<p>i'm currently a high school junior looking for colleges. right now i have about a 3.6-3.9 ( i'm unsure because we just started weighting and the counselors are having problems). Since freshman year ive taken all enriched, AP, and some IB classes . i really want to major in neuroscience with a cognitive concentration if possible. i hear PITT was pretty good but i want to know how it is in comparison to Penn state. Also if there are others out there that are pretty good, but not outrageously expensive.</p>
<p>Pitt is better than “pretty good”. It’s neuro program, associated with a top tier med school, is excellent, and easily trumps that of PSU.</p>
<p>[wgmcp101[/url</a>] has waxed poetic on many occasions about the neuroscience program at Pitt. I recommend searching through his past posts for detailed information. </p>
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<p>In the meantime, this post may help:
</p>
<p>Penn State does not offer a undergraduate Neuroscience major. (it does offer a minor) </p>
<p>Pitt, for over 25 years, has had a full fledged neuroscience department in its School of Arts & Sciences devoted to undergraduate Neuroscience education with an emphasis on extensive undergraduate research. The department also collaborates with the university’s Department of Neurobiology located in its med school (on campus), the Center for the Neural Basis of Cognition, along with dozens of other related and collaborative departments and centers. Pitt has one of the largest neuroscience communities in the country. </p>
<p>Very few schools have robust neuroscience majors these days, and even fewer have entire, full-fledged departments with a dedicated undergraduate teaching component. The advantage of a program existing at the department level within a school means that there will be a dedicated teaching faculty offering a wide range of courses and also that there will be more in-house research opportunities that can be conducted year round…allowing students to obtain meaningful experience working on real research projects (not just a few month long busy body projects over the summer). </p>
<p>Neuroscience is a hot topic these days, so a lot of schools are just adding “neuroscience” emphasis tracks or programs as offshoots to existing programs or departments in order to attract students. Often, that means they are compelling sometimes reluctant biology or psychology faculty to teach one or two neuro-related courses so they can say they offer “neuroscience”. If you are truly interested in neuroscience, avoid those schools (no matter what their overall ranking is), and look for universities that are able to offer a wide variety of courses so that you can extensively explore areas of the field that you might be interested in (it is a very broad field) and, more importantly, a plethora of neuro-related laboratories so that you can obtain extensive research background.</p>
<p>The only program with comparable opportunities in Pennsylvania is at the University of Pennsylvania, but it is not better than Pitt at the undergrad level (and I’ve taught in Penn’s program). I’m familiar with both programs and have no problem saying that Pitt’s neuro program is better at the undergrad level, and obviously, it is also a lot cheaper.</p>