Neuroscience Interview from Quantitative Background

[lpiloto]

I'm a Computer Science and Cognitive Science double-major who has been applying to Neuroscience programs that have a computational/quantitative track. I was recently invited to interview and had some questions regarding my relatively unique situation. Do you think I'll be asked specific neuroscience questions? I don't have the strongest background in biology and my knowledge of the brain is mostly on a systems level i.e. your standard neuroanatomy. Anyone been in a similar situation before?

[really]

I'm a current first-year neuroscience PhD student. I don't have your exact same situation with regard to your background, but I can tell you that you will 99% not be asked specific neuroscience questions like on a test or quiz. However, for the researchers you expressed interest in working with, you will be expected to know and understand, at least at a basic level (hopefully much more), what it is they do so that you can talk about their research intelligently and ask smart questions. Read at least one paper they've published recently so you get a sense of what they do now. It's okay not to understand it all, but try to look up the basic, factual things you don't understand first and save the critical analysis questions to ask in person.

You might be paired to interview with profs doing something completely different from what you want to do and what you know about. These are usually just for you to ask questions about the program or life in the area, but my old adviser said that these are also sanity checks - to make sure that you can talk science and can explain your past work intelligently, that you're a good fit for the program, and that you're not crazy and the PI who wants you is not super-biased toward you. For those cases, if they talk about their research, you probably won't be expected to say something smart because that's not the point of the interview and they know your background is less bio-heavy, but if you can follow and ask good questions, that's a plus.

A lot of the neuro programs I applied to seemed to seek an academically diverse group of incoming students, and not all students they took have a neuro background. If you don't, I think you'll be expected to show (not just have) a lot of interest in neuroscience and have some basic background and probably related research that would make the transition easier. Cognitive science isn't far off, and computer science (plus math) is immensely useful, especially in a computationally oriented program, so I don't think you have too much to worry about. HTH and good luck!