Hi Everyone,
I am currently at a community college but am going to enroll in the TAG program for UC Davis for admission of Fall of 2016. I absolutely love psychology, but have found that a bachelors or even a masters is pretty much worthless and that getting a PhD or PsyD is somewhat necessary.
I have had a really difficult time picking a major, but came across Cognitive Science. Just wanted to see if anyone has majored in this or is in progress of getting their degree for it and what it is like. However, my biggest question is can you just get a BA or BS in it and have good career opportunities; what kind of careers are available to those with this degree?
Thanks in advance!
This is untrue unless you want to practice psychology as a counselor or therapist. Otherwise, there are lots of jobs that psychology majors can do - and do do. I do have a PhD, but I’m currently looking for non-academic jobs and most of the ones I’m looking at (marketing, public relations, academic advising, social science research within corporations or nonprofits) ask either for a bachelor’s in a social science field or are non-specific about what kind of major they want.
Quite like any major these days, you can’t just select it and hope for the best. Even engineering and computer science majors need internships and skills in order to get jobs. And it’s the same thing with social science majors like cognitive science. Cognitive science is the combination of psychology, computer science, and philosophy - with some influences from anthropology, neuroscience, and linguistics. Which way you lean, and which skills you emphasize, will have a big impact on what you end up doing.
If you want related jobs, cognitive processing is actually pretty big right now because of the proliferation of technology and applications. A big part of cognitive science is artificial intelligence and human-computer interaction; these things are booming right now because of all the companies developing new technologies and apps that they want to be sure that people can use and enjoy seamlessly. So many firms are hiring researchers to dive into that field. Cognitive scientists who lean more computer science can take certain types of CS jobs that are interested in how people use computers or the design/understanding of artificial intelligence (but you have to have the right background). And of course, there are lots of less-related jobs you can take that are entry-level and don’t require a BA in anything specific, or just want a general social scientist. Take a quick look at Indeed.com or some other employment aggregator to see what those might be.
But you’ll want to develop in-demand skills and do some internships. Skills include hard skills like programming, statistical analysis, machine learning, and writing skills but also include “soft” skills like communication, presentation skills, interpersonal relations/professionalism, problem-solving ability, and independence.