My daughter is interested in the neuroscience and data sciences programs. can you please recommend colleges that offer this combination.
she is looking at umass amherst, virginiatech, rutgers, purdue ( which probably are her matches/safeties)
her ideal college is UCB/ johns hopkins which is defly a reach;
are there any colleges that we are missing and should be targeting?
also we cannot afford to pay a lot.she is a nmsf- with 3.75 gpa; got some decent ec’s, and will probably get a good reco)
Where do you live? That’s the first step in finding an affordable option- either a college she can commute to or a public college where you are in-state.
Second step- how much can afford to pay? In real dollars- not “we need a lot of aid”.
Third- run a few net price calculators on the college’s own websites to get a feel for how much need-based aid you could be looking at.
Then worry about neuroscience and data science. Neither field is so specialized that an undergrad will have trouble finding a solid program.
Because your D is a NMSF and will probably be a NMF, you could look at schools that give large scholarships for NMF. I do know that UT Dallas has a good neuroscience program. I’m not sure about Data science. They would give her close to a full ride for 4 years for a 3.0 GPA.
University of Rochester has both a strong neuroscience major and opened a data science program last year. (CS and math depts are strong so data science ought to be a strong program also.)
NMF will get her ~$21,000/year in merit aid.
Run the NPC to check if she’d be eligible for amy need-based aid on top of that.
forget UCB.
you will be paying the OOS tuition rate plus high housing costs, IF your DD is accepted there. It is frankly not worth it for an OOS student.
There are many schools that will pay your DD to go to school. http://nmfscholarships.yolasite.com/
If she’s interested in a small college, New College of Florida is upgrading its Data Sciences program, and has a strong Neurobiology major. It has an excellent graduate school admission record, and lots of opportunities for internships and independent study. Out-of-state students receive automatic scholarships which bring their costs down within your range. Your daughter could probably treat NCF as a safety. If she wants larger, urban campuses, don’t overlook Temple, where she will almost certainly receive a very generous scholarship and admission to the Honors College. Pitt is also good, but might not be as generous.
“Data science” is simply an interdisciplinary field borrowing from math, statistics and computer science. She doesn’t need to go to a program with a data science major or anything like that; she needs to go to a school that has decent offering in math/statistics and computer science where she can learn the basics - machine learning, data mining, statistical inference, R programming, some Hadoop, some SQL, etc. MOST good statistics and CS departments will cover those topics, but I suggest that she flip through the course catalogs of some of the colleges she’s considering and see if they offer classes in those areas.
Also note that most data scientists have graduate degrees, so if she wants to go into that field she should plan on a graduate degree - either in CS or applied math or statistics, or in data science (there are more graduate programs popping up in this area). A master’s should probably be fine, but many data scientists have PhDs.
Anyway, my first thought was Carnegie Mellon, which has excellent programs in CS and statistics and has a joint major in machine learning and statistics. My second thought was Columbia, which has excellent departments in both CS and statistics and a new-ish data science institute with a new 30-credit MS in data science (from which your daughter might be able to draw some classes in her senior year - although those classes are simply 4000-level classes drawn from the math, CS, and statistics departments). A third thought is Duke, which 1) has majors in CS, neuroscience, and statistical sciences, 2) has a certificate program in decision sciences and another in information science, both of which could be useful, and 3) encourages students to double major and also has the Program II option - so your daughter could potentially build her own major like computational neuroscience or something.
Another thing that might interests her is bioinformatics, which is the melding of biology, computer science, and math/statistics. Most places do not have this as an undergrad major, but [url=<a href=“http://www.wpi.edu/academics/bcb.html%5DWPI%5B/url”>http://www.wpi.edu/academics/bcb.html]WPI[/url] has an undergrad bioinformatics program. RIT< Loyola University Chicago and Davidson College also both have the major. There are also several public colleges (lots of UCs) that have it, but I don’t mention because those will be difficult to get aid at from OOS.
Thank you all for the comments… @Juillet- thx for the very thorough and thoughtful feedback. not sure if my daughter can get into any IVY’s but will give it a try.
computational neuroscience is defly her area. we will also research on bioinformatics( she is a little unhappy - she was really looking into UC’s and her next one was university of washington
Bioinformatics is the current hot field in biology, but it’s also the future of biology and applicable to all subspecialties. However, it may be best to focus on learning both biology (in breadth) and computer science as an undergrad. Get a graduate degree in bioinformatics. A person having a working knowledge of both biology and computer science would be in high demand.
There ids also the chance that she will change her major once she starts college and learns more about various fields. There are many schools with good math, computer science and biological sciences. Not all schools will have a major named “neurosciences” . The U of Wisconsin, with good math and computer science and biological sciences related to that does not. Good math and computer science departments are useful (separate as well) since there is overlap and a good theoretical knowledge will mean being able to think outside the current box in the future. Right now neurosciences is the fad major- like plastics of the '60’s made famous in the movie The Graduate.
She will need to discover if she leans more towards the biological or mathematical side of things. There is a grad subject in Computational Biology- very mathematical. Then there is research which uses the math in neuroscience related biology. Major universities likely have enough in all of the fields that may become her major. Like many NMSF she likely is good in many different areas- it may be difficult for her to choose one. That is why it is important for her to look at the overall university and not just specific majors. She likely needs to look at elite private schools or at Honors Programs/Colleges within major public and private schools. Then, of course, there is the cost- paying for it.
For now I would concentrate on good overall choices for her college experience. Possible majors of course would matter, but not to the exclusion of other factors. There is plenty of time to fine tune a major once she is at a school with the types of courses she wants. Freshman year will include the same courses regardless of her STEM major.
One most important factor to remember is flexibility. She will evolve as a person and mature academically. She needs to not be too goal oriented now so that she doesn’t stay fixed in her current ambitions if she discovers other, likely related, interests and abilities. Right now she is at the top but once she starts college she will discover others much smarter than she is in many areas- it could be that a slightly different major will suit her strengths better.
Sure wish I had the advice that one can find online now in my youth so many years ago. My path may have been different.
My D is doing something like this at Northwestern and she just started her junior year. She did not realize she wanted the computational side of things until she got there. She is finding that working in a lab is helping her figure out what she likes and giving her experience in programming, data analytics, and the raw science. Her main focus now is taking classes outside her major in the Engineering school, such as probability/statistics, data mining, signals/systems, data structures, data visualizations and intro to databases.
Right now, she is not sure if she wants to work or go to grad school. She says she is very excited about everything she is learning.
Would someone please explain to me the practical uses for a neurosciences major? Seems like a facet of good old general biology to me- the latest interest where a lot of research is going on. What jobs can be obtained with a BS/BA? Computers really opened up the biological sciences, that aspect of biology seems like a more in demand field.
^^^This x1000. There is no practical use for a neuroscience major that I can think of. It seems like a way to make a college sexy/hip to attract students. With no plans to attend graduate school, the prospects for a neuroscience major are similar to another person with a biology BS slanted toward the cellular/molecular level. Where a person needs to specialize is in graduate school, but even here, one’s career path isn’t set in stone.
The bioinformaticians I collaborate with are typically well-versed in computer science and statistics, but don’t understand biology. It’s the opposite state on the biology side. To have knowledge of both in one person is where it’s at.
Does not look like a major Merit award in a cards, the in-state public is the best bet for the money.
What is Data Science major, I never heard of it.
Neuroscience is good anywhere, it depends more on a student than the place.