Student Guide - Choosing a Program

Introduction

What Courses to Take and When

Research Experience

Getting to Know the Faculty

Admission Requirements

Letters of Recommendation

Interviews

Choosing the Right Program

How to Evaluate a Program

Accepting an Offer

Doctoral study in neuroscience can be difficult and time-consuming, but also very rewarding. No other discipline probes the intricate machinery of the nervous system to address such fundamental issues as how we think, move, perceive, learn and remember. Following traditions established in the early 1950's, when modern efforts to understand the nervous system led to early breakthroughs in the treatment of many neurological and psychiatric disorders, neuroscience research continues to have an enormous clinical impact. Several neuroscientists have now been recipients of the Nobel Prize. Researchers in neuroscience are employed in many different settings, ranging from universities and medical centers to government agencies and private industry.

The time for thinking seriously about graduate study in neuroscience should begin early in your undergraduate education. Not only will you need to plan your courses wisely, but you also should begin to learn first hand what laboratory research is all about.

This student guide contains information that will help you find and be accepted into the program that is right for you.