<p>I got into UCLA, Berkeley, and UCSD for Cognitive Science. Which one should I go to?? I would appreciate any input I can get. Thanks. :)</p>
<p>i actually heard ucsd’s cogsci department was REALLY REALLY good… and ucla’s is good too. cal’s department is a b.a… not a b.s., and i heard it was a relatively new department.</p>
<p>I was in the same boat as you a few years ago, wondering which school to go to for Cognitive Science. </p>
<p>Firstly, what do you want to do with a Cognitive Science degree?
It is really quite a niche major and most people don’t know what it is. Really, if you plan to join the workforce after college, a Cognitive Science degree will give you no edge. It’s really only good for post-graduate research in the field or participating fields, i.e. graduate school or research positions. If you ask me, it’s better to be studied on the graduate level than the undergraduate level. </p>
<p>Since Cognitive Science is inherently interdisciplinary, which discipline appeals to you the most, e.g. Artificial Intelligence, Neuroscience, Psychology, Linguistics, etc?</p>
<p>UCSD’s Cognitive Science program has a set of core classes that make up the bulk of the requirements, and you’ll need to take three sequences. Two of which are basically neuroscience and brain anatomy. The other has a course dealing with cognitive ethnography which can be quite difficult to grasp, as it seemed to me as very conjectural and abstract. You have the option of choosing specializations in several of the disciplines within Cognitive Science, be prepared to take an additional 5-6 courses. UCSD’s Cognitive Science department is the premier research institution of Cognitive Science, as it was the first of its kind. However, I got the impression that the subject was more geared towards graduate level study and research based on the priorities of the professors and the material itself. Think of it as a little bit of something (mostly neuroscience related) and whole lot of nothing. IMO, it’s in essence more of an extension to the disciplines that it covers. My recommendation is to major in one of the disciplines, i.e. Psych, Comp Sci, Linguistics, etc. and pursue Cognitive Science on the graduate level. The department itself really promotes itself by making the program sound very exciting, mostly to get more undergraduate enrollment.</p>
<p>UCLA’s Cognitive Science program is administered by the Psych Department. It seems to be an a la carte type of curriculum, but has the bulk of its requirements in Psychology. </p>
<p>Berkeley’s program has some very well respected professors in the field, but other than that I don’t know much about it.</p>
<p>I personally didn’t enjoy Cognitive Science as an undergraduate as much as I’d have liked, and would have majored in something more concrete and in-depth like Computer Science, Psych, Linguistics, but if you insist on studying Cognitive Science on the undergraduate level, I’d say go to UCSD if you’re into Neuroscience, UCLA if you’re into Psychology, and Berkeley if you’re into the reputation and the professors.</p>
<p>Also I’d recommend checking out the course websites and listen to any available class resources like podcasts and what not before deciding where you want to go, to get a better idea of what the classes are like. podcasts.ucsd.edu is one such resource.</p>
<p>I’d also do some research on the research opportunities at each school and the types of relevant firms around each school to see if they fit with what you choose to do with the degree. For example San Diego has many more Biotech companies compared to LA.</p>
<p>You really should come to SD if you want to make the major specifically in computation stuff in order to get involve to the computer industry later on.</p>
<p>“You really should come to SD if you want to make the major specifically in computation stuff in order to get involve to the computer industry later on.”</p>
<p>If it’s the computer industry, why not UC Berkeley? UCB has a very good CS Department (like no 1/2/3?) and UCB is very close to silicon valley. I know for a fact that you will be required to take one CS (Computer Science) class I believe if you decide to come to berkeley as a Cog Sci major. I met a few cog sci major when I was taking the class. This CS class is a very unique introductory CS class which uses an ancient programming language (scheme) and exposes students to different topics in computer science (functional programming/compilers/recursion/machine learning/oop/Big-O stuff/machine language/user interface/map-reduce/logic programming). </p>
<p>You should check out the catalogs of each school for your department and decide which school has courses that you like the most. Try looking into some of the CS courses if you are interested in the CS part of Cog Sci. Don’t decide based on what you heard, but decide based on what you have researched about each school.</p>