One thing I can say about Pitt is my S19 took mostly all Honors courses and they are super small. You DO NOT have to be in the Honors College to do so, but he was. He graduated with 150 credits (a BS, BA, Chem minor and certificate) and I don’t think he had more than 2-3 large lectures his entire 4 years. The labs are capped and very small as well. I am not sure what the above poster meant by Pitt emphasizes Bio, as my son only took Bio 1 and 2 with labs. In his Neuro track he took honors Functional Neuroanatomy and Synaptic Transmission but took plain old Human Physiology. Organic Chem 1/2 with labs, Physics 1/2 with labs, Chem 1/2 with labs. One elective he chose was Neurobiology of Aging bc it was available when he needed one. If pre-med make sure you take sociology, psychology and are really good at English and comprehension. That is a huge portion of the MCAT.
My S19 chose being a neuro major over a chem major bc he really liked a lot of the gen eds he took, specifically Biomedical Ethics. So he ended up with a BA in Philosophy of Science as well. Being a chem major was not as flexible.
A lot of neuro students who minor are psych majors. But note: Pitt does not offer a psych minor.
Also S19 sounds a lot like your child. He can find small classes at Pitt very easily.
This is great information and I very much appreciate you sharing all of this with me.
He keeps hearing how wonderful the dept is there and just how positive of a place it is for someone interested in going into medicine.
My son is so interested in all of the courses you have mentioned that your son has taken.
Again, tremendous thanks for taking the time to answer my question.
Btw, S19 was waitlisted at Harvard and Columbia until summer. It was painful.
Looking back it was a blessing. Harvard went 100% online for sophomores in 2020-2021. S19 got to attend all labs in-person at Pitt and he truly received a world-class education for a fraction of the Ivy cost Don’t sweat the ED results.
He didn’t cast his net very wide. He was also accepted to Carnegie-Mellon but we were not willing to pay the full-ticket price when Pitt down the street offered him a very generous merit scholarship. I suppose we were willing to pay the Ivy ticket but fate prevented that
William and Mary in VA also worked hard to recruit him with research money but no merit, again, full-ticket OOS $64K made zero sense.
If your son is truly is considering med school, choose the most affordable undergrad.
Is the program more similar to a bio major or to a psych major?
Neuroscience is interdisciplinary and curriculums for a major can differ quite a bit in different schools. I compare across schools. Programs have different “flavors”. Pitt’s program leans more to the bio side of things than the psych side of things. But it’s all interdisciplinary by nature.
Here are the Pitt Neuro requirements. As you can see, you can take electives in many diverse areas. Once you get up to the upper level requirements sometimes you choose what is available and fits into your schedule so you can graduate in 4 years lol.
I will add, there are countless research labs and opportunties at Pitt. Specifically in Neuro, S19 worked with traumatic brain injuries in rodent models. He observed pediatric brain surgery as well.
He got accepted into Neuro. The entire program looked +++ based on our research. Your validation of everything we read about it is so reassuring as to how this is a wonderful opportunity for him. So glad he was accepted. Thank you.
He does not need a Plan B now, as he is still in HS and has time. He will likely change a lot over the next 5-10 years and many premeds change their minds as they find new interests or realize medical school is not for them. Of course some just know and continue down that path.
Yes, Pitt neuro has an excellent reputation. If the student likes the bio flavor of things, that’s already baked into the required courses in the curriculum. If they want to add more psych, they can take the psych-flavored electives as opposed to bio-flavored. There are lots of nuances to neuroscience curriculum that I can get into, but that sometimes ends up just splitting hairs.
There will be research opportunities at each of these schools, and they are certainly available at Pitt.
So far I am gathering that we did well in applying to these 3 and they are good options to have as an accepted student. This is very reassuring. Appreciate everyone sharing their input/experiences.
Don’t sweat the ED results.