Every time I say I’m a cognitive science major, I am either met with “What is that?” or “Are you pre-med?” For a major that is so new and constantly developing, there are bound to be questions about what it contains, what you can do with it or what type of person it’s the best fit for. So, here I am to provide my perspective as someone who has taken the plunge into cognitive science.
Cognitive science is one of the most interdisciplinary majors out there because it covers psychology, neuroscience, computer science, linguistics and AI/ML concepts. The very essence of cognitive science is thinking of the mind as a computer and analyzing its different processes, like memory or language acquisition, for example. That’s why the people who will enjoy it the most are those who love learning or are naturally curious about human behavior and decision-making.
As you can imagine, this theory only gained popularity with the computer and artificial intelligence advancements of recent decades, making it so new that many universities and colleges do not offer it yet. Also, because it is so rapidly developing, there is no consensus or certainty as to what you can do with a cognitive science degree yet. Because of its many different fields, there are practically no limits to the available career fields. I know people who have gone into medicine, law, consulting, business, psychology and tech, and it seems to be a great foundation for most graduate schools.
However, if you are certain you want to go into one of these fields specifically, you may be better off doing a major that is more specialized or related to it in order to acquire the necessary skills. Otherwise, you will really have to study your school’s major plan and make sure you can take classes that align with the specific track you want, so you are prepared for whatever you want to do next.
UCLA allows me to build my own path. On top of my traditional cognitive science requirements, I am completing the computing specialization by taking extra programming classes. I am also currently on track to minor in statistics, and both of these customizations will definitely aid me in my career goals of working on human-computer interaction insights and analytics.
You definitely have to be a planner and very organized to succeed in cognitive science. Not only will there be a wide-ranging spread of major prerequisites, but you may have to constantly be looking for an opening in a field that matches your skillsets and interests. If you are not going into a general field like medicine or law, your options with employment might be more niche than you expect because you won’t have the same background as computer science or data science majors.
Hopefully, this brief introduction demystifies some of the cognitive science allure and all that it entails. I love knowing how the brain works and how so many different types of studies and theories help us understand why we fundamentally are the way we are. Even though cognitive science looks different everywhere, if you want to learn about the brain from more perspectives than you can think of, cognitive science is definitely worth looking into.