Questions about going for a PhD in computational neuroscience

Graduate School
1

<p>I graduated in the summer of 2012 with a double major in neurobiology and film from Northwestern. Uncertain about the career path I wanted to take (as one can see from my majors), I elected to not invest in grad school for the time being, and instead, entered the workforce. </p>

<p>Now, I like my job, and I count myself as lucky to have found this opportunity. Working life has taught me a lot about how to be a better person and has improved my self-reliance, my work ethic, and my focus. But after lots of deliberation, reading, and conversing with my past professors and advisors, I've been able to finally solidify my life goals and future plans and have come to the conclusion that it's time for me to start planning for the next stage. </p>

<p>So that I won't bore you guys, I won't get into my life plan, but elements of it involve getting into neural engineering, which compels me to go back to school for a computational neuroscience PhD. As my application will be noticeably weak in some areas because of my unorthodox undergrad, I was wondering what steps I should take to improve my application before December/January deadlines. In my opinion, my prime weaknesses are lack of research experience (only one summer -- and wet lab, at that), math courses (only two quarters of linear algebra, vector calculus, and multivariable calc at the start of Freshman year, when my work ethic was at an all time low), and coding experience (none). GPA was a 3.63, so while unspectacular, I don't think that will be a liability -- my film courses actually provided most of the drag. Also ended up with some teaching experience as a biology TA, though I'm not sure if that's something to trump. </p>

<p>Post-bacc is not realistic, since I can't afford to quit my job and inconsistent startup hours prevent me from taking night classes on a regular basis. I have taken to learning stats and R with the assistance of one of my former professors. I should have the ability to volunteer time to a lab though on some evenings, if that is something I should consider. </p>

<p>Your help and advice is appreciated.</p>

2

<p>Get a job as a lab tech. This will get you valuable experience working in a lab and performing research, and also, most universities allow their employees to take free classes while they are employed. Taking this path has been really great for me, as I needed more research experience and classwork before applying to PhD programs, and I made money the whole time while doing it. The most important thing for applying to PhD programs is your research experience, so I think that until you bolster this part of your application, you will have a tough time getting into a top program.</p>