<p>Anyone on this forum have experience with neuroscience at Columbia? How is it?</p>
<p>what's that? that sound? yes, i think I hear - that's the bell ringing for Cerberus08.</p>
<p>Cerberus08, please come to the white courtesy phone.</p>
<p>Thanks D. </p>
<p>Wombat: I quite my neuro major <em>a lot</em>. </p>
<p>I'm not sure what you're planning on doing later, but if you're thinking of med school, the neuro major does not by default cover all the premed requirements. For eg., you don't have to take Orgo or calc if you're not premed. I thought that was one of the setbacks: although you do cover basic neurochemistry in class, I feel like being obliged to take orgo would have augmented the subject. I was not premed, so I didn't have much of a problem on that front.</p>
<p>The structure of the neuro major is:
2 semesters gen chem (or 1 semester intensive)
Bio:
2 semesters bio C2005
1 Semester Cellular & molecular neuro
1 semester development and systems neurobio
1 bio elective
Psych:
1 semester Mind, Brain & Behavior or equivalent
1 semester Science of Psych
1 semester of statistics
2 psych electives. </p>
<p>It's pretty loosely structured, you can probably tell. I found my bio classes challenging, but it wasn't hard to do well in them. Also, some of the professors were really badass: Stuart Firestein, for example. He was more a guest lecturer at most of my bio classes--but I ended up taking a seminar with him in my last semester, which was great. Also, the developmental neuro class with Rafa Yuste. When he taught me, he decided that he wasn't going to teach much because most of the material we covered was being researched by the experts at columbia, including people like Eric Kandel who got the Nobel in 2000 for his work on memory. So yeah, we had Nobel prize winners teaching class and doing a Q&A after: not very common in undergrad classes. </p>
<p>The psych classes, on the other hand, were less compelling. I suggest researching the professors before taking classes with them. Like neuro, the psych dept at CU is amazing, and the faculty frequently collaborate with economists and biologists and whatnot: I suggest researching the classes and the faculty who teach, though, because not all of them are such great teachers. for the most part, though, I was lucky. </p>
<p>I'm all for the neuro major, but I think I could have done with some more challenge: bio was hard, psych sometimes. In retrospect, I wish I'd done a double major or minor. If I were thinking seriously about med school, the honours program or paid research is a great option and I think will add a lot to the major. </p>
<p>Before I ramble on some more, is there anything more speficif you'd like to know?</p>
<p>i also want to do neuroscience. how hard is it to find research opportunities? do students generally work on research during the year or during the summer?</p>
<p>Both.</p>
<p>It's not too hard to find research opportunities, it might be hard to find labs that have the space and the budget. You should find something, though: there's plenty of stuff going on between the Medical Center and Morningside. However, I suggest researching and looking for stuff over the summer and setting up interviews before the academic year begins. You can look at the psych and bio web site, they usually post research ops there. Or you could drop an email to a professor whose research interests you and see if he/she will take you in.</p>
<p>Thanks cerebus that all sounds great. I am thinking about pre-med, so correct me if I'm wrong about the other classes I would have to take: 2 semesters orgo., 1 semester calc, 1 semester physics. Is that right?</p>
<p>I think it's 2 semesters of calc and 2 of physics, 1 orgo lab, 1 gchem lab and physics lab. You might want to look it up, I'm kind of rusty :(</p>
<p>The</a> Pre-professional Office</p>
<p>There ya go.</p>