Ph.D. in
Cognitive Sciences

 

 
 
UCI Alumn Solena Mednicoff
 
 

    Solena Mednicoff, ’21 cognitive sciences Ph.D., combined her passions at UCI to study how music affects the brain. Now she's a postdoc at UNLV studying misophonia. |  Read More
 
 

 

about
OUR PROGRAM

 
Department of Cognitive Sciences Top-ranked programs. Full financial aid and funding. Lens-worthy location. The reasons students choose the UC Irvine School of Social Sciences for their graduate pursuits are many.

The UCI graduate program administered by the school's cognitive sciences department offers students five years of guaranteed funding.

Scholars in the department have a proven track record of earning competitive research funding from national agencies - including the National Science Foundation and National Institutes of Health - and from campus-level fellowships.

For 2023-24, the school brought in $8.02M in external grant funding. About 60% of those funds - approximately $4.65M - were awarded to cognitive sciences faculty. Faculty in the department publish regularly in the field's top academic journals, and graduate students have incredible opportunities to publish alongside them.

 

Learn more about cognitive sciences at UCI...

 


 

 

recent

RANKINGS

top 10

 

public university in the U.S.
- U.S. News & World Report and Forbes

#02

 

"coolest school" for sustainability efforts
- Sierra Club Magazine

#03

 

nationally for diversity
- Wall Street Journal/Times Higher Education 2022 College Rankings

top10

 

best value public university in the U.S.
- Princeton Review

 

 A top-ranked program with research strengths in computational and mathematical cognitive modeling, cognitive neuroscience, visual and auditory perception, attention, development, memory, language, and judgment and decision making. 

 
 


 

quick

FACTS

 


 

recent

JOB PLACEMENTS

 

Apple

Army Research Labs

Boston University

Carnegie Mellon University

Google

Harvard University

Johns Hopkins University

Meta

Mind Research Network

Navy Research Labs

University of Pennsylvania

University of Zurich

Yale University

 


 

research

CONCENTRATIONS

 

Computational and mathematical cognitive modeling

Cognitive neuroscience (a concentration is offered in this topic)

Artificial Intelligence

Memory and decision making

Cognitive development

Learning

Social cognition

Visual and auditory perception

Attention


 

 

graduate

SPOTLIGHT

 

  Vanessa Ceja | Area of Concentration: Decision Neuroscience

 

  Kenta Watanabe | Area of Concentration: Auditory Neuroscience

 

Further information on the graduate program and life as a graduate student can be found here.

 


 

 

what makes us

UNIQUE

 

 
 
Student walking on aldrich park
 
 

    UCI's campus is beautiful, with Aldrich Park, a 19-acre botanical garden with more than 11,000 trees, at its center. The campus is also less than 10 miles from the Pacific Ocean and beaches.
 
 

 

The cognitive sciences department at UCI uses a combination of innovative approaches with modern tools to study fundamental human abilities including attention, memory, language, decision making, and problem solving.

Students work together with faculty advisors who are highly experienced in the use of leading technologies such as EEG, fMRI, and robotics, and of modern research tools such as computational methods, big data, and Bayesian statistics.

And, students have an opportunity to earn a master's degree in cognitive sciences, cognitive neuroscience, or statistics (depending on approval) while in pursuit of their Ph.D.

Graduate students from UCI's cognitive sciences program have gone on to work in high-tech and research consultancy companies; government, science, and technology labs; and in professorial posts around the world.

The UCI campus is located less than 10 miles from Newport Beach, is ranked among the nation's top 10 public universities for the ninth year in a row (U.S. News & World Report), top 10 "cool school" in the U.S. for sustainability (Sierra Magazine), and is the #1 choice of in-state, first-generation students among all UC campuses for six consecutive years.

 

 There's really something here for everyone! 

- Tiffany Hwu, '19
 

 
 


 

So what are you waiting for?

APPLY TODAY

If full funding, opportunities to publish, and a proven track record of excellence in the field are what you’re looking for, contact us today to learn more about UCI’s graduate program in cognitive sciences.