Wanting to apply for a PhD in Cognitive Neuroscience

[Hannah87]

I'm hoping to apply to PhD programs in Cognitive Neuroscience/Cognitive Science in the fall, hopefully so that I could start by the fall of 2014.  I'm trying to supplement my resume before that time and am interested in advice regarding what classes to take.  I got my Bachelor's degrees in Social Work and Spanish and have a Master's degree from the University of Chicago in Latin American Studies, writing my master's thesis on international adoption policy implications for child psychological and neurological development.  I spent a year in Boston working as an in-home family therapist and I currently work for Boston Medical Center doing mental health research in their Pediatrics Department.  I have weekend internships doing neuroimaging in the Cognitive Neuroscience lab at Boston Children's Hospital and analyzing infant fMRI data for Massachusetts General Hospital.  I just finished an evening course at Harvard Extension in Neurobiology and am hoping to take between 2-4 more courses before applying in the fall.  Right now I'm looking mostly at biology and computer science courses (Cell Biology, Genetics, Systems Physiology, CS courses in C++ and Java), but I'm worried about picking the wrong things or classes that aren't really applicable.  Any advice on subjects to focus on or any prerequisite courses for admissions to this kind of program would be really helpful.

[literally gaussian]

All the coursework you mentioned will be important. Also try to teach yourself neuroanatomy from the appendices of an intro neuro text. (Learn the regions and subregions of the brain and their basic functions). I would argue that a class isn't necessary since it's mostly memorization. 

 

Depending on how deep you want to delve into fancy fMRI analyses, it may be useful to take some coursework in physics, calculus, and statistics. If you want to do more basic experiments, this would be superfluous. But bear in mind that these concepts are very commonly used in your field. Familiarize yourself with statistics at the very least. PDQ Statistics is a good, short introductory book. 

 

Learn MATLAB. This is critical for cog neuro researchers. You don't have to be a maestro by the time you enter grad school, but you should be flexible with the program. Read a beginners text like "matlab for dummies" and practice at work. Ask your PI for some datasets you can fool around with.  

 

More important than your resume is your familiarity with your field. Coursework is important, but always leave time to read relavant papers in your field, especially from potential advisers. 

 

Anyways, you seem to be on the right track. There's only so much you can do in a year and you seem to be a strong candidate already. Best of luck to you!