<p>thank you so much for the links and info on that.
This is very helpful information, because its hard to know exactly which schools have these programs. The suggestion of the double major and the specifics of the certificate program is interesting. What is the Honors College? How competitive is it to enter?
Also good to know about the Chemistry component strength at Pitt. Neuroethics is an emerging field- Right to Life, Right to Die etc-</p>
<p>OP, if your daughter is interested in ethics, you may want to know that Hopkins offers a minor in Bioethics. As a freshman, my daughter was planning to major in Neuroscience and minor in Bioethics. Looks like your daughter has similar interest as my daughter. Here is the URL for [Hopkins</a>’ Majors/Minors](<a href=“http://apply.jhu.edu/academics/majors.html]Hopkins”>http://apply.jhu.edu/academics/majors.html) if you want to check out additional information on their Bioethics minor along with Neuroscience, Cognitive Science, and Behavioral Biology majors.</p>
<p>Re: your other questions on Columbia’s neuroscience program and comparison between different schools (MIT, Stanford, Princeton, Yale, etc.), I think whatever comments you receive here will be the perspectives that are very specific to that particular person. They may or may not apply for your daughter. In my opinion, you are really splitting hair to compare schools in the top 10-20. It really boils down to fit, which no one can really tell you for sure except for your daughter to experience it herself. Have you guys visited any campus yet? If so, I would strongly encourage you to do that. With the exception of MIT, we visited all of the schools that you mentioned (along with Penn, Brown, Emory, and Duke - to name a few others that are also strong in neuroscience) with our daughter. Hopkins (and one other school) clearly came up on top of her list after our visits to a total of 14 schools. She couldn’t really explain it objectively - it was more a feel that she got when she was on campus. I guess it is what the “vibe” is all about. Also, different schools may have a different approach to the whole college education concept (e.g, Core Curriculum at Columbia vs. Open Curriculum at Brown vs. Distribution Requirements at Hopkins). Which approach does your daughter prefer? There are all questions that only your daughter can answer and she will have a clear picture and better understanding if she has the opportunity to visit the campus.</p>
<p>e.g, Core Curriculum at Columbia vs. Open Curriculum at Brown vs. Distribution Requirements at Hopkins</p>
<p>You are so right. The vibe is what really makes the diffence. We have not been able to visit any of the campuses yet. We mainly have been to campuses in California. She really likes the Core Curriculum. She likes structure and is a purist. I’m not familiar with the Distribution Requirements at Hopkins. I’m hoping we will get to visit those campuses, most likely will be next year. Can you expand on the Distribution Requirements concept?</p>
<p>For Neuroscience IMHO:</p>
<p>MIT>Stanford>Yale>Princeton</p>
<p>MIT>Stanford>Yale>Princeton</p>
<p>I tend to agree, but that is just from reading about them.
MIT is vast in courses, Stanford seems at the top and Yale is well Yale, we all love Yale and Princeton, is in its own category, Meg Whitman, CEO of eBay, Google Founder and former chairman of Viacom, James S. McDonnell M.S. 1921 - founded McDonnell Aircraft Corporation Ben Bernanke Former Professor of Economics, current Chairman of the U.S. Federal Reserve etc.</p>
<p>Let me guess:</p>
<p>You want to stump for Meg Whitman at the expense of Carly Fiorina.
You want to give Whitman credit that she does not have (I am not against Whitman here).
You want your kid to study neuroscience to become a business manager.</p>
<p>Please help me understand.</p>
<p>Middleschool mom,
I think the wise advice of the cc’ers have given you an excellent list of colleges for your daughter’s list. Kids shift their interests while in college, often because secondary courses/teachers tug their interests.</p>
<p>When applying to grad school in NS, my S looked at the profs and labs at various colleges. He interviewed at many of the U’s that are mentioned. The reality of the scene and the people had to be experienced. His ‘head’ lead him to his choices, and the “heart” helped narrow the field. By the way, he did not graduate UG in NS, but worked in NS labs.</p>
<p>My advice is to try to relax. Allow your dtr to apply to the colleges mentioned. Don’t let her fall in love with any one college before she gets admitted. At that point, she can fine tune her choice.</p>
<p>
The [honors</a> college](<a href=“http://www.honorscollege.pitt.edu/]honors”>http://www.honorscollege.pitt.edu/) serves a couple different functions, but it is basically open membership program that is really is in place to offer more advanced, grad level depth classes, facilitate getting students extensive [undergrad</a> research experiences](<a href=“http://www.undergradresearch.pitt.edu/]undergrad”>http://www.undergradresearch.pitt.edu/), and help groom them for national awards and fellowships (if they are interested) like Rhodes and Marshalls, etc. (Pitt honors college has produced three Rhodes scholars in the last five years, as well as many other such award winners.) For freshman, you need a 1400/1450 CR+M SAT, top 5% of class and you are automatically placed in it (that happens for about 20% of incoming freshman and the average score is 1457), but for continuing students, they can apply on a case by case basis if they didn’t get in as a freshman, so it isn’t separated from the university like some of these honors programs at other schools. It is set up for students to take advantage of its offerings as much or as little as they’d like, regardless of scholarship award. It is headquartered on the 36th floor of the Cathedral of Learning and through it you can earn a BPhil (as opposed to a BS) which basically means you end up writing a thesis and defend it (which won’t actually significantly more difficult if she is already doing research). Typically freshman membership comes with some financial award. People on CC have reported their students getting full tuition awards if they reach around 1450/1475 CR+M SATs (and excellent GPAs, etc), and from there up they might apply for Chancellors Scholarships that are full rides (fees and everything), but those are highly competitive and depend on interviews, etc.</p>
<p>It is actually pretty common for neuroscience and biology majors at Pitt to double major in History and Philosophy of Science, or to pick up the certificate.</p>
<p>UCLA
UC San Diego</p>
<p>wgmcp101 thank you for your post, very informative. She has expressed interest in Pitts program offerings, and discussed that she has seen Pitt come up many times in reference to NS. She also said they are on rolling admissions- if so, i think she will be applying soon.
