I want to apply to schools that are good in cognitive science, but a lot of times I see people suggest Stanford, MIT, the ivies, or schools that are way out of my league. I think it would be nice if I said very basic things about myself so that someone could help me find schools good in cogsci that are good matches for me? My college list doesn’t have enough match schools.
SAT: 1470/1600 (R/W: 700, M:770)
GPA: 96/100 (weighted, my school doesn’t do 4.0 scale)
Rank: Probably ~15 percentile but my school doesn’t rank.
I know it’s not a lot of information, but I just need a couple schools to guide me in the right direction. Thank you!
If you’re out-of-state (CA) they may not be the best deal, but the UCs, particularly Berkeley and UCSD have good programs in Cog Sci. University of Washington does too, I believe.
I live in New York and low income, so UCs are (sadly) out of the question. I would need some good financial aid because of the low income status to be honest.
In terms of selectivity, I guess anything above 30% acceptance rate? Anything below that I feel would be a bit of a reach.
Yes, but the more selective schools are also the ones with the best FA. You can also look for schools with good merit aid (there are some full-ride scholarships out there, but they’re not super easy to come by). Your stats pretty good though (maybe good enough for MIT or Ivies, but you can put a couple of reach schools in there).
Some schools with good programs at varying levels of admissions difficulty but that are probably decent with aid might include Carnegie Mellon, Case Western, UT Dallas (I think they have merit aid), Lehigh, Vassar.
At it’s core, a cognitive science major is an interdisciplinary major that involves coursework in psychology, computer science (primarily artificial intelligence), linguistics, and philosophy, often with supporting coursework in neuroscience and maybe anthropology. A sufficiently motivated student could create an independent/individualized/self-designed major in cognitive science if there were strong enough offerings across psychology, CS, and linguistics at a given school.
For in-state public options, there are a number of SUNY Schools that offer cognitive science as a major. Check out SUNY-Oswego, the University at Buffalo, and the University at Albany (it’s in the linguistics department). SUNY Geneseo offers a cognitive science minor. Another option is to go to very good psychology departments at either Binghamton University or Stony Brook University and take courses in their computer science, linguistics, and philosophy departments. Both of them have PhD programs in cognitive science, which means there are graduate courses and research going on in the fields.
Few if any frequent CC posters are likely to have detailed knowledge of many cognitive science programs at schools that span a wide selectivity and affordability range. Hence the tendency to recommend colleges that are known to be strong in most departments and also to offer great FA. Unfortunately, those also tend to be highly selective colleges.
For target/match colleges, it may be best to focus first not on cog sci programs but on overall quality, net cost, and personal fit. Once you’ve identified about 10 “match” schools you like, then narrow them down based on specific information about cog sci courses, faculty, degree requirements, etc. (which you can find online, through campus visits, etc.)
Depending on where you want to focus, you might find what you want at a target school with a strong psychology department (like Clark University), or at one with another strong related department. The absence of a department labelled “cognitive science” may not be a show-stopper. Nor does having a dedicated cognitive science major necessarily mean it is stronger than another college in the sub-field(s) that most interest you.
To help identify colleges with strong programs in related fields, you could have a look at graduate-level department rankings such as this one: http://www.usnews.com/education/best-global-universities/neuroscience-behavior
Schools in the top 100 on that list that should be in your target zone, and that also offer fairly good financial aid, include Boston University, the University of Rochester, and the University of Miami.
If you want a smaller college, check out New College of Florida. NCoF is a small, academically strong public honors college that grants $15K (or greater) merit scholarships to out-of-state students (https://www.ncf.edu/admissions/cost-and-aid/scholarships/out-of-state-freshmen/).
It may have good offerings in several disciplines that interest you, but you’d need to dig.
Vassar has a fantastic Cognitive Science program and is also great with need-based aid (no merit aid though). It would be more of a low reach than a true match, but it’s not out of your league and would definitely be worth checking out.
SUNYOswego gives money… although the deadline may have passed. Someone above mentioned that it has a cog sci program. I can’t confirm that but it does give money and your stats seem like they would qualify.
Tufts’ has one of the top undergrad Cognitive Science majors (called Cognitive and Brain Science).
Tufts is a reach, but not as “reachy” as MIT or Stanford. The program is very broad in scope including Philosophy of Mind and Child Development as well as the usual subjects.
Tufts has several cognitive science research labs with partnerships that span the globe. They are organized around a new joint research center funded by the Army.