<p>Looking to our learned parents for some general guidance. </p>
<p>Our third son, a rising junior, told us yesterday that he is interested in studying the interaction of chemistry and human behavior. Makes sense - aces at Chemistry, loves psychology. Dear parents, can you head us in the general direction of what this field might be called, and what undergrad and grad course of study this may be? Biochemistry? Psychiatry? Biology/pre-med undergrad, speciality refined later? He is not interested in the therapy end at all - not much of a talker, I'm afraid, but is interested in research. Some general directional help, no doubt, would lead to so much more info...</p>
<p>Bless his heart, the kid delivered on his promise - he would make a general decision on career plans during the summer so we could start moving. </p>
<p>If anyone wants to throw us some ideas of a school for this field, we are all ears! Looking for small to mid-sized, serious-minded school, Midwest (we're Ohio) would be awesome but not neccessary, reputation for good merit aid falls into the "must have" category (Middle-class with four sons within four years - yeah, you can do that with twins, who are heading off to college this fall, courtesy of some serious merit aid. What a year it has been!) Boy #3 did very well on sophomore PSAT (think 98% of college-bound juniors) and a 34 with sophomore ACT, so with GPA, service, Eagle, athletics, music and leadership we think he's a good candidate. That part we now know how to do, thanks largely in part to CC. We just don't know what the "brain chemistry field" is called!</p>
<p>he could double major in psych and bio- since broader based knowledge will serve him well in research and then apply to a univ in neuropsych for his Phd</p>
<p>"Brain Science" is Neuroscience. Some programs call it Neurobiology. There are some colleges that have undergrad neuroscience depts and many graduate programs. UC Berkeley is a big one. If you search google for Neuroscience Programs you will find a list of colleges and you could follow up with individual college sites.</p>
<p>University of Rochester has a Brain and Cognitive Science program. I think that is definitely a school to check out. I agree with the above statements- that type of field is often known as neuroscience and you should be able to get info as leonsdaughter suggested. Lots of kids who look at U of Rochester, also consider Carnegie Mellon and Case Western. All serious mid size universities. If your son is entering his junior year (I think that is what rising junior means), see if his school participates in any of the Award programs with U of R. As he is into science, he might be eligible for nomination for the Bosch and Lomb award through the University of Rochester. He must be nominated by his High school. The nomination usually means a merit award from U of R up to $11,000/year if he chooses to attend that school.<br>
At least that is how the award worked 3 years ago- I hate to give dated info as things may have changed since then, but I think you should def. check out U. of Rochester and look into the award info too.
I think Case Western is also known to be generous with merit awards. My d also received a merit award from CMU. My gut feeling was that CMU knew she received a U of R merit award as it was listed on her "resume" and they tried to make a counter offer. So I have a feeling those 3 schools compete with one another for the same "type" of student. D decided she wanted to go into Labor Relations so she is now at Cornell. They too have cognitive science dept but they are not known for merit aid. Luckily we are NYS residents so our tuition costs aren't too bad.</p>
<p>The study of brain chemistry is neurochemistry. The broader term would be neuroscience. Four years of undergrad, 4-5 years of grad school and couple more years of postdoctoral studies should get him started.</p>
<p>As noted above the field is called neuroscience and it may be a department of its own or it may be program housed within a larger psychology department. Neuroscientists generally teach and do research either at the college, university or medical school level. Therefore a Ph.D. is necessary to work in the field. Neuroscience should be distinguished from neuropsychology which is often more clinical and applied. As grad school is necessary in the future, choosing an undergraduate instituition should be based on the overall quality of the college/university, the quality of the psychology department including research opportunities with department faculty in neuroscience and integration with the natural sciences departments. Rankings of psychology departments are rather meaningless since these rankings only apply to the graduate programs at the schools not the undergraduate. I would look for the college where overall my child feels the best fit and then look at the neuroscience offerings after that as the BA will not be his terminal degree. He will be able to supplement his undergraduate training through summer internships in the neurosciences which are becoming more plentiful.</p>
<p>Oberlin and Allegheny College in nw PA are 2 small schools with well regarded neuroscience programs. You will definitely get need based aid at most private schools if you have more than one kid in college at a time. Both of these schools also offer merit aid.</p>
<p>I was just going to recommend Oberlin, Shennie. A superb neuroscience program, with a great new $65M science building. Sounds like a very good fit.</p>
<p>Brandeis U near Boston and Washington University in St. Louis, MO, both have specialized programs to study the brain and behavior. At Wash U, there's a freshman seminar on the topic. Good merit aid, but I don't know how competitive it is.</p>
<p>Carnegie Mellon offers a unified Biology/Psychology majors, has a top ranked Cognitive Psychology department, and allows students to cross-register for courses at University of Pittsburgh, which offers many more neuroscience classes than CMU can. Sadly, they are not often generous with financial aid, but I think are more generous with it in their less-known schools (meaning not engineering, business, and computer science).</p>
<p>If he wants to try for it, he probably couldn't do much better for research in this area then the Brain and Cognitive Sciences department at MIT. (The lead line on the departmental webpage reads, "We want to know how the mind works.... don't you?" :)) The brand new (this year!) Picower Institute which houses the department is amazing.</p>
<p>To check out summer neuroscience internships go to the National Institute of Health website and look for summer programs. Usually psychology departments will get notices from neuroscience labs for summer interns in the major metro areas like Boston. Your d should check with her psych department and see what is available.</p>
<p>unless your kid is a urm, the NIH programs will not be of much help.</p>
<p>Ror rising frosh, At many universities, it is not too hard for a kid to find a lab in which to intern/volunteer. Being paid is much tougher, and likely to lead to bottle washing. It helps if the kid can show some sort of science promise beyond mere interest - science fair project, AP scores etc.</p>
<p>Curiously, the less famous labs are almost always more likely to take in a youngster. The big, famous labs are very postdoc oriented. The absolute best way, IMHO, to get into a lab is to first research the faculty members interests, starting with the lab web site, then send an email asking for a meeting. </p>
<p>Once a kid has finished the first year of college, more doors open up. Howard Hughes supports summer undergrad fellowships at a number of unis, for instance.</p>
<p>OK. D has just finished freshman year of college, has had molbio, etc. This summer she has a job, we're looking ahead to next summer. Do you have to look way early?</p>
<p>Lehigh, Case, Indiana Georgia Tech, UNC, many places.</p>
<p>Also check out this program - what my son is taking - most people drop one subject, so he could do psych/neuroscience and physiology - five choices of modules:</p>