How should I steer towards a behavioral/cognitive neuroscience Phd?

[aryanj]

Hello, I'm a biology major in my final year of a MS from a (top?) school in India for pure sciences, my undergrad GPA was 3.3 and my master GPA is 4.0. Primarily my working background is in behavioral ecology, with three summer internships in Germany and the UK(Wuerzburg, FU Berlin and Glasgow) and a couple semesters of lab work at my home university which I could not invest more semesters into due to being absolutely down trodden with chronic insomnia until early 2020, since then I haven't been able to get a lot of work done except contributing to some manuscripts or helping with the data analysis due to being confined into my house. Regarding publications, I only very recently got a manuscript accepted in Integrative and Comparative Biology(3rd author) and have submitted two manuscripts to Current Biology which we are confident will see it through to publication. I also have a conference presentation at the Artificial Light at Night conference, I do not know if the abstract submitted there counts as a publication. Thanks to the course structure here I incidentally have taken up a myriad of courses, for example : linear algebra, multi variable calculus, organic chem, physical chem, electromagnetism, statistical physics, advanced electronics, advanced ecological interactions, animal behavior, genome stability, advanced neurobiology, advanced dev biology, cancer bio, stem cell and regenerative med, biochem, virology etc. to name a few. So that is basically where I stand with my research profile.

So why behavioral/cognitive neuroscience, in late 2019 I was offered a summer internship in a French lab to work with vocal learning in zebra finches, and I was quite honestly mesmerised by the research in the area, especially the neurological mechanisms of song acquisition and the endocrine signalling that facilitates learning, though I missed the opportunity due to covid restrictions in 2020 but I still am rather enthusiastic about continuing in that line of work. For my master thesis I will be working in my parent behavioral ecology lab, my PI is very understanding about my goals and there is scope for interdepartmental collaboration for my thesis to involve neurophysiological methods, though being in an unsuitable place, songbirds as a model organism are not available. 

What advice would you folks have for me to improve my chances of getting myself into decent(top 50) neuro Phd programs in 2022, I am quite apprehensive about working in a lab post graduation as pay in this country is very low and in most instances the Prof-student dynamic is quite honestly frustrating on most days, so I'm looking to start a Phd soon as I am done with my master thesis next summer.

Many thanks,

Aryan.

 

[ManifoldsAreMadeUp]

I would consult with your mentors in Europe but generally the advice that is given to Indian students is to get a degree from a Western school. Almost every Indian PI (including two I've had) had to get a masters in the United States before they were accepted to an American PhD program. I don't know if I've ever met an Indian student who didn't do their undergrad or masters in Australia, Europe, UK, Japan/Singapore/Hong Kong/Korea, U.S., or Canada

[aryanj]

Hi, thank you for your response.

I honestly do not know what to say other than that I know three immediate seniors(class of 2021) going to Princeton and two to MIT for grad school this fall, and maybe twenty other going to great schools like urbana-champaign, upenn, ann-arbor. So doing another masters at a great financial cost does not sound as beneficial in my prior.

[atm14834]

Honestly, if you needed a sign to just apply with your current background, this is it. You never know until you try. Application pools are different every year. Granted, I'm not an international student, and I know it can be much harder for you guys to get in sometimes. But I would say, just pick a few schools you feel you would have a chance at getting into and just go for it.

I'm sorry if my advice is absolute garbage! But good luck to you! ?