Hello there,

I am currently a third year English Literature & Linguistics student and I am looking to do a Masters in Cognitive Neuroscience next year. However, I fear that my joint degree with English Literature will harm my chances to be accepted into a good university for this program. Do you have any advice on what I can do over the course of the next few months to improve my CV and thus my chances on getting into such a program?

I already got into King's College summer school for a program called "Education & Neuroscience" (hopefully they'll be able to open it!!!!). I also took a class at uni which gave me a basic overview of neuroscience (the disciplines and interesting aspects of the brain) and I am currently doing an online coursera course in "medical neuroscience". I still have lots of time on my hands during summer and I want to do something to help me improve my knowledge in this field. Is there something like an "internship" I could do at a university, e.g. help lecturers with their research or something like this? What suggestions do you guys have?

Hi leben13,

Had to answer this really - I'm another one who 'crossed over'! I have an undergrad degree in classics and I'm just getting to the end of a part-time MSc in Cog Neuro and Neuropsych and applying for PhDs.

What you've done so far sounds good. I'd also say: keep an eye out for conferences or events you can go to (eg ICN seminars, CDCN seminars if you're in or near London - you can get on the mailing list for these); go to anything you can and make sure you list them on your application and be prepared to talk a bit about what you found interesting (having said that, I didn't have an interview for the one I'm doing so this is just guesswork). I also read a lot, trying to stick to the more hard science end of what's out there though some popular science as well, and did a bibliography with proper formatting/referencing etc for my application form.

I'd say it's important to demonstrate that you'd be able to handle the stats/analysis side of things as well; that was stressed when I was applying. I have an A level in maths with 2 stats modules but I also took a few refresher lessons with a local physics PhD student who was teaching to earn extra cash (not that expensive).

There are also MIT OpenCourseWare courses you could look at (google them). And last Sept (so after I was already on the course) I went on a Human Brain Anatomy course run by Neurocourses - helpful but very expensive; thought I'd mention it anyway. [tbc]

[cont]

What I did before applying was to find out who the course directors are of places I was interested in them and email them saying 'this is my background, I realise you can't guarantee me a place but is it feasible for me to apply and if not, what's the main thing I'm missing'? You will probably find that course directors are much more helpful - I usually found 'admin' types were rather dismissive and had to peddle the 'official' line of 'scientists only please, you need to do a Psychology conversion course first' - but course directors were more willing to be flexible and interested in what I had to offer, providing they thought I'd be up to it.

For my application form statement I discussed why I wanted to do neuroscience, what specific aspects I was interested in and what I'd done/read so far - plus the bibliography I mentioned. Given that you've done linguistics, you may want to use that as a 'crossover' - eg you're interested from your studies of linguistics in how the brain processes language.

I hope this helps. You are welcome to PM me if you have any more questions (eg about my course and what it's like etc) - I'm happy to help where I can as it's always good to hear of someone else who likes brains but has a humanities degree! I think a good number of people thought I was crazy for doing this but I love it and definitely don't regret taking the plunge - just crossing fingers now for the PhD...