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I’m a scientist. I double-majored in Biology and Brain and Cognitive Sciences at MIT, and then went directly to the PhD program in Biological and Biomedical Sciences at Harvard. I did my PhD on the development of different subtypes of neurons in the neocortex of the brain, and I’m now a postdoctoral fellow in a lab that studies developmental disorders of the human nervous system.</p>
<p>So I’m not as far into my career as some other posters – I graduated from MIT seven years ago.</p>
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No, I don’t think it detracted for me, at all. For what I do, which is molecular/cellular/developmental biology in the nervous system, having an undergraduate education in both biology broadly and neuroscience more deeply has been a tremendously useful asset. If I had to do it over again, I’d take exactly the same classes (except that I’d take this one neuroanatomy class that I avoided as an undergrad but really needed as a grad student!). But I don’t think the advantage is in actually having gone through the process to have the double major – I think the advantage is in having taken those classes and getting that education.</p>
<p>A lot of people come to MIT with the idea that they’ll double in this and that. I just want to point out that having that goal as an end in and of itself isn’t always worth it, and there are sometimes more important goals to keep in mind.</p>