About the Program

Our graduate program in Symbolic Systems offers a research-based master’s pathway designed to investigate the relationship between natural and artificial information systems. Focusing on how both humans and machines represent, process, communicate, and act on information, students engage in cutting-edge research that builds on a common core from computer science, linguistics, mathematics, philosophy, psychology, and statistics. Guided by expert faculty, scholars combine rigorous technical training in computation and artificial intelligence with humanistic inquiry. This collaborative, highly interdisciplinary environment prepares graduates to tackle complex questions about language and cognition, driving innovation in research, academia, and industry.

What You’ll Study

What you will study at the graduate level depends on your particular degree, academic interests, and professional goals. Key features of our program offerings include: 

• Core skill area requirements in formal, empirical, computational, and philosophical methods.

• A year-long research seminar.

• Flexibility for each student to design a program of courses tailored to their research interests.

• A required master's thesis supervised by a primary faculty advisor, second readers, and sometimes other research collaborators.