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From: mikes@tekecs.UUCP (Michael Sellers)
Newsgroups: soc.college,net.cog-eng
Subject: Re: PhD programs in Cognitive Science?
Message-ID: <7663@tekecs.UUCP>
Date: Mon, 22-Sep-86 01:11:30 EDT
Article-I.D.: tekecs.7663
Posted: Mon Sep 22 01:11:30 1986
Date-Received: Fri, 26-Sep-86 04:59:39 EDT
References: <15726@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU>
Organization: Tektronix, Wilsonville OR
Lines: 47
Xref: linus soc.college:19 net.cog-eng:787

> 	Can anyone give me some pointers to programs in the relatively
> new area of Cognitive Science?  I was disappointed to find out that my
> current institution, although having a Cognitive Science Consortium,
> does not have a PhD program in this field (word has it that a program
> will exist in several years though).
> 
> 	%%Rob

Good question!  I constructed my own major (BS '85 in Cognitive Science),
and would really like to get a graduate degree in it too.  My background is
about equal parts computer science, psychology, and biology (maybe a little
heavier on the computer science because of working for the past two years),
and it has been close to impossible to find anyone doing synthetic work
using all three areas (though I may have found a lead the other day ...heh
heh heh).  I realize that Rochester, CMU, Stanford, recently MIT, and Amherst
are all likely targets, but I haven't yet decided if I would want to leave
a comfortable job and house payment and subject my wife and kids to the
Student Syndrome again.
  Anyway, while I would like to see some (deeper than partisan) discussion of
various schools and programs, I'd also like to hear from anyone else who has
constructed their own program someplace (surely I can't be the only one?).
Any pointers?  And apropos to this, what ever happened at that seminar on
Teaching Cognitive Science (or some such, someone posted a survey on it 
a while back).  I wasn't able to answer the survey, and I'd really like to
hear what happened with it and the seminar.  Anyone know anything about this?


P.S.
  In addition to being exceedingly interested in this sort of thing, and having
the background to support the interest, I find myself sometimes subject to an
almost panic about it all.  With all the books and articles and seemingly 
substantive work being done (always somewhere else), I long ago realized that
I could not assimilate *everything* that is written on the subject (cog sci),
nor even read everything worthwhile after winnowing out the lesser stuff.
At times I am sure that I have Missed It All, only later to find that the
wheels of science are turning as slowly as ever.  I know how irrational this
all is, but it doesn't stop the anxiety when it occurs.  Does anyone else ever
feel anything like this, or have I *really* gone around the bend?

-- 

		Mike Sellers
	UUCP: {...your spinal column here...}!tektronix!tekecs!mikes


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