There is a natural affinity between the fields of Cognitive Science and Human Computer Interaction. Since Oswego offers undergraduate degrees in Cognitive Science and a graduate degree in Human Computer Interaction, it is expected that students will be attracted to the idea of pursuing a degree in each!

To date a number of students who have earned either the BA Degree or the BS Degree in Cognitive Science at Oswego have enrolled in the MA Program in HCI at Oswego. We expect this trend will continue! Often the idea of pursuing the HCI degree occurs to Cognitive Science students only after several years of study in the Cognitive Science Program. Sensibly, many people like to savor their studies, rather than excellerating them!

That said, the idea of establishing a 5 year program for earning a BS Degree in Cognitive Science and an MA Degree in Human Computer Interation appears not only to be highly desirable for some students, but feasible as well! Consequently, a challenging 5 year program through which both a BS Degree in Cognitive Science and an MA Degree in Human Computer Interaction may be earned is being discussed.

The proposed CogSci/HCI 5 Year BS/MA Program works by equating five courses that count for both the BS in CogSci and the MA in HCI. As can be seen by a close examination of the aggregage enumeration of courses, this proposal equates three CogSci core courses with HCI elective courses and two CogSci "learning agreement" courses with HCI core courses.

Care will have to be taken by students when planning of their schedules for this program. In particular, the parity of the year that the student enrolls must be taken into account as some of the CogSci BS Degree courses are only offered every other year. To facilitate planning, the accompanying even year guide and odd year guide may should helpful to students and advisors.