Majoring in Cognitive Science at UC Berkeley | What It Is + Tips for Success!

Hey, Karen graduated, right? Wow, congrats! Aw, thank you, thank you. Wow, so impressive, and from UC Berkeley, too. We're just grateful she could get out of there. By the way, what is she majoring? Oh, she took Cognitive Science. What? Cognitive Science. What is that? And that, ladies and gentlemen, is the story of my life. Hi everyone, namaku Karen. Welcome back to my channel. So in this video, I'm going to be talking about my major at UC Berkeley, which is definitely something that's new and not very easy to explain, especially for Indonesian parents who are pretty much a whole generation behind and don't know of any other college majors besides Computer Science, Business, and Economics. I was intending to major in Computer Science myself, but during that one fateful day when I broke down and cried because I realized just how hard CS61A is, I decided to switch. And even then, my parents were also kind of worried. What is Cognitive Science? Is it an employable major? Will it get me a secure future? Well, my friends, in this video, I'm going to be answering all of those questions for y'all. I'm going to be covering different topics, so timestamps are written below. Feel free to skip to any one section you want. Or you can just continue watching from beginning to end because not only does this major change my life, but I'm also highly entertaining. I promise. So without further ado, make sure to subscribe and let's get on with the video. So first, what is Cognitive Science? So the answer that I usually give to people when they ask me this question is that But to elaborate, it's a very interdisciplinary study. And at UC Berkeley, at least, it covers six different fields. Psychology, Philosophy, Linguistics, Anthropology, Neuroscience, and Computer Science slash AI, or Artificial Intelligence if you don't know what AI means. The goal of the field is to understand human intelligence, how our minds process the information around us and causes us to behave the way that we do. Well, Karen, that sounds a lot like psychology. So what's the difference? To sum it up, psychology is micro. So it analyzes why an individual behaves the way that he or she does. Cogsci, on the other hand, is macro. It analyzes how and why all of us are sentient beings who are capable of behaving in the first place. Psychology was dominant prior to the Cognitive Revolution in the 1950s. This is when the idea of behaviorism was very popular. You know that experiment with Pavlov's dogs where they measured how much that dog salivated based on whether or not they heard the bell? Yeah, that's called classical conditioning, which is essentially behaviorism, which is the idea that humans behave based on stimuli. But then this new idea came up that humans are probably not just responding to stimuli, but they're actually taking in and processing the information in their environment. So we started to question how we take in that information. How is information represented in our brains? How do we compute that information to produce behavior? What biological mechanisms are involved? It's super complex, super broad, and super cool, and requires a lot more levels of analysis than psychology itself. Well, okay, that's cool and all, but, you know, why should I study cognitive science? Because it's relevant. Especially now in this world where technology is more prevalent than ever, we're so obsessed with smart cars, smart phones, smart everything. You know when you talk to Alexa because it's COVID and you're so lonely that you have no one else to talk to? Hey Alexa, what do you like to do in your free time? Sorry, I don't know that. That's cognitive science, with an emphasis in linguistics. These speech-to-text models that are implemented in Alexa's algorithms are actually modeled from the way humans process language themselves, including factoring in things like intonations, common words and sentences, and accents, all so they can read what you're saying accurately and produce an accurate result back. And if you're not into tech, besides that, understanding the way humans think encompasses a variety of fields. For example, we understand now that the hippocampus in our brains plays a huge role in memory. So now, researchers have actually developed artificial hippocampuses Hippocampi? They've developed artificial hippocampi in order to help cure diseases like Alzheimer's. Isn't that insane? And those are just a couple of ways that you see cognitive science being applied to the world around us. We are dang intelligent as a species, so I definitely think it's a great field to study, especially now since we're so focused on building technologies and solutions that can improve human lives as we know it. Well, that sounds kind of complex, to be honest. Is it a difficult major? You know, I'mma be honest, as someone that is completely and utterly average, not really. But difficulty is kind of hard to explain, especially because it's so relative, so I'm gonna be breaking this section down into two parts. First is skills, and second is classes. First for skills, cognitive science is a science, so it's a lot of memorization and knowing why things work the way they do. I personally find that memorization is a lot easier than more applications-based things like math or computer science. As for classes, at UC Berkeley at least, there isn't a set path or a set emphasis the way that it is in, you know, some other schools like UC San Diego. That means it's pretty easy to pick easier classes to fulfill your major, mostly because the psychology classes at Berkeley are so good and we have really good professors. I will say that there are some required classes that you'll have to take in the beginning of