<p>Hey guys, I'm a possible transfer whose particularly interested in cog musicology/psychoacoustics.</p>
<p>Can anybody shed some light on the inter-disciplinary cog sci program at Swat? How flexible/structured is it? Are there currently any majors? Does the program have more of a neuro bent or psych bent? </p>
<p>Thanks in advance, I really appreciate it.</p>
<p>elkjkb, I sent you a PM.</p>
<p>There are certainly cogsci majors from time to time, and several minors per year as well. It’s very interdisciplinary–after the intro course, the only other designated cogsci credit is the thesis. As a cogsci major, you would take lots of courses in disciplines like Linguistics, Psychology, Computer Science, Math, Biology and Philosophy that might have little to do with your interests directly–there is, however, lots of flexibility, as you basically design the major yourself, drawing from the list of eligible courses. Last semester a student-run course on Music and Linguistics was approved to be taught, and the Engineering department occasionally offers Acoustics, but realize that there’s very little in the way of classes that connect to your (rather narrow) area of interest directly, besides your thesis. If you’re okay with that, then I would definitely recommend Swarthmore in general as a place where self-directed people with obscure interests can do quite well for themselves. </p>
<p>Good luck with your decisions!</p>
<p>More information about cogsci is available here:
[Swarthmore</a> College | Academics | Course Catalog 2008-2009](<a href=“http://www.swarthmore.edu/cc_cognitivescience.xml]Swarthmore”>Program: Cognitive Science - Swarthmore College - Modern Campus Catalog™)</p>
<p>Thanks for the responses guys. etselec, i actually already perused the catalogue and saw all those courses (you missed a cool looking one on DSP in engineering hehe). The program sounds about what I was expecting and wanted, a pretty amorphous major that just allows you take cool courses in stuff that interests you; I’m not looking for a pre-professional education and my reasons for transferring are 90% social anyways. Looks like I will see you guys around Swat next year!</p>