Cognitive Science as a major?

Hi guys, I need a bit of help here regarding cognitive science major.

So I’m looking to be a pre med in my undergraduate years, but I do want a good fallback major that sets me in a good place in the event that medical school isn’t my plan anymore. In that situation, an IT/computer science position at some sciencey/health related tech company interests me the most.

Cognitive Science seems like a good major that does just that and is fairly interesting (i.e. computer science AND psychology and like linguistics and stuff)!!

But I have a few questions:

  1. What are the pros and cons about a cognitive science major? (in terms of EC opportunities, course opportunities, and anything else) I heard about making sure to look for schools with distinct cogsci departments rather than those that throw courses together and call it a “program” because at those schools you don’t get course priority–is that true?
  2. Pros and cons about being a cogsci pre med?
  3. Will I be able to secure a good job in the type of career I’m looking for as a cognitive science major?
  4. Any schools you know of that are good for cognitive science and pre-med? I’ve looked at Vassar and Case Western Reserve, are those good (probably reaches for me though lol).

Hi all, a couple questions regarding majoring in cognitive science (as of right now, on the pre med track). Seems pretty interdisciplinary and thus interesting.

If medical schools plans get yeeted, I’m thinking of going into computer science working for some tech company that does work in healthcare field. Don’t want to leave healthcare, but computer science in that field seems nice!

Is it an employable major? Will I be able to get decent extracurriculars and course-selection priority?

Are there any other comparable but better majors I should be looking at instead?

Any cognitive science schools you know of?

This is going back 5 years now, but my D was considering neuroscience as a major. She realized that in terms of making it a career, she would need either a PhD or go to medical school. She didn’t want either, so she dropped it.

In terms of career prospects outside of medical school, something like computational biology will be far better than a cognitive science degree.

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Agree with @hebegebe . Also, from what I have seen, the career paths are somewhat limited even after PhD. Many PhDs try to go after machine learning / data science jobs but the skillset is not necessarily a match.

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As an opinion, you might risk counterproductively limiting your college search if your focus too greatly on a not especially common major such as cognitive science. While I recommended Vassar to you in another topic, its cognitive science program can be largely duplicated at schools without a defined major in this area. My advice would be to consider schools both with and without a major in this field so that you can explore the best overall opportunities available to you.

Do you know of any other majors I can look at that can gear me towards such a career/pre med?

I’m currently a HS junior and I really have no idea what’s going on in terms of college searches (oldest sibling, first gen american). Any help would be graciously appreciated.

Alternative majors?
How is computational biology? Just discovered that major like 15 minutes ago

What are your goals? Where do you see yourself in 4, 8, 15 years?

From what you have posted across your topics so far, I see you exploring through courses in fields such as psychology (including the subfield of cognitive psychology), linguistics, computer science and mathematics/statistics while also registering for the expected courses for premedicine. You will have nearly two years to commit to a major at many colleges. With the perceptions associated with being a first-generation American, this might seem rather broad to you. However, breadth in undergraduate education remains a defining aspect at many of the nation’s top colleges.

Regarding computational biology / bioinformatics, you can seek this as a component/module across several biology courses. Specialization beyond this extent on the undergraduate level seems premature.

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Cognitive Science can be a nice major for a possible premed, because it can allow you to get your feet wet in other fields like computer science, without requiring a heavy CS commitment up-front that can make it harder to be a successful premed.

Some folks up-thread are equating CogSci with Neuroscience; neuroscience is more specialized and lab-science oriented, while CogSci is more interdisciplinary. Neuroscience is one component within CogSci, which can be relatively emphasized or de-emphasized depending on the school/program and on the student’s preferences.

In terms of providing alternate paths to employability, it really depends on your coursework. CogSci students with a strong foundation in programming can get software jobs; students who gain research and/or internship experience in user experience design can launch into that field; some who emphasize CS+linguistics can specialize in areas like natural language processing.

As a rule, I think it’s better to major in CogSci at a school that has an actual CogSci department and a core of courses offered by that department, rather than at schools where there is a CogSci major that is cobbled together from courses offered by various departments, but has no departmental home of its own. This isn’t a black-and-white issue, but on the whole a departmental home, with faculty and research under the CogSci banner, tends to lead to a richer experience and better mentoring opportunities. Whether you get priority to register for the classes you need is kind of a separate issue that isn’t necessarily a problem, but can be a problem for CS classes at some schools where those are impacted. (For example, one of my kids majored in CogSci at Rice and didn’t have any trouble getting into classes, but did feel that the CogSci students weren’t anybody’s first priority in terms of advising and mentoring. There is value in having a departmental “home.”)

Schools with robust CogSci departments and a strong emphasis on the computational component include UC San Diego, Carnegie Mellon, RPI, and Vassar. At the Claremont Colleges, CogSci is closely affiliated with Linguistics, but one can choose a more CS-heavy track as well. Schools where CogSci tends to be more neuroscienc-y include URochester, Carleton, and WashU. Schools where it’s more of an enhanced psych degree include Occidental and Tufts. There’s flexibility to tweak your own emphasis at any of these schools, but I wouldn’t suggest schools like CMU and RPI to anyone who’s computation-averse!

If you see Vassar and CWRU as reaches, Beloit might be a good target - they have a nice, balanced CogSci major with robust offerings in several areas of concentration, and strong premed coursework and advising as well. (Also generous merit and need-based aid.) Cognitive Science Major & Minor Requirements at Beloit College

Northeastern doesn’t have a CogSci degree per se, but their combined majors can work well if you’re interested in the computational side and one other particular emphasis, such as CS+behavioral neuroscience, CS+linguistics, Data Science + behavioral neuroscience, Data Science + linguistics. Also, based on your interest in doing something computational within the health field specifically, Data Science + Health Science could be a great combined major: Data Science and Health Science, BS < Northeastern University

Programs like Data Analytics with a biological sciences emphasis, i.e at Denison or at Ohio State, could give you the kind of opportunities you want as well.

The downside of an undergrad CogSci major is that it can end up being “a mile wide and an inch deep” - it’s up to the student to choose depth in their areas of greatest interest. This can be a positive, though, for a student who wants to keep a number of options open and pivot toward a specialization later in their college career.

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