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by outlace 2580 days ago
I disagree strongly. Neuroscience as it is taught at the undergraduate level is just a body of knowledge you are tasked with memorizing. I can’t think of any job that just requires you to spit out answers to multiple choice questions about neuroscience or anything else for that matter. Surgery, however, is a skill that is honed by repetition. You can’t learn surgery from a book.

This is the point I’m making. Skills matter and it may be worth it to pursue a skill-based degree but knowledge is cheap. Why spend $30k/yr getting a degree in neuroscience when you could buy the same textbooks, memorize the same information and yet only spend a few hundred dollars on the books themselves?

I’m not saying neuroscience knowledge isn’t valuable, I’m saying it doesn’t make sense to go get a 4 year degree out of it. The most valuable things I gained out of my college experience were extracurriculars working in a research lab (gained practical research skills), leadership skills from starting and running student organizations, and work skills from a part time job.

And there certainly still would be textbooks even if there were no undergraduate neuroscience major. You could still pursue a graduate degree where you take some classes but then spend most of your time building skills and working toward a real contribution to the field.