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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

$64,237
914
100–40%
$76,230
1,903
36–12%
$92,195
937
12–0%
Acceptance rate · bar = degree-weighted earnings

By SAT median

$65,988
484
400–1380
$80,847
887
1390–1530
$96,933
474
1540–1600
Combined SAT composite median (submitters + non-submitters) · bar = degree-weighted earnings

Earnings vs. selectivity rank

$59,354p10 $101,012p90 Military Female-only Liberal Arts Public University Religious University Private University Liberal Arts 1–15 Public University 1–15 Private University 1–30 United States Military Academy · $71,016 Barnard College · $87,686 Wellesley College · $48,146 Scripps College · $80,128 Vassar College · $70,485 Carleton College · $81,153 Pitzer College · $73,798 Franklin and Marshall College · $78,888 Occidental College · $68,153 Beloit College · $70,303 University of California, Irvine · $73,942 University of California, Davis · $61,086 University of Connecticut · $76,759 Virginia Tech · $59,269 Minnesota State University, Mankato · $72,886 Fresno State · $78,582 Rutgers University - New Brunswick · $52,117 University at Buffalo · $74,256 University of Delaware · $68,758 University of Texas at Dallas · $75,509 Indiana University · $69,409 State University of New York at Oswego · $73,147 University of Minnesota - Duluth · $72,326 University of California, Santa Cruz · $68,697 Cal State Stanislaus · $77,007 University of California, Merced · $54,297 University of Evansville · $71,748 Southern Adventist University · $70,694 Marquette University · $72,600 George Fox University · $73,524 University of Richmond · $90,249 Pomona College · $96,158 Swarthmore College · $90,972 Claremont McKenna College · $85,340 University of California, Berkeley · $88,054 University of Michigan - Ann Arbor · $76,985 UCLA · $69,090 University of Georgia · $63,725 University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign · $82,890 University of California, San Diego · $75,735 MIT · $115,069 Stanford University · $115,491 Yale University · $107,334 University of Chicago · $89,555 Brown University · $75,208 Dartmouth · $88,181 University of Pennsylvania · $108,539 Duke University · $91,567 Columbia University · $101,012 Johns Hopkins University · $59,258 Rice University · $73,278 Carnegie Mellon University · $160,258 Northwestern University · $83,326 Vanderbilt University · $59,354 Cornell University · $86,822 Emory University · $86,614 Washington University in St Louis · $73,794 Tufts University · $120,704 University of Southern California · $80,834 New York University · $82,333 Case Western Reserve University · $45,976 Lehigh University · $91,609 Military: mean $71,016 Female-only: mean $71,987 Liberal Arts: mean $73,797 Public University: mean $69,253 Religious University: mean $72,142 Private University: mean $90,249 Liberal Arts 1–15: mean $90,823 Public University 1–15: mean $76,080 Private University 1–30: mean $90,733 All colleges: p10 $59,354 All colleges: p90 $101,012
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% $79,975 95%
Cognitive Science 59 3,180 32% / 68% 9% $79,946 95%
Cognitive and Behavioral Neuroscience 1 176 26% / 74% 1% $59,269 100%
Symbolic Systems 1 113 54% / 46% 13% $115,491 96%
Cognitive Neuroscience 2 103 49% / 51% 5% $74,830 91%
Cognitive Sciences 2 72 19% / 81% 6% $73,610 95%
Cognitive Studies 1 59 24% / 76% 25% $59,354 95%
Computation and Cognition (Course 6-9) 1 55 33% / 67% 5% $115,069
Behavioral Decision Sciences 1 27 30% / 70% 7% $92,156
Cognitive Science and Psychology 1 11 0% / 100% 0% $48,146 100%
Philosophy-Neuroscience-Psychology 1 7 43% / 57% 14% $79,827
Contemplative Studies 2 3 33% / 67% 33% $93,197
Behavioral Neuroscience 1 2 50% / 50% 0% $70,694