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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

$65,426
797
100–44%
$83,489
1,458
38–9%
$82,075
868
9–0%
Acceptance rate · bar = degree-weighted earnings

By SAT median

$61,745
392
400–1360
$75,766
787
1370–1540
$87,921
373
1540–1600
Combined SAT composite median (submitters + non-submitters) · bar = degree-weighted earnings

Earnings vs. selectivity rank

$51,487p10 $85,159p90 Military Female-only Liberal Arts Public University Religious University Private University Liberal Arts 1–20 Public University 1–25 Private University 21–40 Private University 1–20 United States Military Academy · $51,312 Wellesley College · $51,487 Barnard College · $68,751 Scripps College · $56,285 Pitzer College · $56,137 Occidental College · $77,206 Beloit College · $46,076 University of California, Irvine · $55,434 University of California, Davis · $67,094 University of Connecticut · $79,256 Minnesota State University, Mankato · $48,792 Fresno State · $53,964 University at Buffalo · $54,800 University of Delaware · $69,292 University of Texas at Dallas · $75,620 University of California, Santa Cruz · $76,561 Indiana University · $51,926 State University of New York at Oswego · $74,596 University of Minnesota - Duluth · $49,886 Cal State Stanislaus · $52,884 University of California, Merced · $57,358 University of Evansville · $51,543 Southern Adventist University · $50,688 Marquette University · $56,006 George Fox University · $52,965 Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute · $73,748 Pomona College · $66,067 Swarthmore College · $75,980 Carleton College · $57,389 Claremont McKenna College · $75,359 Haverford College · $60,846 Vassar College · $55,120 University of California, Berkeley · $100,651 University of Michigan - Ann Arbor · $77,436 University of Georgia · $61,591 UCLA · $78,267 University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign · $58,820 Rutgers University - New Brunswick · $55,291 Virginia Tech · $58,520 University of California, San Diego · $85,159 Emory University · $69,464 Washington University in St Louis · $69,114 Case Western Reserve University · $43,787 New York University · $69,601 University of Southern California · $91,571 Lehigh University · $71,635 University of Richmond · $66,451 Franklin and Marshall College · $60,688 MIT · $80,972 Johns Hopkins University · $61,773 Stanford University · $129,017 Brown University · $69,389 Duke University · $71,539 University of Chicago · $74,719 University of Pennsylvania · $109,527 Carnegie Mellon University · $158,864 Rice University · $71,816 Yale University · $79,977 Northwestern University · $84,007 Cornell University · $72,371 Dartmouth · $79,211 Vanderbilt University · $56,190 Columbia University · $77,409 Tufts University · $128,185 Military: mean $51,312 Female-only: mean $58,841 Liberal Arts: mean $59,806 Public University: mean $61,962 Religious University: mean $52,801 Private University: mean $73,748 Liberal Arts 1–20: mean $65,127 Public University 1–25: mean $71,967 Private University 21–40: mean $67,789 Private University 1–20: mean $87,810 All colleges: p10 $51,487 All colleges: p90 $85,159
Each dot = a college · y = degree-weighted earnings

Majors in this category

Major Colleges Degrees ▼ Male/Female Intl Earnings Employment
Cognitive Science 65 3,123 33% / 67% 9% $70,435 95%
Cognitive Science 57 2,473 33% / 67% 10% $69,448 95%
Cognitive and Behavioral Neuroscience 1 219 29% / 71% 0% $58,520 100%
Cognitive Neuroscience 2 108 39% / 61% 7% $73,700 91%
Symbolic Systems 1 101 46% / 54% 9% $129,017 96%
Cognitive Sciences 2 63 29% / 71% 6% $63,625 95%
Cognitive Studies 1 54 31% / 69% 13% $56,190 95%
Computation and Cognition (Course 6-9) 1 44 34% / 66% 5% $80,972
Behavioral Decision Sciences 1 30 43% / 57% 20% $67,381
Cognitive Science and Psychology 1 17 0% / 100% 0% $51,487 100%
Contemplative Studies 1 6 50% / 50% 0% $66,311
Philosophy-Neuroscience-Psychology 1 6 67% / 33% 0% $69,241
Behavioral Neuroscience 1 2 0% / 100% 50% $50,688