Joint PhD in Education and Cognitive Science

Cutting across the information and life sciences, cognitive science is a paradigmatic multi- and inter-disciplinary research program with enormous future societal benefits, especially as intelligent artificial agents are becoming part of our lives. Tufts has built up a world-renowned faculty in Cognitive Science, some of whom have been prominent since the beginnings of the field.

Currently, four departments are associated with this exciting interdisciplinary program: Psychology, Computer Science, Child Study and Human Development and Education. Students apply to and enroll in the joint Cognitive Science PhD program through one of these departments (referred to as the "home department"), either as a prospective graduate student or as a current PhD student in one of the home departments.

Students in the Cognitive Science Program are required to meet the requirements of their home department (Psychology, Child Study and Human Development, Computer Science or Education) as well as the requirements for the Cognitive Science Program. Some of these requirements will overlap with one another.

Each student in the cognitive science program will have two faculty advisors: A Primary Advisor in the home department, who bears primary responsibility for supervising the student's research and dissertation, and a Secondary Advisor in another department and/or discipline of Cognitive Science. One of these two faculty advisors must be affiliated with the Cognitive Science program. These two advisors should be selected within students’ first year of the program.

The typical duration of the program is five years.

For more details regarding the requirements visit the Cognitive Science program website.

Program Faculty

Meet our Education and Cognitive Science Faculty