<p>I have been looking at University of Miami and I want to know if it is a good school for Neuroscience majors? Other majors I am interested in at UM are Biology, Biochem, and Marine Biology. UM looks like a school I could really do well at, but I want to make sure it is a good school.</p>
<p>Since you mentioned marine biology I am just going to assume you mean the University of Miami in Coral Gables. Short answer, yes, Univ of Miami is fine. Given your interests the kinds of things that will important to you in college will be course offerings, size of classes, research opportunities, affiliations/connections with clinical world (if that’s your interest) and facilities. In addition to all of the normal coursework you would take anywhere (organic chemistry, intro biology, physics, genetics, biochemistry, microbiology, etc) there is a good range of topics covered within the department. This is supported by the fact that there are numerous faculty with teaching responsibilities affiliated with the department (I am looking at the biology department). You might want to find out how much TA time you would see throughout the degree, a lot at the beginning is forgiveable but if later, ‘major’, classes are being conducted by graduate students, this could be a red flag.</p>
<p>The research pursuits of the biology faculty are good enough to accommodate an indiscriminate undergraduate research assistant. There are no national academy of sciences members nor any howard hughes investigators among the ranks but that doesn’t mean there isn’t decent research opportunities to be had. The university sees about 10 million in NIH research grants and the medical school gets another 100 million. Not too shabby but not great.</p>
<p>I can’t comment on the quality of the clinical connections with the medical school or nearby hospitals.</p>
<p>I think that the right university for you is determined by many factors. You shouldn’t be concerned that the academics in the fields that you mentioned are of poor quality. In fact they are pretty good and in undergrad, that is all that really matters.</p>