Best school for Neuroscience/Political Science

College Search & Lists
1

<p>Hello everybody! For the longest time I was pretty convinced that I wanted to focus on studying political science, with a focus on international relations. Now I’m very interested in neuroscience, so there is the possibility that in the future I might choose to major in neuroscience instead of political science. What schools offer very good programs and would allow me the flexibility to explore both areas before deciding on what to major on? Also, I’m not necessarily against going to college in a rural environment, but I would definitely prefer to study at or near a big city.</p>

2

<p>UAB (Birmingham) has a relatively new neuroscience major for undergrads</p>

<p>[Program</a> Information](<a href=“CAS - Undergraduate Neuroscience Program | UAB”>CAS - Undergraduate Neuroscience Program | UAB)</p>

<p>and a political science major</p>

<p>[UAB</a> - Government Undergraduate Program](<a href=“Error 404 | Not Found”>Error 404 | Not Found)</p>

<p>urban campus 11K undergrads</p>

<p>rolling admission, automatic merit aid for oos students</p>

<p>reasonable oos costs at 20-24K (tuition, food, dorm)</p>

3

<p>What are your stats?
What can afford?
Does the size of the school matter?</p>

4

<p>Quick stats:
SAT: 2250 (650 M, 800 CR + W)
GPA: 4.17 weighted, 3.9 unweighted. A boy from my school got into HYP and graduated with a 4.22 w.
Rank: NA
SAT ii’s: 800 Spanish, 750 World History, 700 Biology M. I’m taking Math level I in November.
AP’s: Spanish 5, Human Geo 5, USH 5, Psychology 5, French 4
Senior year courseload: AP Calc AB, AP Englist Lit, AP Spanish Lit, AP Euro, Puerto Rican History, Anatomy
Sidenote: My school is very strict when it comes to taking AP’s. Only the best students can take 3 in junior year and 4 in senior year.
Awards: National Hispanic Scholar, National Merit Semifinalist, many school awards
Extracurriculars: Lots of community service stuff and Model UN. I’m president of my community service club at school and Treasurer of an out of school community service club.
Rec’s: Should be excellent, both teachers and my counselor like me a lot. </p>

<p>Cosy is not a factor, so I won’t be asking for financial aid. I prefer a small to midsize school.</p>

5

<p>as a nmf UAB will give you full tuition and housing and a 2500 stipend. </p>

<p>other schools with merit for nmf (check towards the end of the pages as it was first posted in 2009…updates since)</p>

<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/national-merit-scholarships/649276-nmf-scholarships-updated-compilation-36.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/national-merit-scholarships/649276-nmf-scholarships-updated-compilation-36.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

6

<p>Most of the top schools will have good politics and neuroscience.
I would suggest (in no particular order)</p>

<p>HYPSM (have your choice of which you want to apply to)
Columbia
Cornell
Duke
Hopkins
Penn
Northwestern
U chicago</p>

7

<p>^ Columbia: 27k students; Cornell 21k; JHU 20k; Penn 21k; Northwestern 19k
None of those are what I’d call small to midsize. Duke and Chicago are on the very outside of the midsize range at 14k-15k.</p>

8

<p>

Students are typically referring to the undergraduate population when asking about size. Although I would classify none of the above schools as small (c.f. Brandeis and Wake Forest), I agree that all of them are medium-sized. </p>

<p>Additionally, using total numbers is sometimes highly misleading.
[ul][<em>]The majority of graduate/professional students are usually not in arts & sciences, making competition with undergraduates for professors and resources significantly less than it seems at first glance.
[</em>]Often many graduate and professional students do not share much space with undergraduates. Taking Hopkins as an example, only 7000 of its undergraduate/graduate students are on the main Homewood campus. SAIS is in DC, Peabody is elsewhere in Baltimore, the business school is elsewhere in Baltimore, the medical school is elsewhere in Baltimore, etc. Even schools with a fairly contiguous campus - Duke, for example - sometimes reserve the central part of campus for A&S undergraduate and graduate students, with professional schools (with their own libraries, career centers, dining facilities, etc.) banished to outlying areas that are seldom if ever trafficked by undergraduates. [/ul]</p>

<p>I agree with NYU2013’s list and recommend Rochester, Brown, and WUStL as well. Possibly Rice and Case Western.</p>

9

<p>Duke would be. a good choice</p>

10

<p>Haverford College woul be a great choice as well.</p>

11

<p>What about other LAC’s like Pomona, Swarthmore, Amherst and Williams?</p>

12

<p>Brown is strongly undergraduate focused and you get a 6,000 undergrad pop with a much smaller grad population so there are abundant research opportunitites for undergrads, while still housing rich resources like the Brain Science Institute.</p>

<p>The Poly Sci dept has cross ties on campus with “Taubman Center of Public Policy and American Institutions, the Watson Institute for International Studies, the Program in Urban Studies, the Center for Latin American Studies, Africana Studies, and the new Spatial Structures in the Social Sciences initiative.”</p>

<p>I only know about Brown, so can’t speak to other places, but it is such an interdisciplinary culture studying Neuro would be wonderful. And the open circulum will also make it really doable to take as many classes as you like in each potential major right off the bat.</p>

13

<p>Brown is probably the best suggestion yet (IMO). If you’re looking at LACs, Rhodes has strong Poli Sci and Neuroscience. The political science department is anchored by the all-time winningest mock-trial coach (the national tournament is now named after him) and a well-known scholar on the American Presidency who you’ve probably seen on TV during election years. Not many LACs offer Neuroscience as a major; ours is an interdisciplinary program between Bio, Psych, and a couple of other departments. The nice thing about neuroscience here is that you’ve got a major medical center 5 minutes away with lots of opportunity for volunteering and research. Stats are a match, size is a match, location in a city is a match.</p>

14

<p>Thanks for the suggestions, but as much as I wish I could apply to 12-14 colleges my counselor is limiting us to 10 universities each. I have a 9 colleges I’m 100% sure about applying to, but the last spot has been a challenge to decide. The four colleges I’m considering at the moment are Pomona, Johns Hopkins, Harvard and Dartmouth.</p>

15

<p>Of those four schools, I’d recommend Hopkins. It’s strong in neuroscience, of course, but also has a top International Studies program, which has a large backing in Political Science. The size (IMO) is perfectly in that medium-sized range, and the part of Baltimore surrounding JHU is a good place for college students. Additionally, it’s probably a tiny bit easier to get into than Dartmouth, and much easier to get into than Harvard.</p>

16

<p>Brown and Dartmouth have incredible undergrad nuero facilities and are probably two of the best options out there. Dartmouth in particular seems like a good fit.</p>

17

<p>The University of Michigan is very strong in Political Science (top 5 in the nation), Psychology (top 3 in the nation) and Neuroscience. Although it is large, it feels much smaller than it really is thanks to its huge faculty dedicated primarily to teaching and to its vast resources.</p>

<p><a href=“http://www.lsa.umich.edu/polisci/[/url]”>http://www.lsa.umich.edu/polisci/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p><a href=“http://www.lsa.umich.edu/psych/flash.asp[/url]”>http://www.lsa.umich.edu/psych/flash.asp&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p><a href=“http://www.lsa.umich.edu/psych/undergrad/program/concentrations/neuroscience/[/url]”>http://www.lsa.umich.edu/psych/undergrad/program/concentrations/neuroscience/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;