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Cognitive Science

Colleges offering this major Rankings Trends

What you'll do in college

Cognitive science is the famous hexagon: psychology, neuroscience, computer science, linguistics, philosophy, and anthropology, all pointed at one question — how do minds work? Expect a programming sequence, statistics, logic, perception and language courses, and at least one seminar arguing about whether a chatbot really "understands" anything.

You'll run experiments on humans, build computational models of them, and discover that the hardest part of studying the mind is getting undergrads to show up for your study. Most programs end with a research project or thesis where you model a piece of cognition and defend it against five departments at once.

What you'll do after college

Cog sci is quietly one of the most employable ways to study the mind. Grads go into UX research, product management, data science, AI and machine-learning teams, and speech and language technology — anywhere someone needs to understand both people and the software they're fighting with.

The grad-school routes are equally wide open: PhD programs in psychology, neuroscience, linguistics, or AI, plus professional detours into HCI, medicine, and law. The degree's superpower is that you can talk to the engineers and the humans, which turns out to be a rare and billable skill.

Famous graduates

  • Marissa Mayer — Former CEO of Yahoo and Google's first female engineer; B.S. in Symbolic Systems (Stanford's cognitive science major) from Stanford University
  • Reid Hoffman — Co-founder of LinkedIn; B.S. in Symbolic Systems from Stanford University
  • Mike Krieger — Co-founder of Instagram; B.S. in Symbolic Systems from Stanford University
  • Scott Forstall — Led the original iPhone software team at Apple; B.S. in Symbolic Systems from Stanford University (yes, they are all Symbolic Systems majors — the mafia is real)

Selectivity vs. earnings

By acceptance rate

$64,094
967
100–38%
$88,503
1,931
36–13%
$89,331
910
12–0%
Acceptance rate · bar = degree-weighted earnings

By SAT median

$68,807
484
400–1360
$76,797
885
1390–1530
$93,473
476
1530–1600
Combined SAT composite median (submitters + non-submitters) · bar = degree-weighted earnings

Earnings by acceptance rate and institution category

$63,807p10 $95,667p90 Liberal Arts Public University Religious University Private University 20–30% 10–20% 0–10% Franklin and Marshall College · $71,637 Scripps College · $75,800 Occidental College · $68,153 Beloit College · $75,258 University of Georgia · $67,073 University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign · $69,642 University of California, Santa Barbara · $64,757 University of California, Davis · $65,902 University of Connecticut · $72,288 Virginia Tech · $64,049 Minnesota State University, Mankato · $82,985 Fresno State · $71,557 Rutgers University - New Brunswick · $53,949 University of Texas at Dallas · $75,508 University of Delaware · $72,595 University of California, Santa Cruz · $55,136 Indiana University · $68,284 State University of New York at Oswego · $73,147 University at Buffalo · $73,943 Cal State Stanislaus · $77,323 University of Minnesota - Duluth · $75,871 University of California, Merced · $58,074 University of Evansville · $71,118 Southern Adventist University · $64,886 Marquette University · $71,413 George Fox University · $75,284 Case Western Reserve University · $44,741 Curry College · $81,519 Lehigh University · $75,737 University of California, San Diego · $76,105 University of California, Irvine · $74,307 Vassar College · $86,472 Carleton College · $78,010 University of Richmond · $73,441 Pitzer College · $75,638 Emory University · $83,437 Tufts University · $82,776 Carnegie Mellon University · $191,392 University of Southern California · $64,805 Washington University in St Louis · $73,663 University of California, Berkeley · $132,104 University of Michigan - Ann Arbor · $74,575 Barnard College · $78,443 Wellesley College · $63,807 United States Military Academy · $73,732 Yale University · $85,126 Stanford University · $132,283 University of Chicago · $85,492 MIT · $108,543 Columbia University · $85,371 University of Pennsylvania · $110,042 Duke University · $95,667 Vanderbilt University · $58,808 Dartmouth · $83,676 Johns Hopkins University · $60,476 Brown University · $75,593 Northwestern University · $83,325 Rice University · $75,123 Cornell University · $83,204 New York University · $74,507 UCLA · $111,284 Pomona College · $82,982 Swarthmore College · $83,874 Claremont McKenna College · $78,076 Liberal Arts: mean $72,712 Public University: mean $69,005 Religious University: mean $70,675 Private University: mean $63,130 20–30%: mean $77,101 10–20%: mean $91,873 0–10%: mean $87,024 All colleges: p10 $63,807 All colleges: p90 $95,667
Each dot = a college · y = degree-weighted earnings

Majors in this category

Major Colleges Degrees ▼ Male/Female Intl Earnings Employment
Cognitive Science 67 3,808 32% / 68% 9% $79,462 95%
Cognitive Science 58 3,170 31% / 69% 9% $78,675 95%
Cognitive and Behavioral Neuroscience 1 176 26% / 74% 1% $64,049 100%
Symbolic Systems 1 113 54% / 46% 13% $132,283 87%
Cognitive Neuroscience 2 103 49% / 51% 5% $73,582 96%
Cognitive Sciences 2 72 19% / 81% 6% $74,715 88%
Cognitive Studies 1 59 24% / 76% 25% $58,808 95%
Computation and Cognition (Course 6-9) 1 55 33% / 67% 5% $108,543
Behavioral Decision Sciences 1 27 30% / 70% 7% $81,888
Cognitive Science and Psychology 1 11 0% / 100% 0% $63,807 94%
Language and Mind 1 10 50% / 50% 20% $74,507
Philosophy-Neuroscience-Psychology 1 7 43% / 57% 14% $77,898
Contemplative Studies 2 3 33% / 67% 33% $79,376
Behavioral Neuroscience 1 2 50% / 50% 0% $64,886