Neuroscience/Psychology/PreMed

<p>Ok so if anyone would mind responding to this post it would be greatly appreciated.</p>

<p>In short, I want to Major in Neuroscience and Minor in Psychology(Or even Double Major) while also completing the classes required to qualify for Pre-Med. </p>

<p>First, would that be possible here?
Second, how would the workload be?</p>

<p>Thanks.</p>

<p>We don't offer minors, you may not want to actually separate those fields as there are things somewhat to the middle of these two (cognitive neuro), we're excellent in all fields related to "brain" research-- cognitive science, neuroscience (where we pioneered the subject as an undergraduate field of study), and psychology.</p>

<p>Many of the courses overlap with pre-med classes, but not all, and it's fairly common to be premed on those tracks.</p>

<p><3 machine learning @ brown.</p>

<p>D'ohhhhhhhhhhh</p>

<p>There goes my plan of a double minor in history and french.</p>

<p>There are no majors/minors at Brown. You "concentrate", which is pretty much an equivalent however the requisites are typically less intensive. There's no reason why you can't triple concentrate on your intended major as well as the two subjects you planned on minoring in as long as you plan it out properly.</p>

<p>liveforlaughs-- that's not true at all. Concentrations very closely mimic majors at other schools an do not have less requisites. Additionally, while the university does not stop students from triple concentrating, there are very few combinations of concentrations that this can be done with taking a normal course load at Brown, and even adding courses by taking 5 a semester, you'd almost definitely have to take courses exclusively in your three concentration areas. Very, very few students do this and it's ill-advised.</p>

<p>Minors are completely different and we question the pedagogical value of this type of unit of study as well as its encroachment on the general education curriculum which is why we continue not to offer them.</p>

<p>Actually it'd really only be a double concentration, assuming PreMed isn't a "concentration"(Major) right?</p>

<p>Premed is just a set of 8 or so courses med schools require you have taken to be prepared.</p>

<p>Anyway, a psych and neuro double probably wouldn't make very much sense for a lot of people, and especially at Brown, but that's something you'll figure out once you're in college and can really explore both fields.</p>

<p>So many people think they're going to double or triple or something before college, then they get there and realize the intellectual/academic world is very different than they suspect...</p>

<p>Why do you question the pedagogical value of minors? It gives a student an excellent chance to explore areas that are completely unrelated to their major, thus providing a general education background.</p>

<p>conquestor-- and that’s precisely what’s offered by a general curriculum which has no requirements. You have plenty of chance to explore areas, even in depth, that are completely unrelated to your major at Brown.</p>

<p>Try stating the question another way-- if taking 10 courses in an area is a sound enough unit that it awards you a degree from Brown because it’s a concentration, and frequently two of those courses (and sometimes more) can be taken in other departments so long as they’re topically relevant, what does it meant to take five or six courses in that area? What is the huge leap that 3 courses in an area makes that you’re now a disciplinarian, and if those 3 courses are necessary, what does it mean to have taken only 6 courses in that area?</p>

<p>When you can take any course you want and concentrations can be as small as 1/3 of your education at Brown, the impetus for minors doesn’t exist, and in most areas, there is no real meaning to a minor. It doesn’t impart you with any expertise and we shouldn’t encourage people to receive a stamp of depth where depth doesn’t exist. There’s nothing to stop a student from exploring things outside of their concentration as much as they desire, but there’s no need to credentialize that exploration despite no credential being earned. If you have to take three econ courses for a political science degree, do you really have a special level of economics expertise for taking two more courses? Are you now somehow prepared to be an economist? If you are, why isn’t that course load considered a concentration?</p>

<p>This is barely the surface of my own personal feelings as to why minors are nonsense. I’ve fought (with faculty and administrative support) to keep minors out of Brown on two separate committees now, both of which would have had the power to create them.</p>