Hey guys! Looking for experience
from those who have experience in the
biology/neuro fields.
So my situation: do not know if I
should do a neuro or bio BS
undergrad in prep for grad school
My situation: I have lyme disease, and suffered tremendously with brain effects. I am naturally good at science but
this is my passion. Would like to work on research showing how viruses and bacterial infections,
when interacting with genetics, will
lead to brain dysfunction.
The issue: Have taken neuro courses as that was my plan and hated them. All about things I do not care for; anatomy, vision, behavior, etc. I do not need a complete overview of all this to do what I want, and I have a feeling undergrad (save for one class at my school of neurobiology of disease and perhaps my own undergrad research if I were to be a neuro major) is going to be like this with a neuro major, and I am not happy.
I adore biology, and there are some required neuro electives thrown into the BS program; however, I am worried about my grad prospects, i.e. with a bio BS, can I still work with the brain, in the specific fashion I mentioned? Except with a focus on infection and genetics?
All of the things you mention not liking are very important to understand in your desired track. How would you talk about brain dysfunction when some of that dysfunction might lead to vision problems, abnormal behavior, etc.?
Remember that studying something in college is not the same as working in the field. Sometimes we need to get through boring classes to get the job we want.
You will want to look at potential grad programs and what their prerequisites are to ensure you are taking necessary courses. It is okay not to love all of them, as long as you are successful in the course. You will want to be competitive, so don’t limit yourself to the bare requirements.
Thanks for responding, sorry should have been more specific. Essentially:
I want a Phd that allows me access to work on the effects of infections and gentic anomalies on the brain. I am assuming this would be a neuroscience Phd.
However, the only classes that interest me are the ones dealing with neurotransmission and dysregulation of functionality based on genetics and interfering infections.
My point is that the neuro classes at my school are not interesting, and do not probe the questions I eventually want to help answer. This does not mean I do not find neuroscinece interesting; they can be mutually inclusive. The ones about diseases and neurotransmission and computational experiments are interesting, but the rest, i.e. anatomy and basic psychology bore me. I realize these will be essential in the future as diseases affect behavior (I am interested in Alheizmer’s and schziophrenia) but for now the biology track would interest me more, as there are classes as electives that deal with biological psychology and neurobiology, not neuroanatomy and extraneous things that I will not go into (my school is ridculous about the amount of neuro classes to take, even as one goes higher up and is doing research and is becoming more specialized). Also I love animals and plants and evolution and cancer and all that stuff. It would be more fun on a day to day basis. But this is irrlelevent.
In conclusion, I wish to know if a Biology BS could lead me to my desired Neuroscience Phd without the hassles of going through the classes I do not desire to take at the moment, or if a grad school would require me to have taken all those anatomy and extraneous classes I feel are bordering on simple reverse inference at present. I want my education to be streamlined and not boring; it is just a stepping stone to the Phd. It is really a matter of practicality and not career choice. I am not interested in anything but the hard sciences. Forgive me for not being specifc, I was in a rush.
Lyme disease is caused by bacteria - Borrelia burgdorferi. Have you considered microbiology? THis would allow you to study the bacteria that cause the disease. Other options might be studying genetics or molecular biology. These majors would give you tools to study the mechanisms of Lyme disease.
Could be, but not necessarily. There are a lot of PhDs that you could do this research with - neuroscience, biology/microbiology/neurobiology, immunology, biomedical science…you could get an MD and do this research. Heck, with the right program and mentors you could do this with an epidemiology PhD too. Doctoral programs have a lot of flexibility and you can usually take the classes you need across the university to build up the expertise necessary to do your research, and postdocs add to that. This is especially true if there is an advisor in that program or at that university who does what you want to do.
No, it doesn’t work like that.
Graduate school is next-level - you have to have foundational knowledge before you can go to the next level. How can you do research on the effects of infection on the brain if you don’t know the anatomy of the brain and what the different parts of it do? How can you study the effects of genetic abnormalities on behavior and cognition if you don’t know the basic building blocks of those areas?
The thing about graduate school is hat in order to study what you want, you have to build some breadth first. And even most grad programs require you to build some breadth - I am a social psychologist and I had to take classes in neuroscience and cognitive psychology in graduate school (both of which were interesting. I don’t do any brain work but I work with people who do, and I can talk to them about the parts of the brain and what they do and they expect me to know what they are when they mention them because that’s foundational. Plus you never know where your work will intersect with other tangent areas in neuroscience and psychology; you need to be able to speak a common language with other people who are studying related things in your field from different angles. Graduate training isn’t just about setting you off to do whatever you want; it’s about professional training as a scientist to join a community of scientists working on related problems together.
Your BA is not just a stepping stone to the PhD. It’s the set of foundational knowledge upon which you will build. I am a professional research psychologist with a PhD and I still pull on things I learned as an undergraduate psychology major. That’s because everything after this will depend on how well you learned that stuff - so take it seriously.
The answer to your question is that you can major in either biology or neuroscience and go into a neuroscience PhD program. However, even if you major in biology, you will need to take some basic classes in neuroscience and perhaps psychology to be competitive for the top neuroscience programs.
Have you considered something like microbiology or even entomology? Lyme disease involves these areas more than a general biology curriculum would, I think. Having said that, I wouldn’t wish my worst enemy into a lab science PhD program anywhere. They’re all basically academic sweat shops.