Neuroscience

[Joesmum1981]

One of my DTs is thinking of doing a neuroscience degree. He is currently in year 11 and plans to do biology, maths, chemistry and psychology with a view to dropping either chemistry or psychology at end of year 12 if struggling with either. All course seem to ask for biology but vary in chemistry which is where he thinks he struggles.

I don’t know much about the course but I wonder if it is too specialised for a first degree and whether should do just biology degree and then specialise for a masters

Has anyone got any views. Or if neuroscience is a good degree, where he should go

Other twin is clear on apprenticeship so that is one less thing to worry about

Thanks

My dd is in her first year of a neuroscience degree.
She does a lot of psychology and also a fair bit of chemistry.
Her A-levels were Psychology, Biology and Chemistry and she uses bits from all three.
She is really enjoying her course.

When we looked round, the courses varied quite a bit. So Reading were doing a 'Psychology with neuroscience' degree. Nottingham were promoting the fact they specialised in Neuroscience from Day one, and were very much a specialist course.
I really liked the talk at Manchester. There, they promoted the fact that all the courses in their school did a pretty similar first year. They said they felt that it was really important that all scientists have a good basic knowledge and understanding of what other similar disciplines were doing, and throughout any scientific career you would regularly work with people from other specialisms (even more so if you went in to some careers such as scientific reporting). He also said that so many of the courses they offer - for example Neuroscience and pharmacology - aren't done as A Levels, so students might like the sound of them, but not have a real understanding of how much they would enjoy them. Indeed, the same for all their courses, as studying say plant science at university is quite different from what you do at A level. He said by doing lots of different modules in first year, students were still able to learn techniques, and gain knowledge, but they were still then able to change their specialism at the end of their first year. I seem to remember he said about 25% of the cohort normally chose a different discipline at the end of first year, from the one they had originally applied for.

So worth looking closely at the courses, as they are all quite different.

@BackforGood

Thanks that’s really useful information and confirms what I thought. It seems only to be done in some form at about 30 universities so I did wonder if it was a bit niche.

I like the sound of Manchester -ironically my first choice many moons ago albeit for something completely different - but my DS said he would prefer a smaller city. He is quite quiet

Totally agree with @BackforGood. Dd was momentarily switched from Biomed to Neuroscience with the Algorithm fiasco last year and made the decision she would accept the change because the first year was very similar (in fact at Warwick all the life sciences follow the same modules with a few exceptions where maybe some students have to do extra Chemistry module if they did not take Chemistry at A level or the grade they achieved at A level was lower than an A) . Dd was reinstated back onto her Mbio but within her tutor group of 8 there are Biochemistry and Neuroscience students and I believe the group will stick together as a tutor group for the length of their course. So definitely options to move courses after yr1.

Warwick have only just started offering Neuroscience so I'm not sure whether it's a good option to consider although they have just opened a brand new Life Science research centre.

Dd did Physics, Chemistry and Biology A levels and she was fortunate not to have to do the additional chemistry module this year.

@Joesmum1981 - he might like to look at Exeter then, if looking for a smaller city.
Yes, Neuroscience isn't offered at many places, and as a result of this there isn't a wide range of offers in terms of grades. You do need to be aiming at good results.

Thanks. Lots to think about!

It’s a new-ish thing and a massive area for jobs so a very good degree to aim for. As it’s so new there aren’t enough professors to teach it - Cambridge for example are ne recruiting to expand their neuro programmes.

You can work in pharmaceuticals, AI, business, psychology, education (neurodiversity) and much more. It’s huge in US for a start where tech companies are using it for product development.

Courses tend to be chem heavy so that does need to be a strength. Also lots of data recording so maths confidence is useful.

neuroscience is a massive field going all the way from studying individual neurotransmitters & genetics (i.e. molecular biology) to how neurons work (cellular biology) to information processing / AI to human psychology, with links to medicine & neurological diseases at all levels. And there is lots of growth in all these areas.

So definitely not too narrow or too specialised.

If you do consider Exeter, my dd is doing Medical Sciences there at the moment. They can pick a Neuroscience pathway from the second year. Dd is doing this from next year.
She did Biology, Chemistry and Psychology A levels.