<p>Hi there. I was recently admitted to Case Western Reserve University as an undergraduate student majoring in cognitive science. I have to choose between Case and my local school, and I was wondering how strong Case was in Cognitive Science. I was also wondering how close cognitive science is to neuroscience (my first intended major). Any help would be much appreciated! Thanks a lot!</p>
<p>Hmmm! I got a call today during dinner (lol) from a very nice Case student who congratulated me and asked if I had any questions for him. I asked if he knew anything about cognitive science/neuroscience at Case, and he told me that actually, he did, as his fraternity brother is currently doing research involving dopamine and rats' brains. It sounded like really cool stuff -- just the type of thing I'd want to be involved in as an undergraduate. (He was also paid to do research over the summer!)</p>
<p>The neuroscience/cognitive science overlap is, from what I gather, what you make of it. As in, you can be a cognitive science major who's more like a psych major and focuses mostly on the behavioral/emotional aspect of cognition, or you can be someone who's all about the biology -- effectively a neuroscience major. Or somewhere in between. I'm speaking generally, though, not about Case in particular. My prospective major is cognitive neuroscience -- sort of a balance of the two -- although I could see myself going into molecular neuroscience or straight up cog sci in the end. In college, I want to expose myself to neuroscience on every level, from the individual neurons to the entire systems, or even to analyzing thought processes through cognitive testing (with a solid biology background to back it up). From what I can tell, Case is very strong in all of these areas, even if they don't have a designated "neuroscience" program for undergrads.</p>
<p>Hey I am a current student and am majoring in cognitive science. Case Western Reserve is very strong in cognitive science. There is a lot of school and faculty support and endless research options for freshmen-seniors on campus or in one of the 4 hospitals across the street from campus, really across the road.
As to how is overlaps with neuroscience--- the definition of cog sci is an indisiplinary study of neuroscience, pychology, philosophy, computer science, and linguistics. From the classes I have taken, you will do a lot of neuroscience and you can always focus on that aspect of the major.</p>
<p>Thanks a lot for the replies. I was also wondering if cog science is a good track to med school; ie, does its prerequisites qualify as a pre-med track? Also, is the degree one earns a BS or a BA? Thanks a lot.</p>
<p>You can only earn a BA in cog sci.
There is no major that qualifies at the pre-med track. For pre-med you need courses from the physics, math, bio, chem departments.</p>
<p>I talked to a professor of Cognitive Science at Case for an hour or so today. The Cognitive Science department at Case sounds really amazing – it’s a bunch of people from different fields (since cog sci is so interdisciplinary) who pulled together in order to do work at the cross-section of all of their areas of expertise, and it’s only one of seven such programs at universities in the U.S. It sounds like a lot of really exciting stuff is going on, and (as I’m not attending CWRU) it’s the thing that I am most disappointed to have to turn down, out of all of my schools. Their website, [Case</a> Department of Cognitive Science](<a href=“http://www.case.edu/artsci/cogs/]Case”>Department of Cognitive Science | Case Western Reserve University), is very comprehensive; I highly recommend it.</p>