B.AdvSci(neuroscience) at UNSW (1 Viewer)

[lizajane91]

hey guys, im aiming for med at UNSW but as a backup im also interested in the neuroscience major of advanced science. Just wondering if someone doing the course/or knows someone doing it, could give me a bit of insight.
- difficultly compared to other majors
- how interesting is it?
-im not real flash at maths so will i be able to cope with the maths component?

Thanks

 

[Tim035]

Basically no maths except for a bit of statistics.

Fairly interesting stuff, I'm not neuroscience major but did neurophysiology and neuropharmacology this semester.

Poster above is full of it, the lead neuroscience research center in Australia is just behind the uni at Prince of Wales. Plus the med faculty has just spent a hell of a lot of money creating an entire new floor on the med building dedicated to neuroscience research; I've been in those labs and they are dam nice!

The big focus at the moment is your idiopathic neurodegenerative disorders such as Alzheimer's and Parkinson's, also a fair bit of research in to schizophrenia.

 

[lizajane91]

thanx tim, yeah i dont wanna go to usyd anyway so i just disregarded that comment...love unsw!
oh not much maths, thats a relief. i looked at the course plan they give you and all the subjects look really interesting so i was just hoping it isn't too hard..
do you do adv. sci? is there much difference with it and just plain old B.sci?

 

[Tim035]

I've just finished medical science, however I know the difference between B.Sci and Adv.Sci is a couple of things:
- It is assumed you are doing adv. sci as you are planning a career based on scientific research; thus in 1st year you do these seminar sessions that look at how science is conducted in the real world and you also do a 6 week work-placement.
- You must take at least 2 advanced subjects per semester, which basically means doing higher level everything rather than 'fundamentals of X' courses.

I'm guessing you've already found:

UNSW Handbook Program - Advanced Science - 3972

 

[EdmondDW]

Apperantly, neuroscience is a hot research area. And in real research, they use lots of electrical physic and math models to solve problems...I dont know why the major structure in unsw does have physics and only has limited math requirement...but both of them r important in neuroscience...
have a thought, if u dont have strong physics and math background, u can only be a normal neuroscientist, and hard to be a top neuroscientist...

 

[missanonymous7]

hey guys, im aiming for med at UNSW but as a backup im also interested in the neuroscience major of advanced science. Just wondering if someone doing the course/or knows someone doing it, could give me a bit of insight.
- difficultly compared to other majors
- how interesting is it?
-im not real flash at maths so will i be able to cope with the maths component?

Thanks

Hey, the maths component (MATH1041 Statistics) is surprisingly do-able. I've always been really crap at maths and yet somehow I've gotten high distinction marks for everything in the course so far! (no one is more amazed than me, seriously.) The teaching is excellent, and provided you go to all the lectures and actually do most of the tutorial questions, you should definitely be able to get by.

 

[lizajane91]

Yeah im not strong at maths and i dont have a physics background full stop haha so maybe neuro isnt the direction to take...but im gonna keep looking anyway..med is my ultimate goal and ive already had my interview at UNSW so hopefully i won't have to worry about picking a major at all..Thanks for the tips!

 

[C-BAS]

Hey, the maths component (MATH1041 Statistics) is surprisingly do-able. I've always been really crap at maths and yet somehow I've gotten high distinction marks for everything in the course so far! (no one is more amazed than me, seriously.) The teaching is excellent, and provided you go to all the lectures and actually do most of the tutorial questions, you should definitely be able to get by.

Good to know! Hopefully I can get into UNSW and do my BSc there (major in Marine Biology). But I suck at maths so to know that the mathematically-challenged have a shot is a nice pick-me-up. Especially now, when I need it.

 

[Tim035]

Yeah im not strong at maths and i dont have a physics background full stop haha so maybe neuro isnt the direction to take...but im gonna keep looking anyway..med is my ultimate goal and ive already had my interview at UNSW so hopefully i won't have to worry about picking a major at all..Thanks for the tips!

I wouldn't stress too much, neuroscience is very interdisciplinary, I highly doubt all of the professors who taught neurophysiology this semester are whizzes at higher level mathematics, it really depends on where you choose to focus.

 

[KFunk]

I wouldn't stress too much, neuroscience is very interdisciplinary, I highly doubt all of the professors who taught neurophysiology this semester are whizzes at higher level mathematics, it really depends on where you choose to focus.

Several friends of mine have done honours research in neuroscience (e.g. neuroimaging, neuroantomy/histology) and have found themselves working with a neuroscientist alongside a mathematician/statistician who does a lot of the number crunching and analysis.

 

[ValentinesM]

I've just finished medical science, however I know the difference between B.Sci and Adv.Sci is a couple of things:
- It is assumed you are doing adv. sci as you are planning a career based on scientific research; thus in 1st year you do these seminar sessions that look at how science is conducted in the real world and you also do a 6 week work-placement.
- You must take at least 2 advanced subjects per semester, which basically means doing higher level everything rather than 'fundamentals of X' courses.

I'm guessing you've already found:

UNSW Handbook Program - Advanced Science - 3972

what's the 6 week work placement like?

 

[tmahendradatta]

what's the 6 week work placement like?

I'm pretty sure they place you in a lab. I'm a med scientist; but the 'work experience' will either be you doing leg work for your supervisor (like making gels, running an experiment, etc). or you'll have your own project to complete where you already know the techniques behind it.

Timing in the lab varies and is very dependent on the length of the experiment. For example, you can start at 10 most days, but finish as early as 2pm, or finish at 10pm --> depedning on your experiment.