your college career, also called lower div classes, that you're just gonna have to pass through and just deal with it. For example, one of them is discrete math and probability, which is arguably the hardest class that I've ever taken in my life. But, you know, once you pass that, I would say that it's pretty smooth sailing compared to the other majors I've heard about. All right, now, Karen, this is the most important question. Is it an employable major? Okay, first of all, I just want to say that I think every single major is an employable major. I think everything, your job, all depends more on the business and networking opportunities that you pursue throughout your life. However, I will say that cognitive science will open a ton of doors for you. I had the same question because, like I said before, I came in as a computer science major. I actually grew up in the Silicon Valley, so my dream was to work in tech. I didn't know if I wanted to be a programmer, but I did want to have my foot in, you know, Google stores or Facebook, Amazon, Microsoft, Adobe. But I'm not trying to toot my own horn here. I'm just saying it so you guys know that I have firsthand experience. I am actually working in one of the major tech companies right now, and when I was interviewing, I was interviewing for a variety of roles across the board, from software engineering to business analyst to consulting, and I have plenty of Cogsci friends who are thriving in industry right now as well. The thing is, with Cogsci, it's so interdisciplinary that I think you can pretty much twist all of your classes to suit whatever role you're applying for. Just a little hint, also to reward you guys for coming this far in my video, I actually used this template a lot when I was interviewing and had to connect my major to whatever role that I was going for. Cognitive science involves studying the human mind in order to blank. If you want to be a programmer, you can say that cognitive science involves understanding the way humans think in order to build and model intelligent software. Or if you want to be a designer, you can also say that cognitive science involves understanding the way humans think in order to design solutions that our brains can perceive and process well. Or even if you want to be in marketing, you can say that cognitive science involves understanding the way humans think in order to build the most effective human-centered campaigns. It's completely and highly employable, in my opinion, and I definitely recommend it for people like freshman year me, who kind of already know what kind of industry that they want to get into, but not necessarily the type of role that they want to be working as. So, did I convince you to major in cognitive science yet? Great! Or if you just wanted to watch this video out of curiosity and you're already majoring in cognitive science and you just wanted more information, you know, that's okay too. But if you do decide to major in cognitive science at UC Berkeley, here are three tips that I have for you in order to succeed in this major. One, be vigilant and patient when scheduling classes. Because CogSci is interdisciplinary, that means a lot of the classes that you're gonna have to take actually come from other departments, like psychology or sociology. Based on my own experience, you're gonna get waitlisted a lot. But if you're vigilant, you'll be completely fine. I use this app called Corsicle a lot because it notifies you whenever a spot opens up in a certain class, and the free version only allows you to watch one class. But in my opinion, I think that's fine. So, definitely recommend using that. So, that is the number one advice that I have for this class is to be vigilant and be patient. You're most likely gonna get into classes that you'll need for this major. You just kind of have to deal with the anxiety of being on waitlist for a little bit. Number two, make your own emphasis. In my opinion, I don't think you need to double major or minor or skip out on any interesting classes because you feel like it doesn't fit with your path of cognitive science. But I would highly recommend joining student organizations or earning a certificate, just so that you have real-world applications under your belt. This is useful not only for CogSci majors, but for any major in general because it'll help you with interviews when you're trying to get a job later on. And number three, genuinely pay attention in class. So, especially now that we're working from home, you know, sitting in lecture and taking notes, I feel like that can really cause a person to zone out. Me personally, I fell asleep in a lot of my classes when I was in Berkeley. But the classes that you take in this major teach you genuinely research-backed concepts that can actually help you in life. For example, social psychology taught me to be less judgmental. Developmental psychopathology taught me to fight against the stigma of mental illnesses. Even psychology of sleep taught me how to live healthier. So, I would highly, highly recommend being curious and translating these textbook-based concepts into life skills. Not only will that help you in the exams, but it'll also help you become a better person. And hence, that is also why I say that studying this major have literally changed my life. So yeah, those are all the info that I have for this major. If you guys have any questions about anything I said, feel free to drop them in the comments below, or you can also DM me on Instagram, at Karin Supandi. Thank you so much for watching, and I'll see you guys in the next video. Bye! Why are there so many planes today? You know, I just, I don't understand. The goal of the field, there is another plane. Do, do, do, do, do. And now my mom is using the blender.