So after joining my school’s psychology major, I became very intrigued in the course selections they have. The more I learned about them, the more I decided that I wanted to pursue the field of Neuroscience, rather than get a graduate degree in Psychology. The problem is my school doesn’t offer Neuroscience as a major so the only way I can get a taste of what that field is like by planning on taking courses related in that field. I’ll be entering my second year this upcoming Fall, but i’m slated to taking majority of my psychology classes during 3rd year. Is my situation very common? will only having a BA in psychology while trying to study graduate-level neuroscience put me in any way at a disadvantage? Is medical or graduate school more appropriate?
Very common. I went to Columbia psychology for my PhD, and there you can study neuroscience in a variety of departments - in the psychology department, in biology, in the actual department of neuroscience, etc. And the neuroscience major is housed in the psychology department there. Most of the neuroscience folks in my department studied psychology as an undergrad, and actually most of the neuroscience faculty in my department actually got their PhDs in a psychology department. You can quite easily study neuroscience in a psych department on the graduate level; it’s very common.
Take the broad base of psychology courses but also make sure that you take requisite coursework in biology and biological psychology. If your psych department offers a course in something like mind, brain and behavior, take that; take physiological/biopsychology if you can, too. Also take some basic biology courses and, if your college offers it, some advanced courses in human biology (especially brain/nervous system).
Once you are ready, you may find that you have more success applying to PhD programs that are housed in psych departments rather than PhD programs that are in biology departments. Freestanding neuroscience programs…it’s a toss-up, dependent on the department’s philosophies and approach.