<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>