/sci/ - Science & Math

Hi, I graduated with honors and I'm in a fully-funded Ph.D program in an ivy league school. Now that my credentials are out of the way...

1) Make a plan and STICK TO IT. Figure out an employable major, or figure out a set of career goals, and figure out how to meet the requirements in four years (with a few summer sessions). You should have a *FLEXIBLE* spreadsheet of your courses for the next four years laid out. Speak to an academic advisor if you feel that you do not know how to do this.

2) Do the assigned reading. The solution to college is straightforward. If you attend lectures, do practice problems, do the homework, and seek help from friends/TAs when you don't understand something, you'll get As. This should take up the majority of your time, and you should never feel like you have a copius amount of free time.

3) Work *then* play. Parties are cool, but they aren't something you should do unless your work is done.

4) If you want in on science/engineering, figure out how to become a research assistant in a lab in your field. Undergrads are free labor, and many labs in many universities survive on you. Many labs want a certain GPA or a certain number of lab classes before they consider taking you on. Talk to an academic advisor about this.

5) If you ever feel like you're working toward a degree but you "don't know what you're doing after college," revisit point 1. Always have a plan, always stick to the plan, but allow the plan to change.

>>4961508
It's not a science. It's engineering.

Not being a science != not being important.

In my few cognitive psych classes, we'd mostly learn about particular studies that supported or disaffirmed different models of behavioral phenomena. It was mostly nonsense.

I have no idea what people learn in clinical psych classes.

This is a das keyboard, a mechanical keyboard with Cherry MX blue switches.

>Your favorite branch of mathematics?
maximum likelihood statistical modeling
>Your favorite branch of science?
Any bioscience, especially those concerned with behavior. The more precise the measurement, the better (read: I hate fMRI).
>Your favorite non-science related subject to learn about?
Non-science RELATED? I don't know if I have any. Non-science? Math, non-experimental economics, and computer-science.

khanacademy.org

>>4957988
You have to talk to people. You don't find legit, secure drug connections any other way. It's way way way easier to find on college campuses because there's a higher demand for it.

>>4957977
Science is not possible with the application of science (engineering) to make tools to do more science. Neither is more important than the other.

I'm having a hard time thinking of a scientific advancement that WASN'T made possible by tools that were engineered on the basis of scientific knowledge. Can you think of any?

>>4957946
Those sorts of effects can be demonstrated with marijuana and alcohol. I'm sure they can be shown with adderall.

>have you tried it? What were the effects like?
Yeah, I used to broker someone's sales and get free pills. It makes things feel very interesting and exciting, so you can sit still and study for hours. Alternatively, you can also straighten your hair or pick at your nails for hours. It's not the magical solution to beating academia.

>do you consider it to be cheating
No moreso than caffeine or five hour energies. It's similar stuff with similar effects, its just stronger. I don't think it makes you superman and I don't think it can make a poor performer get straight As. It comes with it's own set of risks/costs as well (it's illicit, and subject to price jacks during finals week. I used to charge up to 2 dollars per mg).

>if you take it for add or adhd, have you become in any way dependant on it, or with you didnt have to take it?
I do not have ADHD, and I did not become dependent. I would take ~3 pills a semester and never once did I crave it or feel stressed that I did not have it available to study. I haven't taken it in a long time and do not plan to ever take it again.

>>4954408
This is how it is done. Applied math, physics, or pure math people get priority on top tier biology programs because faculty love them.

My program (neuroscience) has maaaaaaaaany physics/math/engineering majors.

>>4951173
>>4951096
These posters (this samefag?) are the best posters on /sci/. No sarcasm

Yeah, it's possible. Nature did it.

Von Neumann. He established the entire framework of modern economics and game theory, and it was essentially an afterthought to his other work. His contributions to applied mathematics were unrivaled.

>>4947212
I'm saying that the depression can be "cured" (without medicine), but the lesion/genetic/whatever problem cannot be cured (without medicine). Depression and the hypothetical ailment are not the same thing because they have different diagnostic criteria.

And for the record, it's very established that blood concentration of corticosteroids (hormones) increases under animal stress, so it shouldn't be that surprising that reinforcement affects hormone signaling.

>>4947174
Right, but depression isn't diagnosed because of extensive physical tests of your brain chemistry. Depression is diagnosed because of its behavioral manifestations. Even if you have a ailment that affects a specific neural system and shows itself through depressive episodes, you can overcome the "depression" without medicine.

That said, you should probably take medicine.

>>4947009
It's certainly more difficult to get over in these cases, but willpower and top-down influences are still extremely helpful and can make the difference between a normal life and a terrible life.

>>4946910
That's almost what I'm saying. In the case of SSRIs, what I'm saying is that the maladaptive behavior that defines the psychological disorder is (partially) alleviated by inhibiting the serotonin transporter.

As I said in an earlier post, it's not even clear that a depressed person always has reduced serotonergic activity to begin with. Whatever the neural etiology of their disorder is, changing serotonergic synaptic properties helps the patients lead normal lives.

>>4946880
Something worth noting is that depression is (often) not a disease of the serotonin transporter. Whatever it is a disease of tends to cause behavior that is alleviated by altering the function of the serotonin transporter.

It's not even clear if depression is *always* associated with decreased serotonergic activity. Neuroimaging and blood testing certainly won't tell us that.

Yes, I have a B.S. in Psychology and I'm a Ph.D student in Neuroscience. To be fair, my interests have never been in clinical psychology, but my expertise is indeed in behavior.

At present, with the exception of a few well characterized neurological diseases, psychopharmacology does not aim to treat the etiology of psychological disorders because the etiology is not known or clear. Psychiatric medications are analogous to painkillers - they do not heal the wound, but they do treat the most debilitating symptoms of the wound. This is a major criticism of the efficacy and permanence of medical treatments for diseases of high-level cognition and behavior. In some cases, as in lithium's, the basic science behind the medicine is unclear. In others, such as guanfacine or SSRIs, the basic science is extremely well known and the medicine treats a very specific chemical correlate of the psychological disorders.

That said, it's hard to know if anyone actually "needs" these solutions, but they do help a whooooole lot. Depression, addiction, ADHD, and schizophrenia can be extremely debilitating and, while top-down influence can be helpful, often require exogenous medical care to treat.

>>4943349
Get over a 32 on your mcats, do a postbacc for biomed research and go to medical school.

>>4943266
Rock on.

Also a B.S. in psychology, but my education was substantially more broad. I conducted research in computer science, ecology, and cognitive neuroscience.

Currently a (fully funded) Ph.D student in Neuroscience in a top ten institution.

16 with bunnicula.

Good luck. Is this for entry in 2013?