<p>How is the cognitive science major/dept. at jhu? Anyone have any input?</p>
<p>Anyone at all?</p>
<p>I know the department is relatively small, not as many students enrolled as more popular, related majors such as Neuroscience or Psychology. I ended up going with Psychology rather than Cognitive Science when I arrived at Hopkins, but it's really up to your preference, and what'd you like to do with the major post-graduation.</p>
<p>If you are planning to attend an Open House event, make sure to stop by the departmental presentation, a professor within the department speaks about the major, the opportunities, and sometimes, their research. </p>
<p>Web Page: Undergrad</a> Overview</p>
<p>Registrar Site with Courses for Fall: Registrar's</a> Office | Fall 2008 Course Schedule | Cognitive Science</p>
<p>Sorry I couldn't be of more assistance, hopefully someone else can shed some light... Plus, it's Sunday, everyone is sleepy and/or studying, allow some time for response. :)</p>
<p>I was a cog sci major at Hopkins (graduated 2007). You can read some info about the department (and how it's different than psych, neuroscience) here: Hopkins</a> Forums [Powered by Invision Power Board]</p>
<p>There is also some more info about brain sciences at Hopkins posted here: Hopkins</a> Forums -> Meet JHU_MichelleB</p>
<p>I really truly loved the cog sci department. I chose to focus on neuroscience and philosophy of mind, but I also worked in the Language & Cognition Lab for 6 semesters - so I did a lot of language/spatial work in that capacity. </p>
<p>The department is quite small, student-wise (at least as far as majors in the department - only about 6-8 each year, I'd say) but has a wealth of faculty - more than a dozen faculty members. So most classes are very small, in many cases mixing undergrads and graduate students....you really get to know people in your department very well, and there are a TON of opportunities to do research in whatever area you're interested in, right from freshman year. </p>
<p>The department also does a lot of cross-registering and class offering with related disciplines - psych, neuro, philosophy, computer science, behavioral bio, etc...so you can always find something that you might really like to study in-depth. </p>
<p>The department's requirements are really pretty flexible, so it was super-easy for me to do a double major (in sociology), too. There are only two required courses, and then you get to choose everything after that - I think that's pretty unique. </p>
<p>If you have specific questions, I'd be happy to answer them! But overall, I say cog sci is an awesome place to study interdisciplinary topics in a really small, supportive environment.</p>
<p>Thanks, I appreciate the responses. If other people people have comments, please keep going.</p>
<p>This is kind of shameless self promotion and I don't have a ton of time to dig thru the entries right now to find what's most applicable, but I used to be a blogger for Hopkins, and I wrote about cog sci research and classes from time to time on my blog: <a href="http://www.hopkins.typepad.com/michellet%5B/url%5D">http://www.hopkins.typepad.com/michellet</a></p>
<p>Also, it should be noted that the cog sci major is great for launching to a bunch of different careers - from my class a few people have gone to med school, I'm going to law school, a few have gone onto do research/grad work in cog sci, and some have done other random things. I think the interdisciplinary nature of the major helps you to learn to do science but also how to think and write...I did a lot of reading and writing and modeling for my classes, and it was really an enjoyable mix of work. </p>
<p>One cool thing about the major: you can choose which areas to focus on - neuro, cognitive psychology, linguistics, computational approaches, and philosophy of mind. You pick two to focus on - take three courses in those two areas; and then you're required to take one class in each of the other three areas. So you can choose to have a very psych-y, neuro-y, etc. approach to the major...and really customize it to what you want to do.</p>