a bachelor's degree in cognitive science is more popular than many other degrees. In fact, it ranks #117 out of 363 on popularity of all such degrees in the nation. As a result, there are many college that offer the degree, making your choice of school a hard one.
In 2025, College Factual analyzed 9 schools in order to identify the top ones for its Best Cognitive Science Bachelor's Degree Schools in California ranking. Combined, these schools handed out 1,786 bachelor's degrees in cognitive science to qualified students.
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Choosing a Great Cognitive Science School for Your Bachelor's Degree
The cognitive science bachelor's degree program you select can have a big impact on your future. This section explores some of the factors we include in our ranking and how much they vary depending on the school you select. To make it into this list, a school must excel in the following areas.
A Great Overall School
A school that excels in educating for a particular major and degree level must be a great school overall as well. To make it into this list a school must rank well in our overall Best Colleges ranking. This ranking considered factors such as graduation rates, overall graduate earnings and other educational resources to identify great colleges and universities.
Early-Career Earnings
One measure we use to determine the quality of a school is to look at the average salary of bachelor's graduates during the early years of their career. That is, everyone wants their bachelor's degree to be worth something, and salaries are one measure of determining that.
Other Factors We Consider
In addition to the above, you should consider some of the following factors:
Major Focus - How much a school focuses on cognitive science students vs. other majors.
Major Demand - The number of cognitive science students who choose to seek a bachelor's degree at the school.
Educational Resources - The amount of money and other resources allocated to students while they are pursuing their degree. These resources include such things as number of students per instructor and education expenditures per student.
Student Debt - How easy is it for cognitive science to pay back their student loans after receiving their bachelor's degree.
Accreditation - Whether a school is regionally accredited and/or accredited by a recognized cognitive science related body.
Our complete ranking methodology documents in more detail how we consider these factors to identify the best schools for cognitive science students working on their bachelor's degree.
Since picking the right college can be one of the most important decisions of your life, we've developed the Best Cognitive Science Bachelor's Degree Schools in California ranking, along with many other major-related rankings, to help you make that decision.
In addition to our rankings, you can take two colleges and compare them based on the criteria that matters most to you in our unique tool, College Combat.
Test it out when you get a chance! You may also want to bookmark the link and share it with others who are trying to make the college decision.
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It is difficult to beat Stanford University if you wish to pursue a bachelor's degree in cognitive science. Stanford is a fairly large private not-for-profit university located in the large suburb of Stanford.
Cognitive Science bachelor's degree recipients from Stanford University get an earnings boost of approximately $54,633 above the typical income of cognitive science graduates.
University of California - Berkeley is one of the best schools in the United States for getting a bachelor's degree in cognitive science. UC Berkeley is a very large public university located in the medium-sized city of Berkeley.
Bachelor's recipients from the cognitive science program at University of California - Berkeley earn $13,497 above the standard graduate with the same degree shortly after graduation.
University of California - San Diego is one of the finest schools in the United States for getting a bachelor's degree in cognitive science. UCSD is a very large public university located in the large city of La Jolla.
Students who graduate with their bachelor's from the cognitive science program report average early career earnings of $39,839.
University of California - Los Angeles is a good choice for students pursuing a bachelor's degree in cognitive science. Located in the city of Los Angeles, UCLA is a public university with a very large student population.
Bachelor's recipients from the cognitive science program at University of California - Los Angeles make $2,900 more than the average college graduate with the same degree shortly after graduation.
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).
The cognitive science bachelor's degree program you select can have a big impact on your future. This section explores some of the factors we include in our ranking and how much they vary depending on the school you select. To make it into this list, a school must excel in the following areas.
