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Curriculum

Overview

The Cognitive Science Major is comprised of four tracks:

  • Computation and Cognition

  • Decision and Cognition

  • Language and Cognition

  • Philosophy and Cognition

In order to declare, students must take the Gateway Prerequisite Course COGSCI 200, which provides an overview of all the disciplines that comprise the field of Cognitive Science. After students enrolled in COGSCI 200 have remained enrolled past the Add/Drop deadline for the semester, they may make an advising appointment to declare the major. Students must select a track at the time they declare the major.

Each track consists of a total of nine courses (a minimum of 27 credits):

  • Three core courses

  • Six elective courses

    • Four elective courses chosen from a track-specific list

    • Two elective courses from any of the Cognitive Science tracks

    • Electives must be distributed over a minimum of three departments (example: students on the Decision and Cognition track must have one course take from outside of PSYCH and PHIL)

A list of major course requirements is available through the LSA Cognitive Science Major Guide. These same courses are available in spreadsheet form below as well.

Departmental Policies and Special Considerations

The Cognitive Science is unique in that the majority of courses for the major are offered by departments outside the Weinberg Institute, such as the Philosophy, Psychology, Linguistics, and LSA Computer Science departments. Therefore, please reference the Course Enrollment Guide below to learn more about different enrollment policies for all of the departments through which CogSci courses are offered.

**Please note: students often double major in BCN (Biopsychology, Cognition, and Neuroscience), Linguistics, Neuroscience, Philosophy, Psychology, Computer Science or other fields. However, to ensure that these students have devoted significant, independent effort to each major, only three courses can be counted towards both majors.