PhD in neuroscience
 

I want to get a PhD in neuroscience, and I'm already 31 (33 when I apply). I wasn't a science major in college, and now I'm doing all the prereqs at a local JC: Bio, Chem, Physics, OChem, Biochem, Psych. Would schools look unfavorably on that?

I'm halfway through MS in applied & computational math at a part-time program, funded by the agency I work for. I was originally gearing up for a PhD in economics, but I figured I'd study poverty and brain development instead. Is that more psych than neuro?

In college my GRE quant was 720 and verbal 530, analytical a perfect 6. Since econ programs don't care about your verbal, I didn't really study for it.

So I'm old and my science background isn't as solid, but I figured my quantitative skills would compensate.

Any help is appreciated.

You're not too old...but it may not be the best idea.

5 or 6 years to get your PhD. Then 1 or 2 post-docs. Then a real grind after that as well trying to get your career going and get tenure (you are not going to study poverty and brain development in the private sector).

Brain development of humans? Or animals?

Using tissue? Or scans?

I'm assuming you would be doing humans/scans. In that case, probably the more appropriate field is psychology (PhD). or psychiatry (MD). One advantage of the psychology degree would be the opportunity to be clinical, as an additional career option.

With your math background, maybe you are more interested in epidemiology and health services research....that's another thing to look into, and can be approached from a number of different fields/directions.

I don't think there's any issue with your age as long as you're okay with not having any significant income until you're 40+. Something also to remember is that academic positions are extremely competitive and that even really smart, talented people aren't able to get a good position. The ability to attract external funding is huge. Counting on academia is a gamble.

I think that Mike's idea to look into public health or other health-related degrees would be worth checking out as well.

Good luck!

A main reason I wanted to go into science was because I didn't like running regressions on large datasets with lots of noise and I wanted the greater certainty from testing stuff in a lab. Correct me if I'm wrong, but in public health I'd be dealing with the same degree of uncertainty as in the social sciences.

I was imagining doing both testing on animals (with implications for humans) and fMRIs on humans.

I was thinking that if I couldn't get an academic job I'd still use my applied math degree and do biostats for a pharmaceutical company or something. Just erase the PhD from my resume. Is that a viable contingent route?

Not very many people at all have both a basic science laboratory and also a clinical research setup.

Just like not many people play both NFL and MLB.

Certainty. That's an interesting concept.

Being a stats whiz always opens more avenues. I have no idea how hard those jobs are to get but know a few who psychology phd's who are doing very well doing stats for pharmaceutical companies.

thanks

Not a problem. I am 40 and in my last year of a PhD in Cliical Psychology. I remember feeling like you once. I have already received many job offers. The question is, do you want to be an academic? That road is longer to make money. If you want to work in the public sector, you can start doing well right out of school. You could probably be making good money by the time you are 36 or 37. Most importantly, it is a job you can do when you are old. If you love it...Do it.