applying for neuroscience PhD with BA in psychology...

[FastBallooningHead]

Hey everyone,

 

So, I'm in the process of applying for a PhD in neuroscience. Most of the programs say that students should have a strong background in one or more of the areas involved in neuroscience, including bio, chem, psychology, physics, math, etc. I do have a BA in psychology (I double majored in psychology and an unrelated subject), However, I'm extremely worried because I have very little classroom experience in the relevant biological and physical sciences and mathematics. The extent of my classroom experience relevant to these fields as a psych major are classes in sensation and perception and developmental psych..... never took any classes strictly in the physical/biological sciences and the extent of my math is precalc.  

 

I do have some experience that I've gained since undergrad that might help my application in this respect:

--I have a few yrs of research experience and 2 first author publications (literature reviews in lesser known foreign journals).... both papers focused heavily on translational neuroscience

--I took a grad level course in behavioral neuroscience and did very well 

 

Other stats: 

--3.5 GPA (honors); 3.9 psych GPA

--GRE: 319: 162 verb, 157 math, 5 writing

--3 yrs experience teaching psych course review sessions, working under a prof. @ my undergrad institution 

 

Do you think my lack of the above mentioned courses will significantly hurt my chances of getting in (I'm applying mostly to mid-upper tier phd programs)?? Has anyone here gotten into neuro phd programs with a BA in psych?? Any suggestions of things I can do to help my chances?

 

Thanks in advance for any feedback! 

 

 

[Gvh]

I haven't been admitted to any neuroscience programs, but based on my own personal research and people I know, it really depends on the kind of neuro program you want to attend. If you're aiming for molecular neuroscience and you have no background in bio/physics, that might be a problem. Though most of the time, the program will state on its application page what classes are required, if any. 

On the other hand, if you're interested in neuroimaging, most labs that involve this kind of work are housed within psych departments (e.g. UCLA's PhD in Psychology has a behavioral neuroscience tract) in which case your lack of wetlab experience won't be an issue. 

 

There are some unfortunate cases where an imaging lab is housed under a neuro department, where all applicants are required to have the hardcore science background - even if it is relatively irrelevant to the lab you want to join! In this case, it would be worth it to get in touch with the PI and see what they say. 

 

Best of luck!

[Vene]

I'm not in a neuroscience program, but I'm currently working in a neuroscience lab and although we very much are focused on the molecular biology aspects we are collaborating with a psychology lab as well for the behavioral aspects. So, I don't think you're completely out of luck, if you apply to neuro programs where they expect significant behavioral work. If you can find some way to get some biology knowledge it may help strengthen your application a lot.

[bsharpe269]

I agree with others that with your current profile you should maybe focus on neuro work that is going on within psych departments. I think that you would be a strong candidate for programs like this.

 

If you are interested in more of the hard science aspects or want to apply to programs in biology departments then holding off a year and taking some basic science classes like ogranic chem and physics could go a long way in proving that you can handle the course work. Also, many people applying to top phd programs in the sciences probably have GRE Q scores around 165 so increasing that score could also make a difference in my opinion.

[FastBallooningHead]

Many thanks for the responses!

 

I'm applying to a few neuro programs that are part of the psych departments, but there are very few of these....wish there were more!

 

Bsharpe, that's probably what I'll do if I don't get in anywhere this year.... I've also been told that it may work to simply take the subject GREs in those areas, which I'm also considering. 

Edited October 9, 2014 by FastBallooningHead

[sciencem]

If you have time, then you can take online classes for your subjects. There are many people who take online classes from any academician. It may be helpful for you.

[lab ratta-tat-tat]

To the original poster-

I worked at a large university in the Molecular biology/neuroscience dept. for the past 5 years  that had an interdisciplinary neuroscience phd program. It had molecular biology, physiology, pharmacology, and neuroimaging, embedded into the same program. A lot of the students were originally psych majors and the courses during the first year of graduate school brought them up to speed in terms of cell/molecular biology, gene expression, genetics. A lot of the students had either intro level biology courses, or some had NONE.

 

That program in particular was focused on grades and scores. I cannot tell you how many waves of applicants I saw come though, dumber than a door nail when it came to research but "they got almost a perfect GRE score and had an amazing GPA" so they were let in. Good grades and GPA does not translate to good researcher, but programs need to boost their credibility and how they are ranked.

Even though they preach "research experience is important" a lot of big schools come down to the grades. 

 

Some Universities grad programs get up to 900 applications per year (crazy amount) and the only way to weed through them is GPA and GRE, the rest aren't even looked at. So publications or research experiences that would make up for a poor test score go unnoticed. 

PM me for info about the university I worked at and I can give you some insider advice.

 

Good luck!

[rbroni88]

Many thanks for the responses!

 

I'm applying to a few neuro programs that are part of the psych departments, but there are very few of these....wish there were more!

 

Bsharpe, that's probably what I'll do if I don't get in anywhere this year.... I've also been told that it may work to simply take the subject GREs in those areas, which I'm also considering. 

 

 

There are a lot of neuro programs that are part of psychology departments. They are often under the name of Behavioral Neuroscience, Biopsychology, Experimental Psychology, Neuroethology, etc... that  being said they are rather tough to get into. I am currently in a neuro lab and I did not have very much research experience in molecular biology and neurochemistry during my undergrad or masters but I will say that it may be beneficial to take some of these classes prior to applying to these types of programs. You will make yourself look better and you will not have to research how that technique works as much. Neuroscience is very interdisciplinary--right now I am in an addiction lab and am learning to synthesize genes. One year ago I did not even have the slightest clue how to do this.

[NeuroMetro]

On 12/18/2014 at 9:24 AM, rbroni88 said:

 You will make yourself look better and you will not have to research how that technique works as much.

 

Very true. My background is in (majors are in) both Biology and Psych, and I'm currently applying to molecular neuro programs. If I did not have background in cell & molec, genetics, and biochem, it would have been more arduous to even evaluate my choice of programs. An understanding of the type of research being done at various labs would have been missing; even reading literature published by POIs would have been less productive without a good understanding of the language. That is not to say one couldn't do it, but any background you can get in advance would help.

In reference to admission only: I was chatting with a few POIs at two of my school visits last month about this, actually. One had mentioned that the program (cellular, molecular and integrative) sees, and admits applicants from a range of backgrounds. Further, this POI mentioned that one student (investigating vesicle mechanics) who came from a psych background, had just completed an amazing project. At the second school (similar program), a POI and I were discussing how we had both began in psych but moved to neurobio study for a litany of reasons. In this case the POI had mentioned being inundated with applications from psych students for better or worse, though in this case it was in an unfavorable context. Just like any other facet, seems to come down to what the particular adcomm looks for, and the work of your competitors.

Edited December 11, 2015 by NeuroMetro