My school has no neuroscience major, only a minor. I heard taking biology or computer science are alternative undergrad options. I’m not really sure which one to choose. Are there others I should know of? For things that interest me in neuroscience are general reasoning, spatial relations, intelligence, mapping non-verbal problem solving, things like that. Career-wise, I think I would prefer to study these areas theoretically like in research rather than pharmaceutical, medical, etc. I’d appreciate any tips on what I should major in.
I have a couple of friends with PhDs in neuroscience, including one of my closest. Generally they studied biology or psychology in undergrad. Most of us went to college before neuroscience majors were widespread anyway. One of my friends said that biology is more useful than psych for a PhD in neuroscience, but I know lots of people who majored in psych and got a PhD in neuroscience (although they typically had some coursework in biology in undergrad).
It also depends a lot on the program. Some neuroscience programs are housed in biology departments; some are standalone; some are housed in psychology departments; and some are even housed at medical schools. Where the program is housed will probably have a big impact on the expectations they have for incoming students. (My psychology department had a neuroscience concentration, but most of them had a psychology background.)
An example is CU-Boulder’s program in neuroscience, which is a standalone program but is structured in a way that you apply to a participating department’s PhD program. Notice that psychology is not one of them. So for this program, I’d say that a background in biology is probably way more important:
http://www.colorado.edu/neuroscienceprogram/phd.html
But Yale’s neuroscience PhD program is concentrated within the department of psychology, and so a foundational background in psychology is important there.
http://psychology.yale.edu/research/neuroscience
Were I you, I’d probably major in biology and minor in neuroscience and make sure I took some general psychology classes if they’re not already included in the neuroscience minor (intro to psychology; research methods; a statistics course, maybe 1-2 other electives - especially if they have a biological psych or mind, brain, and behavior course). that would give you the widest range of later options.
Computer science would be a useful major if you were interested in computational neuroscience. If you are not, then I wouldn’t major in it, but you could take a few classes and develop expertise - you’re going to need it to do data analysis.