Does anyone know (or point me to a list) of universities that have really good undergraduate neuroscience programs?
Please read the first stickied thread in this sub-forum:
http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/science-majors/1812121-specialized-biology-majors-are-for-the-birds-p1.html
I read that prior to my initial post. Bucking specializations makes sense for some people, but it doesn’t apply to me. I know that I want to major in neuroscience. One of my brothers is autistic, another has ADD, and another has ODD. All these conditions are related to the brain, and I want to be able to understand (and possibly help) them. My goal is to double major in Math or Statistics, as well, and I plan to take a wide range of classes of different topics in college.
With that being said, can anyone help with a list of well-regarded neuroscience programs.
And, while some may disagree, I think the point still stands. If you want to be able to understand and contribute to the field of neuroscience, you’re going to have to go to graduate school or professional school for a PhD or an MD (or both). That is when the real understanding and specialization starts, not at the undergraduate level. At the undergraduate level, you’re still going to learn the same biology as everyone else, even in a neuroscience major, which will consist largely of the same classes as any other biology major. You can always take electives related to neuroscience beyond the regular biology requirements.
Furthermore, individual departments/programs aren’t really ranked for science majors at the undergrad level. I’m not sure there are any “well-regarded (undergraduate-level) neuroscience programs,” at least not to my knowledge. Undergraduate level biology (and most of its flavors) is pretty much the same everywhere, as long as we’re looking at research universities. Find schools that you like based on other criteria, then narrow them down further by looking at things such as research opportunties and faculty doing research in the area of neuroscience (though there’s no guarantee you’d get to do any undergraduate research with any of these faculty).
USC [ Southern Calif] has a fantastic Neuroscience program
http://dornsife.usc.edu/usc-neuroscience/bachelor-of-science-in-neuroscience/
I’d recommend finding schools that you like (for academic and cultural fit, location, etc) that offer neuroscience degrees. Don’t get hung up trying to look for rankings of undergraduate neuroscience programs. If you find neuroscience rankings, they’re for graduate school and don’t translate to the undergraduate experience.
I don’t hold to the line that specialized bio majors are pointless. I would say they’re not necessary: anything you’d do with a neuroscience major you could do with a biology major. But if there’s an area you know you want to go into, I see nothing wrong with going there straightaway. I was a neuroscience major myself, but would never have been a biology major; for me the main point was the brain, not the general biology.
I’m definitely going to a school that fits me. Culture, location, academics, size, etc. I was just curious about neuroscience and if there were any schools that are recommended which aren’t on my list.
What schools are already on your list?
I have 3.97 unweighted, 4.36 weighted, 4.32 unweighted UC, 4.41 weighted UC GPA’s.
My ACT score is 32. I will be retaking in June shooting for a 33.
I’ll be performing research at a university’s cancer cell biology lab this summer.
Here is my huge list. It’ll be pared down by the end of summer to 2-3 reaches, 2-3 safeties, and 7-9 matches. The UC’s likely will count as just one school.
Vanderbilt University (reach)
Brown University (reach)
University of California, Berkeley (reach)
University of California, Los Angeles (reach)
University of Pennsylvania (reach)
Washington University in St. Louis (reach)
Columbia University in the City of New York (reach)
Northwestern University (reach)
Boston University (match)
The University of Texas at Austin (match)
University of Michigan, Ann Arbor (match)
University of Washington (match)
University of Southern California (match)
New York University (match)
University of Wisconsin-Madison (match)
University of California, Davis (match)
University of California, San Diego (match)
University of California, Santa Barbara (match)
University of Richmond (match)
Tulane University (match)
Northeastern University (match)
University of Oregon (safety)
University of California, Santa Cruz (safety)
University of Pittsburgh (safety)
University of Minnesota, Twin Cities (safety)
Your list is a little reachier than my D’s, who was looking for a similar major, but it contains a lot of schools we have looked at over the last several months. She’s 4.0UW/34, and there’s several schools on your list as Matches that are Reaches for her (e.g., UofM, USC), but your ECs may be a lot better. I think it’s a pretty good list.
Something else to consider, look at schools that may have a Cognitive Science major…and something else may pop up you haven’t considered. Biostatistics or Genomics may interest you as well, incorporating your desired minor.
Yes, thanks. I’m looking at a possible minor in Statistics.
Ive looked at the Cognitive Science major plenty, and Genomics does interest me, too. Neuroscience is my main interest. We will see.
