Can anyone who is currently or has recently majored in Cognitive Science at Pomona College offer any insight into the approach Pomona takes to the subject matter beyond what they say on their website? Also, any info on the reality of research opportunities in CogSci and/or Neuroscience both with professors (as advertised) and outside of the consortium? Are there realistic options off campus? Has anyone had specific experience with any particular innovative, meaningful research?
Also, how intellectually curious are students in that dept. and overall? Do conversations from the classroom continue beyond?
Finally, would love to learn pros and cons of the small CogSci department size, both with regards to the number of students and faculty. Thank you!
Current cog sci double major! Only have taken a few courses e.g. LGCS 011, LGCS 010, PSYC 162 (See course description on the website), can’t speak too much about the dept., but every single faculty I’ve interacted with is super interested in making ideas into real-life (e.g. research), or offer insight into programs or opportunities that I’ve been interested in. My linguistics prof offered resources to me after briefly hearing about my research interests, my cog sci prof helped me a lot with finding research opportunities as well.
Thank you!! Are these research opportunities you mention available on campus or do you think there are some available elsewhere too? And how do you feel about the size of the department? Is it a small group of professors and students and do you feel there is enough variety?
Hi, sorry for the late answer, forgot this website existed for a while. There are research opportunities on-campus through SURP (Summer Undergraduate Research Program, which is a funded research project for Pomona students who get accepted in the program), labs, as well as off-campus research opportunities. The size of the department might be larger than expected because the linguistics and cognitive science departments are combined into LGCS department, so there are ling majors too. I think there’s definitely a close group of people and bonds that are formed amongst the majors and faculty, yet everyone is unique. A lot of the Cog Sci classes have other majors (E.g. PSYC majors) as well because the major is so interdisciplinary
Thank you!