▲ 5 r/REU
Hello everyone,
Yesterday I received an acceptance for a summer program called ThinkNeuro, and I’m trying to decide whether it’s actually worth it.
It’s a 3-month program (June–August) and costs about $590.75 after a 15% scholarship, so not trivial for me.
Here’s what it includes:
- June: R Programming Academy + bibliometric research training (with mentors linked to places like Caltech and Harvard Medical School)
- July: Research group rotations (e.g. neurodegenerative disease, neurotechnology) with mentorship
- August: Virtual Summer Research Symposium — poster, abstract, and oral presentation with feedback, plus keynote speakers
Some Background:
I’m a first-year medical student in the UK, really interested in neuroscience research and coding.
My dilemma:
- I’ve already made posters/abstracts independently before and presented them in conferences, so I’m unsure how much new value I’d get from that part
- The R coding component sounds useful, but I’m wondering if I could realistically learn the same things from YouTube or online courses
- The project rotations (like Neural Circuits & Systems and Cognitive & Computational Neuroscience) actually sound really interesting, but I’m not sure how in-depth they are or how much you actually get to do
- I’ve tried self-learning coding before and didn’t get very far, so maybe structured teaching would help? Not sure
- I’ve seen some mixed reviews online, which is making me hesitant
Questions:
- Has anyone here actually done ThinkNeuro? What was your honest experience?
- Did you feel like you gained real research or coding skills, or was it more superficial?
- Was the mentorship/networking genuinely useful (e.g. strong references, ongoing projects)?
- Do you think it’s worth the cost, or better to self-learn + find research opportunities independently?
I’d really appreciate any honest opinions, good or bad before I make a decision.
u/Gait07 — 1 month ago