Hey everyone!
I’d really appreciate some honest advice from people in neuroscience, especially if you’ve taken a non-traditional path. So here’s my situation: I’m currently doing a Master’s in Applied and Computational Mathematics, and I also work full-time (around 8 hours a day). I live alone and take care of everything myself, so overall life is pretty demanding.
The issue isn’t that I’m struggling to be consistent — I actually study a lot and I can keep up. The problem is the total workload. Between work, studying, and just basic life responsibilities, it’s starting to feel like too much, to the point where I’m getting close to burnout.
At the same time, my real interest has always been neuroscience. I didn’t go straight into it because my background is in data (analytics/engineering, a few years in the field), and I thought going into math/modeling would be a more strategic move — especially if I wanted to transition into computational neuroscience later.
So on paper, it made sense. But in practice, this master’s is extremely heavy given my current life setup.
Recently I started looking into alternatives and came across the Euro-Mediterranean Master of Neuroscience (EMN), which is fully online. It caught my attention because it’s directly in neuroscience and seems much more compatible with my current situation.
Now I feel a bit stuck between two directions. On one hand, staying in my current math master’s feels like the “stronger” path, especially for computational work. On the other hand, it’s very demanding, and I’m not sure it’s sustainable like this. The EMN + self-study (things like Neuromatch, personal projects, etc.) feels more aligned with what I actually enjoy and probably more manageable, but I’m not sure how that’s perceived academically or professionally.
I guess what I’m trying to understand is: would leaving a math-heavy program be a mistake if I want to move into neuroscience later? How important is that level of mathematical rigor compared to building projects and experience on my own? And does a program like EMN actually help in practice, or is it kind of superficial?
My long-term goal is to get a PhD in Europe after the masters. I’m EU citizen (what make a few things easier) but the paperwork is still in progress. Given that I can’t relocate right now (I’m from Brazil) and have to keep working, I’m trying to figure out what path makes the most sense long-term without burning out in the process.
If anyone here has gone through something similar or works in computational neuroscience, I’d really value your perspective