Hi!
I have recently been admitted as an undergrad to the above schools and plan on majoring in biological sciences and psychology for Carnegie, Neuroscience for Colgate, CogSci/Psych for Case Western, and Neuroscience for University or Rochester. I eventually want to be a researching neuropsychologist, studying the neuroscience, or biological basis, behind psychological disorders such as depression, or maybe neurodevelopmental disorders such as autism and ADHD.
Based purely on their academic programs and research opportunities, which university would be the best for me to attend to get the best basis for getting into a graduate school/doctoral program to eventually reach my goal of becoming a researching neuropsychologist in the aforementioned areas? Money isn’t an issue at this point and I have visited all of the schools and feel that I would be happy at all of them.
I know that you can’t base a college decision simply on which program is the best, but from an academic standpoint and preparation standpoint, knowing which program would help me best achieve my further aspirations would really help in choosing a college to attend next fall!
Thank you so much for reading this!
For grad school, I would say that research and letters of rec > all (especially undergrad prestige). I’d peruse the faculty at each school and see if (a) they have research you’re interested in and (b) if they have space for undergrads.
FYI for Case the cogsci department is heavily linguistics focused. Perhaps consider a biology dual major.
No one can honestly answer this type of question comprehensively for you no matter how much you would like to hear from some authoritative source. And I expect you knew that as you were typing the sentences above.
You do realize, I trust, that your performance is fully up to you. That would encompass your coursework, the evaluations ie grades and recommendations that follow, and how you develop your overall portfolio and deliver it to those who might be interested in it.
You used the word “best” yourself a couple of time. And so you know that there is no “best” route and/or answer at this stage of your college career that will deliver you whatever outcome is available at some point in the future, right?
My advice, for what it’s worth: attend the school where you feel welcome and where the curriculum and people that participate in the enterprise give you the support, facilities and encouragement you think you need.
Good luck with your college search!
Thank you for your advice @totallynotbiased and @markham! I don’t think that I stated myself very clearly in the original post, although the career placement/graduate school placement due to my performance advice that you both touched on does put some things into perspective, so thank you for that. My intention was actually to ask for a comparison between the programs at the school in relation to what I wanted to do. Does anyone know anything about the programs above in relation to one another from a purely academic standpoint?