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04-04-2008, 02:31 PM
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#31 | | Junior Member
Join Date: Oct 2007
Threads: 7
Posts: 86
| Yeah..I really hate this "better"/"the best" business....Better in what? Does that "what" really matter? etc...Who cares! | 
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04-04-2008, 09:02 PM
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#32 | | Junior Member
Join Date: Mar 2008
Threads: 3
Posts: 74
| quality of life - brown, dartmouth, columbia. Studies dartmouth / columbia. brown (and cornell) arent really up top the standard of the rest of the Ivy league are they. | |
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04-04-2008, 10:53 PM
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#33 | | Junior Member
Join Date: Nov 2007 Location: Brown
Threads: 4
Posts: 294
| sigh @ mia
when will people learn? | |
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04-05-2008, 07:52 AM
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#34 | | Senior Member
Join Date: Mar 2005
Threads: 4
Posts: 1,442
| To get away from the "college X is better", "no it's not" debate, and back to the OP's questions:
Will I be able to handle CORE, major reqs, and premed reqs at Columbia?: I would say "probably. It depends on what you major in". If you choose, for example, engineering, then completing your premed requirements will use up just about all of your elective time, and the combination of premed and engineering will be extremely challenging. I know people who have done it successfully, but it is a grind. At the opposite extreme, if you major in something like biochemistry, then the premed requirements will simply be part of your major, and no extra work. Premed at any top college is a lot of work, but it will be similar to Brown or Dartmouth. And the Core courses will fulfill your non-science premed requirements. In general, the farther from science your major, the more the premed requirements are "extra" courses.
If you major in neuroscience, then you will end up taking just about all of the premed requirements along the way, so it will not really matter.
Which has the best neuroscience? Here you get to the classic question "best for whom?" Among these three Columbia has a traditional huge graduate and research program in neuroscience. The Columbia neuroscience faculty is larger than Brown's and much larger than Dartmouth's. More importantly, Columbia also has all the neuroscience resources at Columbia Presbyterian hospital, one of the top clinical and research neuroscience places in the world. Adding the neuroscientists in the medical school department of neuroscience to those at the main campus more than doubles the numbers. That is before considering all the research that takes place in the departments of Neurology, Psychiatry, and Neurosurgery. Brown and Dartmouth have medical schools of course, but their scope of neuroscience, clinical and research, is nothing like what exists at Columbia.
So on scale, you really cannot compare Columbia to the other two places for neuroscience.
On the other hand, this does not mean that it is the "best" place for an undergrad interested in neuroscience. This depends on the extent to which all of these glorious research labs welcome undergrads, how readily one can access the resources at the hospital, and whether, as an undergrad, spending most of your time in a neuroscience lab is what you really want to do.
It is difficult to imagine anyone running out of neuroscience courses or opportunities at any of these places. Academically you could not possibly go wrong among these choices. | |
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04-05-2008, 10:03 AM
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#35 | | New Member
Join Date: Oct 2006 Gender: Female
Threads: 4
Posts: 24
| I picked Brown over Dartmouth. In case you believe in the wisdom of crowds, a narrow majority favors Brown over both schools. The New York Times > Week in Review > Image > Collegiate Matchups: Predicting Student Choices
The grading is a lot easier, which I think does two things (1.) it contributes to happiness (more leisure time, less stress, less vicious competition for the precious few As on a sharp curve), (2.) it boosts grad-school/employment prospects (more time for extra-curriculars, higher probability of having the 3.96-4.0 sweet spot that Yale Law covets).
Ultimately it depends on your ambitions and how much you care about location. I won't deny that Columbia is hands-down in a much better place, but the Core curriculum sucks, and way more people there are miserable.
I hope this helpful, and let me know where you end up.
Last edited by DeterminateLaw : 04-05-2008 at 10:06 AM.
Reason: Minor typo
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04-05-2008, 10:31 AM
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#36 | | Senior Member
Join Date: Jan 2007 Location: In a bubble Gender: Female
Threads: 58
Posts: 3,793
| Brown neuroscience owns. There's no other way to describe it.  | |
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04-05-2008, 11:21 AM
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#37 | | Junior Member
Join Date: Jun 2005
Threads: 18
Posts: 239
| nice data. Not.
esp taken from 3200 random high school students. You really think a sample size f 3200 is enough to make such a blanket prediction like that? | |
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04-05-2008, 12:05 PM
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#38 | | Senior Member
Join Date: Aug 2004
Threads: 33
Posts: 6,969
| Actually 3200 is a huge sample size. Its probably 99% accurate. The issue is whether the sample population was random. (lol sorry for being stats nerd!) | |
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04-05-2008, 03:09 PM
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#39 | | Junior Member
Join Date: Nov 2007 Location: Brown
Threads: 4
Posts: 294
| there has been plenty of criticism of that study since the sample group left many groups out, but oh well. work with what you got. | |
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04-05-2008, 05:15 PM
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#40 | | Junior Member
Join Date: Oct 2007
Threads: 7
Posts: 86
| "it boosts grad-school/employment prospects (more time for extra-curriculars, higher probability of having the 3.96-4.0 sweet spot that Yale Law covets)."
IF this is correct..Does that mean that Admissions officers at top colleges are just stupid that they don't know how kids are graded in each school....And does that mean that Brown professors just give everyone an A unless you punch them for fun....This sounds ridiculous...I dont believe in the thing that Brown grades easily...but if so then I don't believe that Admissions people at top schools buy this...!!! | |
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04-05-2008, 08:12 PM
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#41 | | Junior Member
Join Date: Feb 2007
Threads: 8
Posts: 40
| Thanks for all the info guys....and btw can anyone elaborate on why the Brown nueorscience program is soo good? Also, what about the anthropology departments at each of the schools. Thanks! | |
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04-05-2008, 10:11 PM
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#43 | | Junior Member
Join Date: Jun 2005
Threads: 18
Posts: 239
| ... yo not to sound like an ass. But the first point is...what? Most neurosci classes are popular at all colleges..just because it's neuroscience.
second is just not true. That's like saying Ford is the only company that makes cars.
As for professors, all three colleges above have really fantastic faculty..and yes, they invent stuff.
The rest is irrelevant. | |
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04-05-2008, 10:12 PM
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#44 | | Junior Member
Join Date: Aug 2007
Threads: 2
Posts: 70
| excellent post dcircle | |
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04-06-2008, 08:50 AM
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#45 | | Senior Member
Join Date: Aug 2004
Threads: 137
Posts: 1,453
| BrainGate isn't "stuff" It's an FDA approved electronic chip they are implanting in the brains of paralyzed people that allows them to operate tvs and computers with their thoughts
There actually is only one undergrad neuroscience book and it was written by three brown professors--Bear Conners and Paradiso--look it up
How many intro neuroscience classes are taken by 25% of an entire student body? plus, how many give you a t-shirt at the end to commemorate the experience? | |
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