<p>Hello all,
I have been applying to colleges recently, with the intent of majoring in Neuroscience and continuing on to Med School to specialize in most likely either Neuropharmacology or Neuropsychology. One of the schools I am applying to, UW-Madison, does not have a Neuroscience major, but they do have Neurobiology and Psychology majors. I was wondering if taking either of those would affect the path I intend to take later on.
Thanks in advance for any resposes!</p>
<p>There’s not going to be a great deal of difference for your purposes. </p>
<p>See my first post in this thread:
<a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/college-search-selection/707599-best-undergraduate-schools-neuroscience.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/college-search-selection/707599-best-undergraduate-schools-neuroscience.html</a></p>
<p>Remember that going to medical school is like trying to be an NBA superstar. Have to jump through a lot of hoops to get there. Medical school does not look for people interested or knowledgable about the biomedical sciences. It instead looks for people who are good at applying to medical schools. So don’t major in sciences. Instead, if you’re serious about medicine:</p>
<p>Major in something easy like Communications or Marketing.
Get a 4.0 GPA
Take the minimum amount of science classes needed for acceptance and the minimum amount of classes needed to inflate your GPA.
Use the rest of your spare time to take up space at a hospital and call it “volunteering” or “internship”.
Summer of year 3, review crazily for the MCAT.</p>
<p>Wait a minute… somehow I screwed up my first post. I didn’t mean Med School, I meant to say Grad School. I’m assuming that makes a difference…?</p>
<p>Hmmm I know a lot of neuroscience are offered in medical schools, and there is no “MS in neuroscience”. I can be wrong though. Maybe a few.
Those offered in MED are usually listed M.D./Ph.D or Ph.D</p>
<p>By the way, LastThreeYears, mind to stop thinking that marketing or communication majors are easy? You are not being fair and sounds like you are condescending because the major seems “easy”.
Why don’t you try to earn one? I am sure there engineers that received 4.0 from MIT and there are Physics major received 4.0 from Harvard.</p>
<p>By the way, if you are serious about medicine, meaning becoming an M.D., then taking those “easy majors” will not help you. Because you lack of the contact with the science for 4 years. I knew a pianist who later became an M.D., but hey, he didn’t choose to become an M.D. in the first place, so that’s a different story.
Scores aren’t everything. Do you think getting 45 on MCAT means Harvard Medical right away? No.</p>
<p>Thanks, jwxie, I agree.</p>
<p>I still feel my question is a bit unanswered though, but I’m getting the feeling that my Undergrad Major doesn’t have much effect on what I go on to in Grad School, right? </p>
<p>Basically what I want to know is this: If I get an Undergrad Major in Psychology or Neurobiology, can I still go on to specialize in other branches of Neuroscience in grad school?</p>
<p>Sorry. I am an engineering student. I think others can help (but science forum isn’t very active IMO…)
You just have to wait for the experts who KNOW the stuff,</p>
<p>But my 2 cents:
I think either major will prepare you for it - not in depth, of course. I think Neurobiology is closer.
For admission, probably not. For preparation, yes. </p>
<p>The fact that you NEED NOT to have the same MAJOR in order to qualify for graduate program. In another word, you can be a chemistry major and still end up in neuroscience. There could be pre-requisites for some particular courses, if you haven’t had it from undergraduate. Those will not hinder you from admission. It will hinder you from graduating early, say you might need an extra semester?
This is true for, say, a B.S. in biology, and M.E. in Civil Engineering.</p>
<p>Thank you very much for your responsiveness. That answers my question perfectly.</p>
<p>Well there are exceptions… if I forgot to mention that. In your case, I will definitely wait for the experts to tell you whether it’s offered in med or plain graduate program…
then you should find out the requirement. I doubt that you need to have neurobiology to get into graduate neurobiology 
There are exceptions for other areas…</p>
<p>Well, the thing is, I don’t want a Grad Degree in Neurobiology, I was looking to get a Grad Degree in some other branch of the broader category of Neuroscience, but Madison doesn’t offer an Undergraduate major in Neruoscience, just a Neurobiology major. </p>
<p>!!!
I was wondering if I could go to Grad School for, say, Neuropsychology when I come out of an Undergraduate program (Madison, in this case) with a Neurobiology major.
!!!</p>
<p>OP, you’re quibbling over nonsense!</p>
<p>UW-Madison Psychology will give full consideration to graduate applicants that have undergrad majors in other fields. For admission to Madison’s program, the important thing is that you find a graduate faculty member who accepts you into his lab. There is a graduate concentration in the Biology of Brain & Behavior. An undergrad Neurobiology major is relevant to this area. </p>
<p>More important than whether you have an undegrad major with a specific title is that you have a solid background in supporting sciences (pretty much equivalent to the basic premed core in basic sciences) and that you have some good research experience. Having at least basic coursework in neuro-related fields would probably be expected, whether this is obtained in a biology dept., a psychology dept, or a neuroscience dept. </p>
<p>The situation is going to be pretty similar for most graduate programs in neuro-related fields. If you’re still unsure about this, then check out the graduate admission requirements for programs/departments that interest you.</p>
<p>If you’re a Wisconsin resident, I think you also get some reciprocity with Minnesota. Also, check out the undergrad neuroscience major at U Minnesota.</p>
<p>Thank you! I was hoping I was just being overly worried. I have also applied to Minnesota-Twin Cities. In fact, that was the only other place apart from Madison that I intended on applying to, and I will most likely be going there (provided that I am accepted, which frankly shouldn’t be a problem). Therefore, this whole thread is, in some respect, worthless. But thank you for finally giving me the straight-forward answer I was looking for!</p>
<p>I went to Madison for my undergrad in a biological science and then went onto a Phd, which it sounds like you might be interested in doing. You should realize that UW and the U for that matter, are particularly great for biological sciences and garner some of the highest amounts of research funds in the nation. For your intended career path, be it graduate or medical (and yes there is a difference), a background in research will be essential. The distinction between neuroscience, neurobiology and so on is semantic in nature and not substantive for graduate admissions. In fact, many graduate programs operate as umbrella programs where you don’t even affiliate with a specific department until you choose your dissertation lab. I loved UW but a lot of people get lost in the enormous size. It’s not for everybody, will you need high quality advising? personal attention? how persistent are you at dealing with bureaucratic redundancies? Lab jobs don’t just get offered to you, you need to hunt them out, often interviewing with multiple labs to find the right one- sometimes even unpaid, sometimes requiring dishwashing chores. If all of that sounds like something you can handle then I urge you to have at it and enjoy the ride.</p>
<p>Thanks for the info! I was looking into Graduate, not medical. The difference between Neuroscience and Neurobiology isn’t purely semantic, though. Neuroscience focuses on the connections and uses of the nervous system while Neurobiology is more closely interested in how it functions. It seems to have little importance anyway though, and that’s what I came here to determine.</p>