<p>Can anyone tell me if majoring in biology and neuroscience is a bad combination? I really need to know because I am basing my decision off of what college I attend to. I also want to attend medical school and obtain my PhD in both subjects so I can become a cardiothoracic surgeon and help people with neural problems like cancer, trauma etc. Also will it be to hard? Can I benefit from majoring in both and still have a few courses left over to do study what I want? I'm trying to go to a school that has none or little core requirements to make the double major easier. Does anyone have any advice? I know I have big goals... Lol</p>
<p>I don’t really see the point of double majoring in biology and neuroscience. Both will likely have plenty of courses in biology, and majoring in just one or the other would be just as good (and you can always take additional biology courses as you see fit).</p>
<p>Also, you may want to see if it’s even possible at the schools you are looking at. At my school, you weren’t allowed to double major in two majors within the same department, and there were rules about the minimum number of courses that had to be unique to each major (which may not be possible with majors that have a lot of overlap, like biology and neuroscience).</p>
<p>You might be better off double majoring in biology/neuroscience and something else that you are interested, or just having one major and taking courses of interest in other departments.</p>
<p>I also think you’re future goals seem a bit far-fetched. It sounds like you want to be a surgeon, so an MD would suit you just fine. There’s no need to get a PhD as well (much less two PhDs, although you usually don’t get a PhD in just “biology”; they tend to be more specialized than that), unless you have a particular need for it. There are MD/PhD programs, if that’s something of interest to you. Also, a cardiothoracic surgeon wouldn’t help people with neural problems (and I find your description of “neural problems” strange as well).</p>
<p>It’s good to have big dreams, but it sounds like you need to do a lot more research into your goals if you plan on pursuing them seriously.</p>
<p>Thanks but I didn’t ask for your opinion on my future plans. Firstly, I do know that cardiothoracic surgeons work on the heart and lungs (chest in general) key words cardio and thoracic. Secondly, I was thinking on helping people with head traumas and cancer in the brain. I have quite of bit of knowledge on my big dreams and I have done tons of research on it and I am very very familiar with the whole MD/PhD programs. Also you can get a PhD in biology, I don’t know who told you, you have to have a specialization. Lastly, I only asked your opinion about the double major not anything else. I can have “far-fetched goals” all I please. I rather have “far-fetched” than none at all. Might I add there are a lot of cardiothoracic surgeons (ok maybe not a lot because they are getting older and retiring) so I don’t think my dreams are that far fetched. What I’m trying to say is you had no right to comment on my dreams because I only asked about the major nothing else. Just because they are far fetched for you, does not mean they are far fetched for me. Don’t tell me the sky is the limit when there are footprints on the moon.</p>
<p>Wow. What a little brat.</p>
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<p>I didn’t say that being a cardiothoracic surgeon was far-fetched. I said that I thought that becoming a cardiothoracic surgeon (MD) with two PhDs that helped people with “neural problems like cancer, trauma, etc” seemed a little far-fetched.</p>
<p>I didn’t say it was impossible, and I never said that you shouldn’t have goals. I just didn’t think your goals sounded like they were particularly related to what you wanted to do (as you described it), nor did I think that having two PhDs (one in neuroscience and one in biology, apparently) supported your particular goals. I would never say that you shouldn’t have dreams or goals, but that you should think of them realistically and get degrees that support your future career goals, not just degrees for the sake of getting degrees. Maybe I misinterpreted your intended career goal, but all I had to go on was what you put in your original post. I wasn’t trashing your dreams; I was saying that you should consider whether this particular path supports your specific career goal. In my opinion, it doesn’t. But perhaps there are things about your goal that did not come across in your post.</p>
<p>I’m sorry you took my comments so personally. I didn’t intend for that to be an attack on you or your goals. I was just giving some advice based on what you said in your original post. If you don’t want to take it that’s absolutely fine. I don’t really care.</p>
<p>Also, I spent over half of my post addressing your initial question about whether or not you should double major in those particular majors. Some of it was just my opinion that those two particular majors might not benefit you tremendously. Some of it was practical things that you should look into when you are deciding what what school you would like to go to (would they even allow you to major in two majors that are so similar?). I wasn’t aware that you would be so aggressively opposed to my sharing my opinion on whether or not I thought your education goals aligned with your career goals. I was only suggesting that you look into it further, and if you’ve decided that that is the path for you, then by all means, go for it. You are welcome to ignore anything you’d like in my post. I thought I was welcome to share my opinion, but clearly I wasn’t.</p>
<p>And by specialization in biology, I meant that people tend to student specific topics to write their dissertation on. So you could have a PhD that says biology, but your dissertation might have been on something specific to neuroscience. I didn’t understand what you were interested in researching that would require you to get two PhDs in neuroscience AND biology, but of course, I’m only a graduate student in biology. What do I know? =D</p>
<p>In all of your researcher, certainly you’ve found out what a PhD is for, right? And why it seems very unlikely someone would ever get a PhD in both biology and neuroscience?</p>
<p>I agree JeSuis. What a brat.</p>
<p>Reading the response was like listening to a screeching blackboard.</p>
<p>Wow, I thought this thread had something useful in it … but apparently I was completely wrong, this thread only has a complete brat who should be thankful that someone took the time to write such a complete and thought out response (whether you agree or not, if you disagree say thank you and ignore everything that person typed) instead your rude to him -.-</p>