
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. The joint PhD program has particular interdisciplinary strength in the area of human language, including theoretical linguistics, psycho- and neurolinguistics, reading and dyslexia, and computational linguistics, and it offers considerable expertise as well in other traditional subareas of cognitive science including animal cognition, human memory, behavioral/cognitive/affective neuroscience, cognitive modeling, robotics, and human computer interaction.
There is no separate admissions process for the cognitive science PhD program. Simply indicate on your application to a home department that they would like to be admitted to the cognitive science PhD program. The program director will work with faculty responsible for admission in the home department to determine your eligibility. Note that this process will not conflict with the admissions process (or criteria) in your home department; only students that satisfy the admissions criteria of the home department can be considered for admission into the cognitive science PhD program.
There are 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 departments'), either as a prospective graduate student or as a current graduate student after they have been accepted by one of the departments (e.g., after they have already started their PhD).