raconteur

I am a rising high school senior who is extremely interested in MIT's "Brain and Cognitive Science" undergraduate program.

I have extra space in my senior year schedule for one more class. I am debating between AP Human Geography and AP Computer Science. I have never taken a computer science class [my school has no prerequisite for APCS], but I am honestly and equally interested in both of these AP courses.

Would you recommend computer science experience in order to get into / succeed in MIT (specifically the BCS program)?

I would like to cater my classes to my own interests while also preparing for college...

molliebatmit

There are certainly some courses in the BCS major that are cross-listed with the EECS department, and computational neuroscience is a thriving topic within the department. But the MIT BCS major is pretty free-form, and you wouldn't be required to take computational neuroscience courses if you didn't want to.

Are you interested in computational neuroscience? Or do you know what part(s) of neuroscience most interest you?

menloparkmom

I would recommend you take the CS class next year ,regardless of your future major, so you become familiar and comfortable with coding. DS, now at Caltech, never took any CS classes in HS or college, and has found that he now needs computer coding skills, in his PhD program, which is not what he had anticipated 4 years ago. He will be learning Python this fall, in order to stay on top of the increasing technological demands of his field. I would be surprised if a knowledge of coding does not become required for many areas of science in the future. IMHO, the earlier you learn elements of CS, the better.

raconteur

@molliebatmit: Well I found behavioral neuroscience intriguing [perhaps because I took a class on it], but I don't know much about computational neuroscience in detail... I'm also considering a double major/minor in psychology or something related to that. I'm not sure if that changes anything..?

@menloparkmom: I think you're right. CS may be good experience to have, especially since technology is virtually omnipresent.

Thank you both for the help.

molliebatmit

Well, there isn't a separate department of psychology at MIT -- psychological research is contained in the "cognitive sciences" part of "Brain and Cognitive Sciences." There is a psychology minor program, but I don't believe BCS majors are eligible for it. (You're generally not allowed at MIT to be awarded a minor that falls within your major field of study.)

But, anyway, I agree with menloparkmom -- APCS won't be necessary for you to succeed as a BCS major at MIT, but could certainly be helpful nonetheless.