Applying to grad school (Neuroscience) from Tech company

[martinvanburen]

Hi! I’m considering applying to graduate school and wanted to see if anyone here had experiences that might help me decide.

What I would do: Apply for a PhD program in Neuroscience for Fall 2017.

What I have done: I did a bachelors degree in Chemical and Biological Engineering at a pretty good university (Ranked 20-25 fwiw) and graduated in 2014. I did some research there, including a summer R&D internship in industry, and a senior project, but was never published or anything like that. I never really considered grad school. After graduating, I got a job doing analytics at a tech company in San Francisco. I’m now doing analytics at a different, but fairly well known and respected tech company (at least in SV).

What I’m thinking: I like my job, but always loved science and academia and miss them both. I always thought neuroscience was interesting, and am excited about the innovation that’s happening now. In undergrad, my most favorite classes were the human biology, biological engineering, and computer science classes. Also, being now ~2 years out of undergrad, I’m scared of waiting and it being too late for me to start a PhD. So, mostly out of anxiety, I took the GRE a few weeks ago, and am now considering applying for a program next fall.

Stats (if they are relevant): 
Undergrad GPA: 3.81
GRE: 167Q 166V

My question(s)

1.Is it crazy for me to apply to a PhD program in neuroscience? Would I even be considered for acceptance? I haven’t done anything specifically related to neuroscience research. And, for the past few years, I haven’t done any academic research at all.

2. Has anyone else made the switch from industry (especially tech) back into grad school? How’d you do it? 

3. Is there any lighter-weight way for me to get some experience in Neuroscience and see if I like it? It seems crazy to start a 6-8 year degree based on a gut feeling and reading a few books. But, I’m not completely sure where else to start.

I really appreciate your advice. If anyone has any questions for me that I could be helpful with (I know that some phd students end up moving into Data Science/Analytics), I’d be happy to help. Just DM me. 

Thank You!