Cognitive Science major? Please help!

[tabularasa]

Is there anybody who has this major and is pre-med? Is it better than majoring in biology (something a lot of premeds feel they have to major in)? Did it help you in med school and/or MCATs?

I just want to make sure that if I don't get into med school, that I'm stuck without a job because of this major.

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[eekonomics]

Is there anybody who has this major and is pre-med? Is it better than majoring in biology (something a lot of premeds feel they have to major in)? Did it help you in med school and/or MCATs?

I just want to make sure that if I don't get into med school, that I'm stuck without a job because of this major.

I was a cognitive science major. It's not difficult to find a job in academia with this degree, and I found it has become increasingly respected as people become familiar with what cognitive science is and how it can bridge various disciplines studying the mind.

It is very different than majoring in Biology. Cognitive Science is about (now) the relationsihp of the brain to cognition, and the modeling of human cognition; it is a burgeoning and more narrow field while Biology is a more mature and vast field: it covers everything from non-mammallian evolution to human anatomy!

So choose Cog Sci if you are truly interested in the experimental questions evoked by the classes you take in it, because if you get a job in research you'll likely be exploring those questions. Also, there are subfields in Cog Sci, like computational linguistics, which actually do have a practical bent (you can work at a place like Google with a degree like that) but you'd probably have to have a PhD level degree.

Please don't pick a major based on the MCAT. It's the worst idea you can have. I only took Bio 001/002 (intro sequence) and I did great on the test, so it's more important to know the lower level material very well than to know every nook and cranny of Biological Sciences.

 

[epigastric]

Your major doesn't determine your job capabilities. Econ majors can apply to medical school, biology majors can work as actuaries, anthropology majors can work at investment banks. You'll be hired based on your relevant job skills and a bit of related work -- believe me, you can turn a summer of proofreading into relevant experience for clinical research, as I proved when I got my job. The only jobs closed to you are those that require specialized knowledge you haven't acquired (engineering, most allied medical, etc). That's only a tiny fraction of your possibilities.

The pre-med requirements are what you need for the MCAT. People will argue that certain higher bio classes are also great, but you can always schedule that into your coursework. So pick something you like so you can do well in it and have a good GPA. That tends to be universally desired no matter what you end up doing.

 

[tabularasa]

I'm not picking this major for the MCATs btw. It's just that I'm only a freshman and I'm taking a cognitive psych course and this is the class I look forward to going to. =) Also, when I took an intro psych course last semester, this area of psychology was the only one that interested me.

I'm just scared about declaring this major since cognitive science is a relatively new area and I don't know of anyone here at my university that majored in cog sci.

 

[DrMidlife]

Cog Sci isn't that new. I worked with a Cog Sci PhD in the software industry back in 1991.

One indicator that this might be an enjoyable field (in lieu of medicine) is if you obsess over how hard things are to use. Everything from doorknobs to turn signals to wireless networks. In software, cog sci folks do what's called user experience design, or usability analysis, or interface design. Do I need to mention that there's almost an infinite amount of work to be done? 😱

The uninitiated will view this major as the same as psychology. Nothing particularly wrong with that. If you end up wanting to be a vascular surgeon, people will ask you why you had a "thinker" major when you're pursuing a "doer" specialty.

I expect a cog sci major with a lot of solid neuroscience classes would be a compelling "non-bio" major. And I'd say go ahead and do a non-medical internship with it - Google or the like would put you to work for a summer. Just make sure to have plenty of medical ECs as well.

Best of luck to you.