Cognitive science is an exciting field that blends a wide range of topics. Cognitive science students can study everything from psychology to neuroscience to computer programming. It’s kind of the triple threat of science degrees, it has a little bit of everything. If you are thinking about jumping into the exciting world of cognitive science, be sure to check out these 10 top-tier schools with great cognitive science programs.
Carnegie Mellon University
CMU’s Bachelor of Science degree in Cognitive Science is through their Psychology department and approaches the field through the lens of psychology, linguistics, artificial intelligence, philosophy, and neuroscience. CMU allows students in this major to craft their own concentration. With help from an advisor, each student in this program chooses what they want to study under the umbrella of cog-sci. This is a really exciting option for students who want to forge their own curriculum and path.
UPenn
UPenn’s cog-sci major takes a highly interdisciplinary approach with courses in biology, computer science, linguistics, mathematics, neuroscience, philosophy, and psychology. Their required courses include computer science, linguistics, math, and more, but the major also comes with a wide range of electives. They also offer several concentrations including in Neuroscience, Computation and Cognition, Individualized, and Language and Mind. Each concentration has different requirements and specializations which allows students to pursue their interests inside of the major.
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
MIT’s Department of the Brain and Cognitive Science offers two cog-sci majors: Brain and Cognitive Science and Computation and Cognition. It’s MIT so both approaches have a strong engineering bend, especially Computation and Cognition. Both require computer science but have some flexibility in choosing other courses to fit student needs.
Washington University in St Louis
WashU offers the Psychological & Brain Sciences Major: Cognitive Neuroscience. Ok, that’s a long title, but it is a psychological and brain sciences major in the cognitive neuroscience track. Their approach has a lot of psychology classes including psych capstones. While they lean heavily on the psych side of the field, they also have students learn biology, neuroscience, and at least one comp sci course.
Stanford
Stanford’s cog-sci route is through their Symbolic Systems Program. Technically, Cognitive Science at Stanford is a concentration in this larger program. The Symbolic Systems Program is a really fascinating program that has many concentrations that take an interdisciplinary view of human connection through the lens of science. Their cog-sci concentration requires students to take courses in Cognitive Neuroscience, Inferential Statistics, Research Methods, Neuroscience, Theoretical Foundations, and more. They also have an Integrative Requirement which includes a capstone. They have a lot of courses that fulfill this major's requirements which allows students to craft their own plans.
Rice
At Rice, students pursuing a BA Degree with a Major in Cognitive Sciences must choose a concentration. Rice offers concentrations in Computation, Linguistics, Neuroscience, Philosophy, and Psychology. The core of the degree is the same across concentrations making it easy to switch or wait to declare the concentration for those who aren’t sure about what fascinates them in the field of cog-sci. They also offer interesting cog-sci electives across concentrations like The History of sensation and Introduction to Engineering Design.
Tufts
Tufts’ BA/BS in Cognitive and Brain Science has students take courses in Psychology, Computer Science, and Philosophy. The major is hosted through the Psychology Department but is a truly holistic major. While students must take 8 required courses, the rest of the major has many options for the rest of the requirements. This means that students have a lot of freedom in building the right slate of classes to fit their specialized interests.
Johns Hopkins University
JHU has a Department of Cognitive Sciences. Majors in this department learn across five focus areas and choose two areas to concentrate in. These include Cognitive Psychology/Neuropsychology, Linguistics, Computational Approaches to Cognition, Neuroscience, and Philosophy of the Mind. The department also offers a minor in linguistics outside of the major. They offer over 140 courses that count for this major, so there are a lot of options in what to learn.
Dartmouth
Dartmouth’s program in cog-sci allows students to focus on several different facets of cog-sci. Their focuses include Decision Making, Language and Thought, Learning and Development, Consciousness, Intelligence, and many more. The major only has 4 required core courses before students can dive into a wide range of focuses each with their elective paths. This major however also has a lab requirement and advanced research options. Research options include a thesis or independent study. They also offer honors and a Phil Lab program.
Yale
Yale has cog-sci students take courses in Computer science, Economics and decision making, Linguistics, Neuroscience, Philosophy, and Psychology. They offer both a BA and a BS track which are very similar however, they differ when it comes to the senior essay in which students start researching their junior year in a Junior colloquium. Both BS and BA candidates write a senior essay, but BS students do a research essay while BA students do a non-empirical essay.
Cognitive science allows students to take a wide range of classes. While the fields can fluctuate a bit from school to school, no matter which school you go to you will receive an interesting and truly interdisciplinary degree. Cogsci students have a lot of options both while at school and in their careers down the line. So we can’t wait to see what you do with it!
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