<p>Oh to be clear, when I say anth. sits lower, I mean the average grade given is probably lower than NBB (only thing making NBB competitive is 301 which is curved to a B-). Many of those mid-level NBB courses that sound hard are actually really easy (some are large and give shockingly easy multiple choice exams. Examples are neuroendicrinology, Drugs and Behavior, and Animal behavior). Most of the tougher, more work-intensive elective courses associated with NBB are in psyche (psyche has classes like psyche 103, Brain and Behavior w/Edwards. This is significantly tougher, but is also better run than most NBB classes), anthro, and biology depts meaning that many of their tougher courses (exception physical bio which is a bio and NBB 301, and perhaps computational neuroscience when it’s offered. Only 2 of which you must take) lie in non-NBB depts, one of them being anthro. I hardly think NBB should be mentioned in the same sentence as chem and bio in terms of difficulty when you can take a majority of your classes outside of biology based courses (or outside of the dept. for that matter). NBB students also are not forced to take hardcore quantitative classes (other than 301) regarding their major like psyche, where they have to take psyche stats. and psyche methods (heavy workload, must design own studies, graded harshly). They also don’t have to take any lab courses w/in their major courses whatsoever(only pre-regs like chem and bio have a lab. None of the actual NBB core courses or in dept. electives have a mandatory lab component, which can’t be said can for psyche or anthro. Each have at least 1 course w/a mandatory lab) The only big issue w/NBB is that one must normally take chem and bio (I don’t think physics is required anymore for 301, just highly recommended. Regardless, one must take it for pre-med, so it might as well be before or along w/NBB 301).<br>
But even w/chem and bio, that makes for a total of 3 hard (no I don’t count 401, psyche methods for example, is much more intensive) classes that you have to take whereas it is like 4-5 in psyche. This counts psyche 110/111 which aren’t necessarily pleasant. Many say it’s easy, but in reality the averages are the same or lower than intro. bio and chem. And then, if one is pre-med, they have to also take bio and chem (on top of other pre-med requirements). So a pre-med psyche major will probably have to tolerate a lot more than an NBB major. One of my friends switched from it to NBB for this reason (she claimed to be working ridiculously hard for a BA in psyche when she could have a BS in NBB for the same or less).<br>
I just had to dispel any myths about the difficulty of these majors that pre-meds gravitate towards. Point is, if you are interested in neuroscience (oops, I mean behavioral science because the NBB lessens the emphasis on the biological basis in its course offerings when compared to other schools) and you’re pre-med, you should go for it. Your GPA will not suffer any more or less than it would for a psyche or anthro. major and will probably suffer significantly less than in bio or chem. Plus it encompasses a greater variety of subject areas. With NBB, you can have the cake and eat it too. Take classes you want (learn “some” neuroscience, but not a lot) and maintain a high GPA. Again, you can, and most do, completely avoid the bio and harder psyche oriented courses. You can take all of your electives in anthro. if you wanted. And the actual electives in the dept. are by and large easy. My NBB friends make this point quite clear (I mean seriously, only the core classes yield class average GPAs well below B+. Psyche has maybe 3-4 at about B- and 110 w/Edwards or Hampton can go to C+).</p>