<p>Hi i'm currently waiting on the decisions from Vanderbilt and UF, and I was wondering what you guys would do if you were accepted to both. I am a Florida Resident and Vanderbilt will probably be much more expensive, any advice on the benefits of UF's Neurobiology program over Vanderbilt's Neuroscience program?</p>
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<p>UF’s official neuroscience department is in the college of medicine and does not offer undergraduate classes or degrees. The undergrad IDS program at UF offers a concentration in neuroscience. IDS = Interdisciplinary Studies, which is basically the avenue students must go to custom design their own major. UF already “pre-designed” concentrations in various areas such as Middle Eastern Studies, Biochemistry and Molec Bio, and Neuroscience. These concentrations do not have adequate corresponding departmental majors, so they are almost like extra “unofficial” majors not listed in the official list. Be aware, however, that this does NOT mean that we have “neuroscience” classes. What that means is… basically… UF will give you a degree with a neuroscience “concentration” if you complete a sufficient amount of neuroscience related classes. This includes the basic science curriculum (bio, chem, orgo (bio organic preferred), physics) as well as the behavioral neuroscience class… which is basically a survey of all the areas of neuroscience… and other classes you are responsible for choosing as appropriate. You will also be, by the requirements of IDS and not necessarily neuro, required to complete research and a senior thesis (which you would probably be doing anyway).</p>
<p>The catch is that most of the neuroscience classes we have are actually classes offered by the psychology department that are considered to be in the area of physiological psychology. Once again, neuroscience does not have its own undergrad department to offer classes. Bottom line, as a result, the course offerings for neuroscience type classes are not stellar and vary widely from semester to semester. For example, last semester we had a good offering but this semester it is awful. However, I will say that being an IDS student in the program does give you some validation and (from what I have heard) there are a handful of graduate level classes in the medical school departments (including neuroscience) that sometimes let IDS undergrads in; but you have to consider those case by case.</p>
<p>A good thing is that the IDS program, and any concentration, is very very flexible. We design our own critical tracking criteria and can petition to have various classes added to our curriculum as we and our mentors deem appropriate. So there are many “Neuroscience” majors who have only taken behavior type classes and there are others who only take basic science type classes (Biochem, upper level bios, etc.). And you are not limited heavily, you design this major yourself. Some people in the program are only even “Neuroscience” majors by nature of their research… their courses might not differ much at all from the typical psychology student.</p>
<p>Also be aware most people transfer into the IDS majors after holding a department major (typically psych or bio) anywhere from 2-3 semesters into college. </p>
<p>The difference between this option and what some other schools, like Vanderbilt, offer is the simple fact that they actually HAVE a real neuroscience department in the undergraduate college offering a neuroscience degree. Not only is there a wider variety of classes which includes Neuroscience lab classes (UF has no lab classes for Neuro classes except Physiological psych), but there is a more “undergrad focused” faculty. At UF the Neuroscience faculty only do research or teach grad students. Their major source of interaction with undergrads is through research. I feel that at UF, the undergrad neuroscience program is just something whipped up by the psychology department and stuck under the umbrella of the large IDS program because we are not devoting resources to having a real neuroscience department. However, the counter argument to that is that Neuroscience is, by nature, an interdisciplinary field and drawing courses from many departments is perfectly suitable for that study when mixed correctly.</p>
<p>In the end, I really could not tell you which one is better, I can only accurately tell you what it is like at UF. I actually like this program here, but only because of the flexibility. I chose to do the IDS Neuroscience program because my other option is Psych/Bio double major. There are some classes required for a Bio degree I didn’t want to take so I decided to do IDS and it fits perfectly for me. A lot of biochemistry, psychology, Biology, and even Statistics classes count for the core of my major. But if you are very, very serious about pursuing neuroscience and want to take as many actual neuroscience classes as possible; I can comfortably say UF will not offer that to you.</p>
<p>Wow thank you for that detailed answer, if anyone has any information on vanderbilt’s neuroscience program that would be great.</p>
<p>I’m actually looking into neuroscience at UF as well…thanks for the informative post, Mystifire! Although I’m surprised to hear UF doesn’t have an “official” neuro major…hmm. Because I know for sure Emory and U miami (my other 2 top choices) have a very strong neuro program. How do IDS majors look to medical schools? If i do IDS neuro at UF will med schools think of that as a normal neuro major like they will at any other schools, or because it is “unofficial” will they know it’s my own major that i “custom designed”? like will that harm me?</p>