AllThingsBrain

I'm in a PhD program and expect to get a master's this spring. I've looked into applying to different PhD programs that might be a better fit, but it seems nearly all require me to start over and even retake classes I have already taken. I want to be able to move on with research without much more coursework. Anyone aware of any exception to this? My research area is cog neuro and generally falls within cog psych programs.

Hi all, I'm a first-year PhD student in a cognitive psychology program. I know I want to do cog neuro, and I'm surprised how much of a stretch that is seeming to be in this program. No professors in the department are working with brain scans, and I'm being referred to undergraduate classes and transfer classes to pick up the skills I want in fMRI analysis and computational neuroscience. My advisor is very supportive, and I'm grateful--but I'm also starting to get concerned about all the things I'm not learning by osmosis, and I am starting to get pushed to make my research more about cognitive tests and less about brain scans, which isn't the direction I want to go. I wonder if I'd feel just as 'mismatched' in a neuro program because I'd be forced to learn too much about mouse methods (not a technique I will use in my research about individual variation in human cognition) and generally deeper bio than I need. But I do want to have some understanding of neurobiology (a little more than I came in with) and some stronger knowledge of how drugs work in the brain, too (but I don't think I should be in a psychiatry program). I get the impression some neuro programs just don't want cog neuro students. Is anyone in a program you feel is great for doing cog neuro? What about the program structure and content makes it that way? Are there still course requirements that don't seem relevant for cog neuro?

May I ask what you mean by "informally accepted"? I had an interview in which they strongly hinted to me that I would be accepted, stopping just short of explicitly saying that. The professor I would be working with has been reaching out to me, and I would like to be officially accepted before going into more forward-looking conversations. I think they are still planning to interview a small number of applicants at later dates, but I'm hoping they're not waiting for that before getting back to me.

I'm seeing several posts about DBBS at WashU. Did anyone else apply to Psychological & Brain Sciences? All I could find is that they send interview invites between January and mid February. Georgetown is another one I'm curious about--as far as I can tell, they provide no information on their interview invitation timeline, although interviews are supposed to be between January and March (March? Really?).

I am thinking of applying to a PhD program at Oxford that requires a research proposal in lieu of a personal statement. I understand that this is supposed to be a very serious, detailed proposal covering what I intend to research while a student there, but I'd love examples. Has anyone found a website with good examples of PhD applicants' research proposals or have other tips to share?

I searched and couldn't find this topic anywhere--hard to believe it hasn't been asked before! I got a big batch of applications in on 12/1, but a couple of things took more time than expected at the last minute, and two of the applications wound up going in slightly after the deadline. At least I think they did--neither school specified a time of day for the 12/1 deadline, so I assumed 11:59PM local to the schools (both West Coast), and they went in at around 12:05AM and then 12:30. Are the schools likely to let that slide? I'm tempted to call and ask, but I think that would only serve to alert them to something they maybe (somehow?) didn't notice, so I'm asking here. I checked my application one school's site and saw the submission just listed the date (a day late) with no timestamp, so that doesn't seem promising. Part of me thinks it should be okay since they can only start looking at things Monday morning, except by that logic, people would have all weekend. Just be honest, please.

Aeryn, I'd love to hear more about how you did that since I'm looking at Oxford now, and my stats are very similar to yours (my story is earlier on this thread). I found a lab I think is a great fit for me, but I'm a little intimidated by the school's extra-high GPA requirement, and it looks like they don't even ask for GRE scores. Did you contact them and ask for an exception to be made for you on the GPA requirement?

I'm a mid-career professional looking to get a PhD in neuroscience after getting a BA in computer science 15 years ago. I feel like I have had too much trial and error in the application process, with one completely unsuccessful round of applications so far and some programs I didn't even learn about until after their deadlines. Given that I am not currently a student anywhere, where can I get truly knowledgeable advising about my PhD application? I actually booked a session through my undergraduate university but found it wasn't very helpful because it was just someone whose profession was advising and who didn't have any knowledge of neuroscience or neuroscience programs. I would ideally like an actual professor in the field to read my application and give me feedback as well as suggestions of programs that would be good matches for me and whether I need to do any additional preparatory work. Knowledge about what is important for a career changer specifically would be helpful as well. Can anyone recommend any individuals or services who might be able to help me?

