Why is Neuroscience Such a Popular Major?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:People love to crap on kinesiology programs, but they often have some of the same bio and Chem classes as those majors. Anyway, there’s overlap, since it’s dealing with the human body.

They take the intro chem and bio classes, but not the upper level classes (300-400 level). That's why they're crapped on. It's more of a survey major with less depth and rigor.

Kinesiology majors typically exclude organic chemistry from a requirement. Kinesiology often times is conferred just as a Bachelor of Arts degrees, not a B.S.

[Anonymous]

Is there a difference between neuroscience and cognitive science at the undergrad level? Or similar to political science and government?... most schools just pick one to name the department.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I am shocked by how popular neuroscience is too. It is an incredibly specialized field for an undergrad, but it is insanely popular. Neuroscience is now more popular than biology at some colleges despite biology being a much more general and widely applicable major. Neuroscience varies from school to school, but in some schools it does seem to be a "STEMMED -UP psychology. Girls especially seem to love it.

If a field starts tilting heavily female, its earning potential heads into the toilet. I didn't like it, but that's the way it works.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Is there a difference between neuroscience and cognitive science at the undergrad level? Or similar to political science and government?... most schools just pick one to name the department.

Yes. Cogsci tends to be more interdisciplinary—e.g. neuroscience, psychology, philosophy, linguistics, computer science, education, behavioral economics, etc.

[Anonymous]

Neuroscience gets a lot of students who switch from other pre-med majors because it's more interesting and "human". If you have a kid planning to major in neuroscience, it's important that they get meaningful research experience during their undergrad years if they want to be competitive for neuroscience-related employment, postbac positions, or graduate programs. With the major becoming so popular, there tend to be a lot more students who want lab experience than professors can accommodate. So students need to stand out in their classes as someone who is bright and more importantly curious. You can't be invisible in class and then expect a professor to want you working in their lab. Students should also try not to come off too transactional, i.e. "I don't really care about research I just know I need this on my CV".

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Is there a difference between neuroscience and cognitive science at the undergrad level? Or similar to political science and government?... most schools just pick one to name the department.

more psychology vs more biology

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:remarkable science for those unable or unmotivated to do physics

Even more remarkable for those who are. See: Dylan and Abbott

[Anonymous]

Because kids are interesting in studying how we got into this mess with so many people voting for Trump

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:remarkable science for those unable or unmotivated to do physics

Even more remarkable for those who are. See: Dylan and Abbott

you mean Dayan and Abbott?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Is there a difference between neuroscience and cognitive science at the undergrad level? Or similar to political science and government?... most schools just pick one to name the department.

more psychology vs more biology

Yes, neuroscience is more biologically based and including animal models and molecular neuroscience, more broad. Cognitive science is a branch of neuroscience and largely related only to human behavior and modeling. In neuroscience, nearly everyone has to study some basic biology class and biological basis of behavior.
In cognitive science, maybe more psychology and computer science, even applied math courses.

Both are popular due to pre-med, neurological disease and its overlap of topics of AI.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am shocked by how popular neuroscience is too. It is an incredibly specialized field for an undergrad, but it is insanely popular. Neuroscience is now more popular than biology at some colleges despite biology being a much more general and widely applicable major. Neuroscience varies from school to school, but in some schools it does seem to be a "STEMMED -UP psychology. Girls especially seem to love it.

If a field starts tilting heavily female, its earning potential heads into the toilet. I didn't like it, but that's the way it works.

What a sexist saying it is...... earning potentials? Ask how much money radiologist and neurosurgeon make? Letting alone the CEO of Google Deep Mind who has a PHD in neuroscience.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am shocked by how popular neuroscience is too. It is an incredibly specialized field for an undergrad, but it is insanely popular. Neuroscience is now more popular than biology at some colleges despite biology being a much more general and widely applicable major. Neuroscience varies from school to school, but in some schools it does seem to be a "STEMMED -UP psychology. Girls especially seem to love it.

If a field starts tilting heavily female, its earning potential heads into the toilet. I didn't like it, but that's the way it works.

Why is this sexist post not being removed? awful. terrible taste and ignorance at this best.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:remarkable science for those unable or unmotivated to do physics

I studied physics and this is such a strange comment. Some great neuroscientists did physics originally. Physics at the undergrad level is nothing special and much of the steady is a lot less important, frankly, than the questions we could answer with neuroscience.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It’s a good pre med school or science degree.

Also similar to a combo of biology and kinesiology and psychology.

It is far more academically rigorous than Kinesiology which really only leads to physical therapy

Nope. It really depends upon the school. Michigan, for example, doesn't have Kines as a major, but it's a school within the university. They have three distinct majors with Movement Science being the one that, most commonly, leads to a career in the medical field. It tends to attract students who want to end up in sports medicine and orthopedics. Students are taking intense anatomy and physio classes early on and still have to take all the pre-health science courses through LSA. There are multiple opportunities for independent study classes that are collaborations with UM Health that allow the students to get real clinical experience while earning college credit. It's a very rigorous program and highly respected.

[Anonymous]

Neuroscience was much more appealing to my student when applying at VT, for example. They had originally planned on psych, but learned more about neuro and realized it allowed them to focus on more of their interests.