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The Neuroscience major at Agnes Scott College meets the stringent requirements for graduate schools and medical school, while providing more opportunities to women in STEM than most other Neuroscience programs.
The course work in Neuroscience at Agnes Scott College prepares and equips students with the skills and knowledge necessary to attain a scientific job after graduation or apply to graduate school or medical school.
The neuroscience program offers an interdisciplinary approach to the study of the nervous system with the goal of understanding the biological basis of behavior. Neuroscience includes a wide range of approaches from the molecular biology of nerve cells to neural circuit analysis to the biological basis of complex phenomena such as disordered behavior and cognition. The academic program in neuroscience provides a foundation for understanding the biological, chemical, and psychological principles underlying this field.
Specific courses in the major provide knowledge of the methods and practice of science and fundamental concepts in neuroscience. Flexibility in choice of upper-level electives allows a student to design their major depending upon their goals and interests. A final capstone experience in neuroscience provides an opportunity to engage in research projects on contemporary problems within the field. You'll learn:
As a small liberal arts college, Agnes Scott offers STEM students the ability to connect what they are learning in science with other coursework. This enhances their ability to think critically and view science in the context of other topics. Liberal arts colleges are focused on the best practices in teaching and because of that, the STEM education is focused on what current research supports as the best way to teach STEM courses at the undergraduate level. This means that the STEM courses at Agnes Scott are planned and executed based on research of what students need at the undergraduate level.
Agnes Scott requires all Neuroscience majors to gain research or internship experiences. These experiences allow majors to determine what career path they are most interested in. Because Agnes Scott has a low faculty to student ratio, faculty are able to get to know their students and help tailor a research or internship experience that best suits each student. Not all career paths require research experience. An internship may be more valuable to some of our majors looking at physical therapy, vet school, or education. During advising sessions, Neuroscience faculty will assist majors in determining if research or an internship will further the career path of the major.
The Neuroscience major is still relatively new to liberal arts campuses, however, Agnes Scott began the Neuroscience major over 10 years ago, giving us experience in teaching Neuroscience in the liberal arts setting. Agnes Scott offers women in STEM a voice. Women and non-binary people in STEM are often overshadowed in the male-dominated STEM fields. The students in our STEM classes are able to voice opinions and questions without being overshadowed in these typically male-dominated fields. According to the data for the past two years, Agnes Scott STEM majors do not have a racial or ethnic majority. The diversity represented in our STEM majors makes our STEM classes stronger. When more racial and ethnic backgrounds are represented, there is an increase in the opinions and problem-solving that are also represented.
A major in neuroscience opens a number of career doors for graduates—in medicine, education, government and industry.
Our courses do not only focus on the knowledge necessary to understand Neuroscience, but also on the skills necessary to become a successful scientist no matter what career path. Finally, our capstone experience which allows our majors to choose a research experience or an internship that will prepare them for their individual career goals enables our students to be competitive when they graduate Agnes Scott. Because of this individual approach, our students graduate ready to achieve their career goals.
