Comments on: How to prepare for a PhD in neuroscience

By: Eric

Eric — Sun, 10 Apr 2011 20:01:48 +0000

I’m sorry, but I don’t agree with the stockpiling of quantitative skills and then waltzing into neuroscience like it’s some piece of cake. Actually, I resent that. That’s the last thing I need – a bunch of engineers entering the field thinking they ‘know’ neuroscience.

By: Joel Z Leibo

Joel Z Leibo — Sat, 18 Jul 2009 17:43:17 +0000

Hey Neville, I got the exact same email from that guy. hahaa

By: D.L.Wei

D.L.Wei — Sat, 18 Jul 2009 02:00:24 +0000

I am such person who is going to pursue a PhD. program in neuroscience.

I took some lesson in computational neuroscience before. I thinks that skill you mentioned before is very useful. Indeed, my master major is applied maths, and these courses are that easy for me.

probability theory/stats, signal processing are widely used in encoding, decoding and learning.

Linear algebra, differential equations are basic knowledges for understanding the neuronal network, such as Amari-Hopfiled network and so on.

So I cannot agree with you anymore.

By: q

Mon, 22 Jun 2009 20:06:07 +0000

A few things come to mind:
1 – freshman year is awfully early to plan an entire career. Continue on your path, but keep an open mind.
2 – Although quantitative courses are useful, to be a well rounded neuroscientist, you’ll need to look into courses in neuroscience, cell biology, biomedical engineering and psychology. Introductory level courses in each of these fields may give you insight as to which direction to take your career.
3 – I always recommend taking time off between ugrad and grad school, especially if you’re interested in a PhD, to get a position as a research assistant in the field you’re looking at going into. There is nothing like working 40+ hours a week in a job which is close to what you want to get your PhD in to help you decide if grad school is right for you. Plus, it will give you additional letters of recommendation and an inside line to the research community you want to join.
3b – before graduating, volunteer/join a lab on campus which is doing work like what you’re interested in. This will also help you decide what you want to do, and give you a chance to interact with fellow undergrads and graduate students to decide if your choice is right for you.

By: Neville

Neville — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 14:55:23 +0000

Jeff, as someone who “re-learns” statistics every time I write a paper, I wholeheartedly agree. Also, machine learning is definitely becoming more and more important for scientific data analysis.

By: jeff

jeff — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 10:14:59 +0000

A good list. I would even go so far as to recommend an advanced probability/statistics course or a course in operations research (that’s what the decision theory course was called when i was in college). I mention this because i am increasingly convinced that stopping with an introductory course in statistics does more harm than good. A little machine learning doesn’t hurt either, but that can probably wait until grad school…