My college counselor said UofM and USC are high matches. I’ll probably remove USC from my list, anyway. I’m from LA and prefer UCLA’s side of the city, although USC has some nice majors.
Also, Are you concerned at all with cost? Can u afford all these schools?
JHU and McGill came to mind.
You sound really accomplished and I’m sure you will have many choices. Be aware, however, that state flagships for which you are out of state may be more reachy than you think. Texas and Michigan are getting tougher all of the time. Also, don’t know if cost is a factor, but OOS financial aid can be stingy to non-existent. If you haven’t had the money talk with your family yet, now would be a good time.
Thank you for your responses. Cost may not be an issue. My parents had the conversation with me. They’re committed to paying a high majority percentage of the cost. It’s up to me to determine if I wish to pay the remainder. That’s when the other important factors I’m interested in come in to play: location, culture, athletics, etc. They’ve been teaching me personal finance since I was 10, so I’m well aware of how loans work, their pros and cons, and how they would affect me and my credit. This is part of their plan; to have me perform a cost benefit analysis for my future and take some responsibility for my decision. (They’re really in to teaching personal finance and wish it were taught in high school).
When I visited Austin earlier this year, I met with an admissions counselor, and asked about their OOS acceptance rate, which sits at 9%. He said that while that may be true, OOS students have their own pool and compete against themselves, so the true OOS acceptance rate is 34%. That caught me off guard. I haven’t visited Michigan or researched their OOS acceptance rate.
I haven’t looked at McGill. My mother was born in Canada (moved out here when she was three and is an American citizen), and I have tons of family in Toronto and Montreal. I’ll look in to that.
I’ve looked at JHU, and while I’m impressed academically, I’m not too sure it has the other things on my list.
“It’s up to me to determine if I wish to pay the remainder.”
OP,
YOU as a student, will NOT be able to borrow more than approx $5000/ yr.
Any amount above that will have to be CO SIGNED by your parents, and that means THEY, as well as you, will be on the hook for those EXPENSIVE loans that CANNOT be discharged- even if God forbid- you die!
So you need to sit down with your parents and have a SERIOUS discussion regarding EXACTLY , not perhaps, how much they can or are willing to spend on your college education. Before you apply to college.
Every year on CC we parents read distraught posts from students in April who have been accepted at colleges that their parents NOW tell them they cant afford!
Dont let this happen to you.
I know exactly how much they’re willing to spend per year, and they know they will be co-signing any loans should I decide to follow that route. We’ve had very detailed discussions about this.
I can post how much they’re willing to pay, but I don’t know how the forum feels about those sorts of things in general. Regardless, the amount of loans I might be taking out would not be unwieldy.
Sounds like you’ve done a good job discussing this with your parents. A good way to look at it is to look at your monthly payment of your ‘not unwieldy’ loan. A monthly payment of around $500 I would agree, may not be unwieldy. A lot depends, of course. Do you foresee graduate school too?
Yes, I’ve done my research on the maximum loan amount I would take, and my monthly payments after graduation would be between $450 and $500 dollars. I’ll probably work during college with the goal of paying down as much of that as I can before graduation.
Graduate school is TBD. Med school, graduate school, etc. I’m not sure what path I want to follow as of yet.
If you’re seriously considering medical school, definitely try to keep your costs down; you will likely have to take out a lot of loans for medical school, and undergraduate loans on top of that can get incredibly expensive.
I’m familiar with some of these schools. I visited UW-Madison (alma mater for both my parents), and it didn’t feel like a good fit for neuroscience; it was a subsection of biology, and when I asked for more details, they didn’t have much to say. In contrast, I was incredibly impressed with University of Minnesota - their neuroscience program and college of biological sciences was great. Their out of state tuition is quite reasonable, and they tend to offer good merit scholarships (which I think you’d be a strong candidate for). Their package for me included funding for research starting my freshman year! It ended up being in my final 2 schools, despite being a “safety.” I’d recommend at least keeping it on your list. I also know that Pitt has a very strong neuroscience program (their center for the neural basis of cognition does top notch research), but I don’t know as much about their undergraduate program. Last but not least, I ended up going to Northeastern for my undergrad and had a fantastic experience. One of the things that sets it apart is co-op, which can be an especially big benefit if you aren’t sure what you want to do with your degree - you get a chance to try things out. With all of the universities, medical schools, and biotech in the Boston area, there are a ton of great opportunities for experience. My friends have gone on to top-notch medical school and PhD programs from Northeastern’s science programs, as well (I’ll be headed to Harvard in the fall myself), so it can definitely get you where you want to go.