Undergraduate Minor

To formally initiate the minor in Cognitive Science, a student must gain approval for a selection of courses from a minor advisor. The courses selected must form a coherent cluster that makes sense to both the advisor and the student. To be admitted to the minor, the student must submit this Plan of Study to the Cognitive Science program for final approval.

Students who complete the minor requirements will have their minor in Cognitive Science officially represented on their transcript. Students who have made very substantial progress towards completing the requirements for the minor will be eligible for enrollment in graduate-level Cognitive Science courses during their senior year.​

An interdisciplinary undergraduate minor in Cognitive Science is available to Cornell University undergraduates in the College of Arts & Sciences. If you are based in another college, please check with your registrar to confirm application status.

The undergraduate minor in Cognitive Science is designed to enable students to engage in a structured program directly related to the scientific study of cognition and the mind. The minor provides a framework for the design of structured, supervised programs of study in this growing interdisciplinary field. Such programs of study serve as complements to coursework in a single discipline as represented by an individual department. It is considered crucial that students gain a strong background in their major, independent of their work in the minor.

In general it is expected that students in the minor will take COGST 1101 or COGST 2200 as their introductory course requirement; either COGST 4620, or COGST 4700 as their lab course requirement; and three courses at the 3000- and 4000-level in at least two departments. Certain suitable 1 - 2000 - level courses will be allowed upon petition. Courses are to be chosen by student and advisor to provide a coherent program. Although only five courses are required to complete the minor, we assume students interested in Cognitive Science will often end up taking more. An independent research project (e.g., COGST 4700 if this is not used to satisfy the lab requirement) and a research workshop (COGST 4710) are encouraged. Please note: some modifications to this outline may be made in extenuating circumstances by the advisor.​

The Cognitive Science program faculty have designed five structured tracks that offer students different ways of satisfying the minor; however, students are able to construct their own plan of study subject to approval by the program.

Please visit Courses of Study to get a sampling of courses that would fulfill these tracks. Tracks listed here are suggestions only. If you’d like to devise your own plan of study, please contact Julie Simmons-Lynch, program manager of cognitive science.

The student must submit their plan of study to the Cognitive Science program manager upon completion.

1. Perception and Cognition

2. Language and Cognition

3. Cognition and Information Processing

4. Cognitive Neuroscience

5. Independent Study