The following requirements are in addition to, or further elaborate upon, those requirements outlined in The Graduate School Policy Guide.

Certificate

Total Units Required: 6

Course Requirements:

To earn a Certificate in Cognitive Science, a Northwestern graduate student must take six Cognitive Science courses, four of which must be outside of their home department. A broad range of courses can count as Cognitive Science courses. These are offered by a range of academic units at the university, including Anthropology, Communication Sciences and Disorders, Political Science, Computer Science, the Interdisciplinary Program in Biological Sciences, Linguistics, Learning Sciences, the Northwestern Institute for Neuroscience, the School of Music, Philosophy, and Psychology. Other appropriate courses can be approved by the Cognitive Science Program Director or Director of Graduate Studies.

A list of courses is available on our website. Courses may be subject to change.

Students are strongly recommended to the take the COG_SCI 401-0 Mind and Brain, which bridges the Cognitive Science and Cognitive Neuroscience Programs at Northwestern. For the purposes of the certificate requirements, this course will count as a course outside the student’s home department.

A qualified course that is co-taught by one professor inside a student's home department and one professor outside it counts as one half of an outside course. So, for example, a student could take three courses fully outside her/his home department, and two courses half outside, and thereby complete the outside-course requirement. A student taking 499 (Independent Study) earns one half an outside course credit if one of two supervising faculty members is outside the student’s home department, and one full outside course credit if the sole supervising faculty member is outside the student’s home department.

Courses taken P/N count the same for the Specialization as courses taken for a grade.

Other Certificate Requirements:

• Students are expected to participate in the Cognitive Science Program’s interdisciplinary events, including intensive tutorials, the Cognitive Science colloquium series, student-led discussions accompanying the colloquium series, and an annual event featuring presentations by graduate and undergraduate Cognitive Science researchers.
• During final year of study and upon completion of TGS and Cognitive Science Program certificate requirements, students submit the Application for a Graduate Certificate.  The submitted form will be reviewed and approved by the Director of Graduate Studies.  Students should have documentation of approval for courses taken outside the pre-approved course list.  All graduation due dates apply.