This short guide answers the question “Can you transfer from neuroscience to medicine?”. We will help you know what are the odds, pre-requisite, processes and what universities in the US offers a chance for neuroscience majors to transfer into the medicine program.
Can you transfer from neuroscience to medicine?
Yes. The answer to whether you can transfer from neuroscience to medicine is yes, technically, but universally no. Neuroscience is an area of specialization offered in a biomedical science degree.
There are traditional ways in getting into a medical school like going straight from A-levels, keep applying until you get in, or starting with a degree in the related field and making medicine your graduate study.
But few only know about the transfer route and there’s a good reason for that. It is because there is a much slimmer chance of getting into medical schools through this route than in the traditional way, as well as not all universities, offer this chance.
And if some of them did offer it, they will only open 3 to 10 vacancies making the competition very tough and almost impossible. These universities often call it the “Medicine transfer scheme” or other similar formal transfer schemes.
A background in neuroscience or biomedical science can provide you with a good chance of getting into the medical transfer scheme because of its interdisciplinary nature with medicine and other sciences.
But for the odds of making it into the said scheme, first, you have to check if your current university offers this kind of route. As of 2021, there are only nine schools in the United States according to the Northwest Commission on Colleges and Universities that offer this scheme.
If you are lucky to be in one of these universities, the second thing you have to make sure of is if your school allows Neuroscience majors to transfer into medicine. The reason for that is there are certain universities that only allows certain degree to participate in this agreement and not all of them includes Neuroscience.
Also, having good academic standing is one of the major determining factors. As crucial as it sounds, getting into medical school through the transfer scheme is a brutal process and they will only accept the candidates who are among the top performers in their current degree.
You also need to inform your instructors/advisers about your plan of transferring because they will be referenced and asked about your performance and if they have no knowledge prior to your application, it will not look good on your application.
Lastly, during your interview, you must prove to them that medicine is what you really want because they will weigh the pros and cons of transferring or staying in your current degree and if you don’t make them believe that you have the will and capacity to pursue a career in medicine, you will most likely not get in.
What makes neuroscience eligible for medicine?
In the past, neuroscience has been considered primarily a branch of biology since its focal study is the nervous system especially the brain and its processes.
But in recent years, neuroscience or biomedical science has been identified as an interdisciplinary science because of the advancement in its field using its liaison to other disciplines such as medicine, physics, chemistry, engineering, mathematics, psychology, and many more.
Now, as an established discipline, neuroscience is allowed to focus on many aspects similar to medicine such as diagnosis, treatment, and discovery of therapies that might be the answer to some of the diseases affected by the nervous system such as Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, stroke, and neurodegenerative diseases.
Research methods in neuroscience require intensive laboratory work and practices engaging the understudies to perform certain tasks similar to a medical course. Also, some neuroscientists are also involved in patient care and treatment as some of their research findings are focused on developing new medicines.
The broad areas and research subject of neuroscience can be categorized into the following branches of study:
- Affective neuroscience
- Behavioral neuroscience
- Cellular neuroscience
- Clinical neuroscience
- Cognitive neuroscience
- Computational neuroscience
- Cultural neuroscience
- Developmental neuroscience
- Molecular neuroscience
- Neuroengineering
- Neuroimaging
- Neuroinformatics
- Neurolinguistics
- Neurophysiology
- Paleoneurology
- Social neuroscience
- Systems neuroscience
Conclusion
Neuroscience is closely related to medicine because it tries to understand better some of the most inexplicable human conditions such as schizophrenia, autistic spectrum disorders, addiction, ADHD, and many more. Therefore making it closer to finding out the truth about these conditions contributing to its treatment and if possible eradication.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs): can you transfer from neuroscience to medicine?
Can you do medicine with a neuroscience degree?
Yes. An education in Neuroscience is proven to be an excellent background major in pursuing a career in medicine because it provides students with a strong foundation of knowledge and skills that they learned during their neuroscience studies. So yes you can do medicine with a neuroscience degree.
Can you transfer to medicine from another course?
Yes. some universities offer a program that lets their students transfer from biomedical science and other related degrees into medicine. But this route is highly competitive and requires more than the usual route to medicine.
Can I study medicine without A levels?
No. traditionally speaking, if you want to get into a medical school you will need the A Levels because it will allow you to have a chance of being accepted to any university in the country. The A levels are the school leaver qualification standard and if you don’t have one, you have to gain those qualifications if you want to study medicine.
Reference
Conn, P. M. (Ed.). (on 2008). Neuroscience in medicine. Springer Science & Business Media.
Ramos, R. L., Guercio, E., Levitan, T., O’Malley, S., & Smith, P. T. (2016). A quantitative examination of undergraduate neuroscience majors applying and matriculating to osteopathic medical school. Journal of Undergraduate Neuroscience Education, no. 14(2), A87.
Lowrie MNeuroscience in medicine, 2nd end journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery & Psychiatry 2004;75:1511.
How To Transfer From Biomedical Science To Medicine
Published on 18/04/2019 in Study Guides, Featured
What is neuroscience? Written by Yvette Brazier on June 26, 2018
Prichard, J. Roxanne. “A changing tide: what the new ‘foundations of behavior section of the 2015 medical college admissions test® might mean for undergraduate neuroscience programs.” Journal of Undergraduate Neuroscience Education no. 13, no. 2 (2015): E2.
Barzansky, Barbara, and Sylvia I. Etzel. “Educational programs in US medical schools, 2003 to 2004.” Jama 292, no. 9 (2004): 1025-1031.
