<p>How good is it? I've seen some graduate neuroscience rankings to get a feel for other schools, but W&M doesn't have a graduate program. Does this mean the program isn't very strong? How is the faculty? What kind of Ph.D./M.D. programs do people typically get into? etc.</p>
<p>The neuroscience program is pretty good. We don’t have a graduate program, or even an undergraduate department (it is an interdisciplinary major), but that’s not necessarily a good indicator of the undergrad program’s strength anyway.</p>
<p>I don’t know the numbers, but people do get into MD/PhD programs from WM’s neuroscience program. I know some people have gone to UVA and VCU.</p>
<p>I don’t have concrete info on professors or classes, but the students typically do well with their graduate school placement</p>
<p>I would look into just doing Bio or Chem, but that’s just me.</p>
<p>So I shouldn’t have W&M as one of my backups (I’m aiming for neuroscience at top 20 schools).</p>
<p>I don’t know exactly what you mean. What I meant is that Neuroscience in undergraduate is by definition an interdisciplinary major, where it’s just taking classes from a number of disciplines. Doing Chem or Bio will give you a better solid foundation of one particular area, and then you can branch out from there in grad/med school.</p>
<p>Neuroscience is a fine undergraduate major, and gives you a good comprehensive science background. There’s nothing wrong with cohesive interdisciplinary majors.</p>
<p>WM is a good choice if you’re aiming for MD/PhD programs in neuroscience. There are many productive faculty members working on neuroscience research who are quite happy to work with undergraduates, and research experience is very important for getting into such programs.</p>
<p>I hope you are a very top applicant if you are going to consider W&M as a backup.</p>