A couple of people have posted about post-baccalaureate programs, and I wonder if those would be a good option for me. Do they really allow you to average your grades from a post-baccalaureate program in with your undergraduate GPA? Don't you have to list a GPA for each school separately? About me: 38 years old, looking to make a career change into neuroscience from a somewhat related background of computer science and bioinformatics. I have a 2.75 cumulative undergraduate GPA--so low because of F's I got my freshman and sophomore year while failing to cope with depression following a traumatic experience (I'm never sure if I should specify that it was a sexual assault). This resulted in two consecutive academic suspensions, the second of which required me to leave campus and take classes at a community college for a semester. I resolved the problem and returned to complete my degree. If the two semesters affected are excluded, my undergraduate GPA is 3.4. My last-two-years GPA is similar. If someone's looking at my transcript, they'll see I wasn't a B student but got A's mixed with some C's--because I have ADD and hadn't yet learned the time management skills to stay on top of assignments for multiple classes at once. I also didn't do especially well in my computer science major, which reflects that it wasn't my choice of major. Since then, I have made a 15-year career mostly in academic research environments, and I have 10 academic publications (authored 1 and co-authored 9). I also took a single non-degree graduate class in genomics and got an A, so I guess I technically have a 4.0 graduate GPA. I got GRE scores of 170 Verbal, 164 Math--is that competitive for a top program?--and I think my references are strong. I've taken advantage of opportunities to study neuroscience-related topics in my work and in the genomics class, but I've never actually taken a neuroscience course. I do think my research experience, my software development skills, and my small amount of management experience would be generally useful. With this record, I applied to 6 PhD programs last year and didn't get in or even get an interview anywhere. I've identified that one thing I could improve is making personal connections with professors before applying. Other than that, I feel like I'd be submitting essentially the same application again, so I'm wondering if I need to try something different. In my specific situation, does anyone think a post-baccalaureate program would be a good idea? It would allow me to build my neuroscience background and hopefully demonstrate some great grades. However, it would be expensive to take a year or two off of work or working part-time, and also the time expense is not trivial given I am already so late getting started on my desired career. Should I really be able to get into a PhD program directly instead? If I do apply to a post-baccalaureate program, is it important to choose one that emphasizes courses and grades rather than being purely research-focused (as the one located near my family is)? Any success stories from applicants a ways out of undergrad with low GPAs?

I applied to six neuroscience programs and did not even get an interview anywhere. Advice I read online suggests I should follow up with an "adviser" at the school to see what I can improve. So far, I've tried contacting two schools and gotten virtually nothing useful. Has anyone found a way of asking that got useful information, and what did you ask? I am trying to overcome a low undergraduate GPA. Prior to applying, I was advised that would be less significant since I have been out of school for 15ish years, but now I wonder if it effectively disqualified me immediately. I want to know if I should be trying to improve my already-high GRE scores to a perfect score, or adding more research experience, or focusing on developing a faculty contact who can advocate for me, or adjusting my sights lower. I don't have a good sense of how far I may be from being competitive.

Alas, not an international student here. This is not looking promising at all. USC and UCSD are the schools I have been holding out hope for since they did not publish their interview timelines. I don't know if it's possible USC is sending interview invitations in batches or if I could somehow be on a waiting list somewhere. Otherwise, it seems like they should just send out rejections at the same time as the interview requests. This is like a bad dream.

Is there any hope left if I have not received any interview requests yet? I applied to six neuroscience PhD programs and have so far received two rejections. In alphabetical order, the schools where my applications are still outstanding are: UCLA, UCSD, USC, Yale I think at least UCLA and Yale are past the point of inviting people for interviews, and now some posts here have made me think I may have missed the boat for UCSD and USC also. Did I really apply to six schools and get no interviews? I can't believe this is happening. I've moved recently and need to update my postal address, but I have a hard time imagining that any school is sending interview invitations by postal mail. Has anyone gotten an official rejection from one of these schools?