Cognitive Science is above average in terms of popularity with it being the #238 most popular degree program in the country. So, you have a fair amount of options to choose from when looking for a school.
For its 2025 ranking, College Factual looked at 9 schools in California to determine which ones were the best for cognitive science students pursuing a degree. When you put them all together, these colleges and universities awarded 1,815 degrees in cognitive science annually.
The cognitive science program you select can have a big impact on your future. That's why we developed our collection of Best Schools for Cognitive Science rankings. For our Best Overall Cognitive Science School rankings, we roll up the results of our degree-level rankings, weighted by the number of degrees awarded at that level.
In order to find the schools that are the best fit for you, you may want to filter to one of the degree levels below.
When choosing the right school for you, it's important to arm yourself with all the facts you can. To that end, we've created a number of major-specific rankings, including this Best Cognitive Science Schools in California list to help you make the college decision.
More interested in schools in a specific area of the country? Filter this list by region or state.
To further help you make the college decision, we've developed a unique tool called College Combat that allows you to compare schools based on the factors that matter the most to you.
Go ahead and give it a try, or bookmark the link so you can check it out later.
The schools below may not offer all types of cognitive science degrees so you may want to filter by degree level first. However, they are great for the degree levels they do offer.
Stanford University is a great choice for students pursuing a degree in cognitive science. Located in the suburb of Stanford, Stanford is a private not-for-profit university with a fairly large student population. A Best Colleges rank of #10 out of 2,152 colleges nationwide means Stanford is a great university overall.
There were about 72 cognitive science students who graduated with this degree at Stanford in the most recent year we have data available.
University of California - Berkeley is one of the finest schools in the United States for getting a degree in cognitive science. Located in the medium-sized city of Berkeley, UC Berkeley is a public university with a fairly large student population. A Best Colleges rank of #14 out of 2,152 colleges nationwide means UC Berkeley is a great university overall.
There were approximately 230 cognitive science students who graduated with this degree at UC Berkeley in the most recent data year.
University of California - San Diego is a great decision for students pursuing a degree in cognitive science. Located in the city of La Jolla, UCSD is a public university with a fairly large student population. This university ranks 8th out of 161 colleges for overall quality in the state of California.
There were approximately 768 cognitive science students who graduated with this degree at UCSD in the most recent data year.
University of California - Los Angeles is a good choice for students interested in a degree in cognitive science. UCLA is a very large public university located in the city of Los Angeles. A Best Colleges rank of #28 out of 2,152 colleges nationwide means UCLA is a great university overall.
There were approximately 222 cognitive science students who graduated with this degree at UCLA in the most recent year we have data available.
UC Davis is a very large public university located in the suburb of Davis. This university ranks 10th out of 161 colleges for overall quality in the state of California.
There were approximately 188 cognitive science students who graduated with this degree at UC Davis in the most recent data year.
Located in the city of Los Angeles, USC is a private not-for-profit university with a fairly large student population. A Best Colleges rank of #13 out of 2,152 colleges nationwide means USC is a great university overall.
There were roughly 62 cognitive science students who graduated with this degree at USC in the most recent year we have data available.
Located in the large city of Irvine, UC Irvine is a public university with a very large student population. This university ranks 12th out of 161 schools for overall quality in the state of California.
There were about 20 cognitive science students who graduated with this degree at UC Irvine in the most recent data year.
Located in the city of Santa Cruz, UC Santa Cruz is a public university with a fairly large student population. This university ranks 13th out of 161 schools for overall quality in the state of California.
There were approximately 129 cognitive science students who graduated with this degree at UC Santa Cruz in the most recent year we have data available.
Located in the suburb of Merced, UC Merced is a public university with a moderately-sized student population. This university ranks 51st out of 161 schools for overall quality in the state of California.
There were approximately 83 cognitive science students who graduated with this degree at UC Merced in the most recent data year.
One of 2 majors within the Cognitive Science area of study, Cognitive Science has other similar majors worth exploring.
Notes and References
The bars on the spread charts above show the distribution of the schools on this list +/- one standard deviation from the mean.
The Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS) from the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), a branch of the U.S. Department of Education (DOE) serves as the core of the rest of our data about colleges.
Some other college data, including much of the graduate earnings data, comes from the U.S. Department of Education’s (College Scorecard).
Credit for the banner image above goes to Allan Ajifo.
The cognitive science program you select can have a big impact on your future. That's why we developed our collection of Best Schools for Cognitive Science rankings. For our Best Overall Cognitive Science School rankings, we roll up the results of our degree-level rankings, weighted by the number of degrees awarded at that level.
