Visit the Advising page to ensure that your question can be answered by the COGS Program Coordinator before submitting an inquiry.
Courses that fulfill your degree requirements, depending on your preferences and constraints.
As a COGS student you must meet both your Program requirements (the requirements defined for your COGS specialization), and your Faculty requirements (the general requirements to complete a B.Sc. in the Faculty of Science, or a B.A. in the Faculty of Arts. Year promotion and continuation requirements differ between the two faculties - review the Arts or Science page of the UBC Calendar, or your Faculty's website, for details).
Please note that Cognitive Systems requirements are built flexibly. You will have the opportunity to choose between different interdisciplinary course paths to fulfill the requirements for your stream, and it is your responsibility to monitor the completion of these requirements. Please aim to optimize your degree plan with contingencies appropriately (especially if you are considering exchange or co-op), assuring you meet promotion requirements on time (as this influences your registration date), then registering in the courses you need as early as possible (including contacting relevant units to resolve registration issues; e.g.: Enrolment Services regarding financial holds; academic departments to inquire about course waitlists and seat restrictions).
The COGS Program does not provide Standard Time Tables. You will take courses to meet both your faculty and program requirements (don't forget to plan ahead with prerequisites, for COGS modules courses!), and monitor your faculty's year promotion requirements to stay on track.
COGS students can contact COGS Advising (cogs.advising@ubc.ca) for advise in degree planning, and tips for organizing coursework around constraints. Your Faculty's advising office (Arts, Science) will be best equipped to help you resolve concerns related to progression through B.A. or B.Sc. requirements.
COGS courses are technically offered under the Faculty of Science, and they count for Science credit.
Because COGS is interdisciplinary, however, Arts students may still count COGS courses towards their 72 Arts Credit Minimum requirement. Arts students should see COGS courses being applied towards this category, in their Academic Progress Report on Workday.
Please contact the COGS Coordinator, specifying your student ID and the course code/number.
Courses not on the module list may be approved by the Chair to meet the COGS module requirement.
It is possible that alternative upper-level courses taken at UBC, or courses taken while on GoGlobal exchange that transferred back to your UBC record at the 300-level or higher, could be eligible for module credit. Generally to submit a module request to the Chair, the relevance of the course to interdisciplinary studies in Cognitive Systems must be clear, and the readings and deliverables of the course sufficiently advanced. Submitting a request with justification does not guarantee approval. Students are not advised to plan around believing a course not listed on the module list will be applicable towards the COGS module requirement, before a request has been reviewed and approved.
Submit your request through the Module Credit Request for Consideration form:
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- Log in with your CWL credentials
- Enter all required information
- Provide a detailed rationale for the consideration of the course as a COGS module
- Does the course explicitly involve the study of Cognition?
- Is the course multidisciplinary? Does it directly address topics in one or more of the four COGS disciplines?
- Is the course being taken for credit for research you are working on (e.g. directed studies)?
- Attach the syllabus and reading list of the course
Maybe - but keep in mind you will not be able to confirm this immediately, because it will be necessary to await the results of the transfer credit evaluation and articulation process.
Before the course has been transferred onto your UBC record you may submit a request to count it as a module via the Module Credit Request for Consideration form. This will allow the Chair to review the material, ahead of articulation onto your record - but before the year level and course code have been determined in the credit evaluation process, it won't be possible to determine if the course can apply towards the module requirement.
Go Global: It can take up to 16 weeks for courses to be evaluated by your faculty and department. Final transcripts from partner institutions are usually available about 2-3 months after the program ends. Check with the partner university to make sure you have completed any exit requirements needed for your transcript to be released without delays. Once your final transcript has been uploaded to your portal account, the transfer credit will be added to your UBC academic record. This may take up to three additional weeks.
Learn more about how the transfer credit evaluation works.
Seat restrictions in a course section are determined by the department offering that course (Psychology determines restrictions for PSYC courses, Statistics for STAT courses, etc.), and you may need to contact the department offering the course you're interested in taking, to inquire about seat availability or request registration tokens. Sometimes restricted seats in particular courses will be released as general seats after all students who meet the restrictions have had a chance to register (this is typically the case for NSCI courses on the module list).
Only students in the B.Sc. Computational Intelligence and Design stream of COGS are eligible for restricted seats in CPSC courses.
Switching into the B.Sc. Computational Intelligence and Design stream of COGS is facilitated by the Computer Science Department. Please contact the Computer Science Advising Office directly: https://www.cs.ubc.ca/students/undergrad/resources/academic-advising
Please note that if you're a B.A. student, you will first need to transfer into the Faculty of Science.
It is true that the Cognition and Brain streams of COGS (B.A. and B.Sc.) are supervised by the Psychology department at UBC. Several COGS alumni have pursued graduate studies in Psychology or Neuroscience after graduating with a COGS Cognition and Brain degree (B.A. or B.Sc.). Due to the multidisciplinary nature of the COGS program, varying degrees of recognition of the COGS program by different institutions, and the degree to which a COGS degree can be customized, there is no one-size-fits-all answer to this question. Application requirements are at the discretion of the school and graduate program you wish to apply for - please check their website or get in touch with the offices of your programs of interest, to review their admission requirements and necessary prerequisites for confirmation you'll meet requirements and deadlines to apply.
If you are 100% certain you're pursuing graduate studies in Psychology, a Psychology or Psychology Honors degree may be more aligned with your interests.