Its great to have so many schools mentioned from CC- at this point CC has offered so much help, far more then any Guidance Counselor at HS.</p>
<p>BTW at the cost of sounding like an idiot, how do you “quote” on this board, im not seeing the function option listed or just missing it!</p>
<p>How is Pitt in terms of FA?</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>I’m going to do this backwards because it keeps changing what I write to a quote.</p>
<p>You put the thing you want to quote in between this tag
[/quote]
and this tag
[quote]
</p>
<p>Only put this -
[quote]
at the beginning of the quote and the other one at the end.</p>
<p>So {quote} quoted text {/quote] , only instead of { use [</p>
<p>[College</a> Confidential - BB Code List](<a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/misc.php?do=bbcode]College”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/misc.php?do=bbcode)</p>
<p>^^^
Oh, good.</p>
<p>Let me try the noparse key.</p>
<p>[noparse]
[/noparse]</p>
<p>
let me see if this one works so far</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Okay then…</p>
<p>going back to your original question, here’s some information about WashU’s neuroscience program. They offer PNP (philosophy/neuroscience/psychology as an undergraduate major or minor. The also offer a graduate degree in Neuroscience.</p>
<p>My son is a freshman, but he’s in their MBB (Mind, Brain, Behavior) course which he loves, loves, loves. I’ve added a link on that too. It’s a terrific way for students to get to know all the components of this interdisciplinary program.</p>
<p>Middleschool Mom, the simple way to explain “Distribution Requirements” is that it is in-between core and open curriculum. Hopkins’ philosophy in college education is that undergraduates are expected to develop broad intellectual interests that will enrich their own lives and their contributions to society. As such, all students are required to earn a minimum number of credits in academic areas outside their majors. The academic areas in the Hopkins curriculum are humanities (H), natural sciences (N), social and behavioral sciences (S), quantitative and mathematical sciences (Q), and engineering (E). Students earn at least 30 credits in courses from areas outside their major area.</p>
<p>To assure that all students in the humanities or social sciences have some exposure to the sciences and math, at least 12 of the 30 credits required for distribution must be in N, Q, and/or E areas. Students in the natural sciences, quantitative studies, or engineering must earn at least 18-21 credits (6-7 courses of 3 credits each) in H and/or S areas.</p>
<p>Having said this, the students have full flexibility in taking whatever classes that interest them in the specific academic areas. For example, for a science student who can’t stand to take another English class in college, he/she can take “Anthropology of Media” or “Introduction to Film Production” to fufill the (H) requirement. Conversely, for a humanities kid who refuses to take another math or physics class, he/she can take “Conversation with the Earth” or “Introduction to Psychology” to meet the (N) requirement. The options within a specific academic areas are wide option. This is unlike the core curriculum where students are required to take specific classes.</p>
<p>As I mentioned earlier, if your daughter is considering the top 10 -15 (or 20) schools, the academic rigor and quality of the education will likely be very similar (whatever difference there may be, it will not be material). At that level, you need to be more concerned about “fit”, whether your daughter like the “vibe” of the school, if she can identify with the student body, and whether she can grow and blossom in the chosen school. I would disagree with you that “Yale is Yale”. I work in a Fortune 100 company, and am routinely involved in recruiting and interviewing college graduates. I recently interviewed a Yale and a Stanford gradutes, and I rejected them both. Reasons? They lack passion in what they did when I asked them to elaborate on their school work and experiece. Really, it is the student, and not the school, that matters the most.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Thank you for a clear explanation of the “Distribution Requirements”.
i completely agree with you on this one. What i meant about was the Yale Crush that seems to be apparent among parents and kids. There are many atributes about the school that are appealing, but so true it is fit and the kid that matter the most.
Thanks for such a nice post.</p>
<p>fwiw: the vast majority of colleges – not engineering or tech schools – have Distribution Requirements (aka GEs). </p>
<p>A few (for example, Chicago, Columbia & Boston College) have a hard Core requirement, and on the other extreme, a few (Brown, Amherst & Smith et al) have an open curriculum. But in-between the vast majority which require coursework outside of your field or major, typically encompassing humanities, lit and/or science. But note, even at a hard Core school like Chicago, they have a course affectionately known as ‘Physics for Poets’. :)</p>