Hi I am recently accepted by Carleton College. I am looking forward to be majoring in Cognitive Science/Psychology.
I am extremely interested in the biological basis for the psychological and metaphysical activities and The Problem of Consciousness (yes it is my dream to solve this mind-sucking problem). I plan to go to graduate schools to continue these studies.
Well you may say that I should therefore major in biology or double major in biology and psychology. One of my concerns is that, after looking into the courses offered in biology, I find the ones that addresses my specific interests are scarce. And although the psychology program has a lot of courses on the topic of cognitive neuroscience, I still want to have mastery over the biological aspect on these topics, and I worry that the psychology classes may not fulfill this need. What’s more, I really hope to be able to major in Philosophy, too (as I’m devoted to ponder on not only the philosophy of mind, but also ethics, epistemology, and philosophy of science). I see these fields as interconnected.
Therefore I turned to Cognitive Science, which includes all of the fields mentioned above. I’m not sure if the courses there will cover my special interest in the consciousness, and I fear that the interdisciplinary quality of this major will provide me with only a superficial knowledge of this field (given the philosophy, linguistics, biology, psychology, and computer science courses I have to take). I really hope to explore the human mind in-depth.
Yes, I realize that I am ambitious, but this world so wonderful and mysterious that I just want to learn as much about it as possible while I can, especially in the years while my mind is still sharp and eager.