Hi All, I am currently a student at the university of Michigan as an undergraduate BCN (Biopsych Cognitition and neuro ) student. I am doing well grade-wise (3.75 GPA) and plan on taking the GRE this summer. My only hiccup is a withdrawl on my transcript from my intro coding course, which I absolutely hated and was sucking up time from my required courses. I was planning on minoring in computer science, but later changed as I realized I hated it here and it was making me absolutely miserable. I do, however, want to learn to code somewhere. I have been enjoying code academy and looking up coursera courses to learn python. What are your opinions on this? I do not need to learn to code for my major, but its a useful skill. Will the Withdrawl affect my graduate admissions in a non-required field if i learn to code off-campus and online? Thank you!
I’ve served on many grad admission committees, and am not bothered by a withdrawal if the transcript is uniformly strong otherwise. This is generally true for my colleagues as well. In the physical and biological sciences, the rigor of the undergrad courses and their relevance to the particular grad program are very important. The letters from the student’s undergrad (or post-baccalaureate) research mentor(s) are also important. GRE is considered, but less important. However, the PhD programs in biological sciences at my institution have dropped the GRE requirement this year. This is also true for many other programs across the country. How exactly grad admissions committees will evaluate students who submit GRE scores versus those who do not remains to be seen. This is a new thing for most PhD programs.
Some programs accept or reject based on the packet alone. Others require an interview. Should you be invited for an interview, the interview matters. This is typically a 1- to 2-day endeavor where you meet faculty and students. It’s an opportunity for you to learn more about the program, and for the program to learn more about you.
Regarding coding: if formal coding training is required for a grad program then you should take a graded course. If not, then off-campus and/or online training is fine.
One withdrawal should be no problem. If you had a series of W’s it would be an issue.
FWIW my S got into a top grad program in his field with one W on his transcript.
Thank you very much! How do you feel about the coding issue? i have actually found a course at umich tailored to non- CS students in the natural sciences for data science. I will be taking this with online courses. Im thinking it shouldn’t be a huge issue.
It’s better than nothing, but online intro courses are often not very challenging so don’t expect too much.
I don’t have a crystal ball but it does seem like being comfortable with small programming projects would be a good skill to have. You also should look for classes that involve data science such as the one you mentioned.
On learning to code? As you mention, it’s a useful skill. I wouldn’t advise anyone who hated it to force themselves to learn it, but if you are already thinking about it, it’s useful to have. I have a friend who has a PhD in neuroscience and she learned to code and also some data science skills in graduate school; she definitely thought she was going into academia, but she ended up working with me at Microsoft and she uses her data science and coding skills daily. Even if you did stay in academia, knowing how to code can be really useful in neuroscience/biopsychology/psychology/cognitive science. So yeah, if you want to learn, go ahead and do so!
But I will ask: What makes you think that your hatred of your CS experience was mostly about where you took it and less about the fact that it was CS at all?