California Institute of Technology Pasadena, CA
Columbia University New York, NY</p>

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<p>Thanks for the rankings. I knew it was pretty prestigious already, so that was not the reason why I asking those questions. I kind of wanted to know the specifics of the neuroscience program, like what makes it so good, besides the fact that JHU is one of the few places that offer it as a BS.</p>

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<p>If you want to learn more specifics about the Neuroscience major from actual current Neuroscience students, I encourage you to check out the individual Student discussion threads on the Hopkins Forums:</p>

<p>Hopkins</a> Forums -> MEET CURRENT NATURAL SCIENCES STUDENTS</p>

<p>JHU<em>Kate, JHU</em>Tabitha, and JHU_Wafa are all Neuroscience students.</p>