<p>I am in community college looking to transfer to a university. I have a 3.8 GPA right now and will be applying to schools in a year. I want to major in Neuroscience and go to medical school after that for neurosurgery. I have a few questions.</p>
<ol>
<li><p>How important will the undergraduate school play in becoming what I want?</p></li>
<li><p>UC San Diego is ranked #2 in Neuroscience for graduate school, would that help in undergraduate or no?</p></li>
<li><p>What are great Universities for Neuroscience?</p></li>
</ol>
<p>Have you considered a major in Psychobiology? It’s very similar to Neuroscience but is more focused on explaining behavior and mental processes as opposed to the biology of the nervous system (which is Neuroscience). Your gpa is high enough where you could major in Psychobiology at a school like UCLA. Also, as long as you get good grades during undergrad (3.5+) you’ll be an awesome candidate for med school, especially if you do research in brain science during undergrad. Best of luck! </p>
<p>I have looked at psychobiology and read about it but I would love to understand more of the biology of the nervous system. Would going to a prestige university with a neuroscience major help me as a neurosurgeon?</p>
<p>UCSD is highly competitive and will deflate your GPA for medical school.
If you are really really serious about med school then you should goto a relatively easy CSU and work on getting the best GPA possible.
You also do not need to do neuroscience to attend medical school. All that matters is completing the pre-reqs for med school. </p>
<p>UCSC compared to UCSD? I think it would be basically the same.
If you were going to a UC then Merced is probably the only one would be noticeably easier but then again it is still a UC.</p>
<p>The guy above who recommend psychobiology because it focuses on behavior as opposed to biology is really smart. The problem is if you go into neuroscience and especially goto a UC then you will be in curved classes and competing against people with photographic or near-photographic memory. So getting grades based on tests that mostly deal with memorization will hurt your GPA badly. If you do a major that is more focused on writing papers or explaining stuff then that memorization advantage goes out the window and your gpa will improve as a result. </p>
<p>In short if you really want to do med school then just get in the med school pre-reqs and focus on an easier major that you will improve your GPA. </p>
<p>I’m very good with memorization but I see your point. Would a major help me in my specialty in medical school? If I wanted to get into a very top medical school, would I be able to with a high GPA and MCAT at any UC or only the prestigious ones?</p>
<p>Everyone knows a school like a UCLA or a Stanford is more prestigious than a school like UC Riverside but when it comes to graduate school or professional school applications how would you weigh an application from UCLA vs. UC Riverside? </p>
<p>If they have the same GPA it is really easy and you could give more credibly to the UCLA applicant.
But what about when the GPA is different?
It wouldn’t be fair to add extra points to the UCLA student just because he attended UCLA
See the issue?
For this reason the prestige of your undergrad university is not that important for medical school. A 4.0 at CSUF is a lot better than a 3.7 at UCLA. </p>
Med school and your residency will teach you all you need to know about your specialty. In fact your 1st 2 years in med school are going to be the same no matter what your goals. Its the last 2 years when you start doing clinical rotations that you pick them in areas you are interested in. So you don’t need an undergrad degree in the area, although of course studying it as an undergrad can help you make sure you really are that interested in it.</p>
Med schools don’t have majors. You become a neurosurgeon by being accepted into a neurosurgery residency program after med school. Those programs, in turn, will look at the clinical rotations you have done. Students with an interest in a particular hospital’s program often apply to do one of their rotations there so the attendings get to know them.</p>
<p>And that is why you are not going to med school. </p>
<p>When I attended UCI I had the chance to ask my professor about her experience at Berkeley (undergrad) and UCSD (grad). She said both schools were incredibly competitive and if someone wants to go into a graduate program it’s better to go to a less competitive university. </p>
<p>Most other “smart” students are going to have that exact same thought process and will want to attend the highest UC they got into. Then they get into classes that are curved by the highest grade in the class and suddenly an A/B at a CSU becomes a B/C at UC.</p>
<p>Top tier universities are heavily represented at the top grad schools over lower tier counterparts. Those are simply the facts. As @professorX5 said more research, internships, and opportunities at UCSD, and as even you said, grades will be comparable to UCSC, so why not just choose the top tier? You suggested a CSU. OP should choose the campus he likes rather than try to game the system for a supposed (and questionable) easier admit to grad school. </p>
<p>Another thing to always take into consideration: planning to go to grad school and actually going to grad school are two different things. If you end up not going, which happens a lot, wouldn’t you rather have the top tier undergrad degree?</p>
<p>I gave my opinion and that’s all it is. At the end of the day, OP should go where he feels he will benefit the most.</p>
<p>“Top tier universities are heavily represented at the top grad schools over lower tier counterparts.”
Except certain top-tier universities like Stanford and Harvard are know for grade inflation.
Inversely other universities like the UCs especially are know for grade deflation. In other words they have really hard tests that are curved based on the class average and department scale.
On top of that UCLA, Cal, UCSD are the top 3 UCs and so they are filled with a huge body of overachieving students who couldn’t attend top-tier privates (for cost or electability). It’s like walking into a pack of hungry wolves. </p>
<p>Go where you want to go. I recommend going to a university with a medical school, but focus on finding a school with adequate academic support and a happy, enjoyable climate (whatever that means to you). </p>
<p>Your undergraduate school will play very little role in your career as a doctor. Biology undergrad curriculums are largely the same and almost all of the UCs have strong science programs. In medical school you’ll be compared against the best of the best (even the lowest ranked med schools are difficult to get in to). That means that if you can’t hack it in undergrad, wherever you go, it’ll be a blessing in disguise: you won’t fail out of med school. </p>
<p>So don’t worry about how undergrad will affect your med school choices; worry about how it will serve your undergraduate education purposes. </p>