Cognitive Science @ Uni Osnabrück

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student body

Hey there!

Welcome to Coxi :)

Congratulations on being offered a place in our course of study this semester! We are delighted to inform you about the first weeks of being a Coxi. This infodump is quite long but please read it thoroughly, since you will get a lot of important information here.

The semester officially begins on 1st April, however lectures won’t start until 7th April.

Freshie week

From 30th March-3rd April we will welcome you to the CogSci program and introduce all the important facts, tools, and places to you: The Freshie Week is intended to give you all the information you need to successfully study Cognitive Science. You will learn to use the various university tools, you will be advised on how the study regulation works, how to find the right courses, and you will learn about Coxi-life around the university. And, of course, you will have a huge, ginormous, all-bells-and-whistles, decked out boatload of fun!!

There will be many events throughout the week, including a campus rally,game night, quiz night, city tour, bouldering, hiking and in-person tutorials to get you up to speed on everything you need to know to study Cognitive Science at our university, and more, so keep your schedule as free as possible during the week 🤩

We will start off easy with a Welcome Breakfast on Monday, so you can get to know your fellow Master’s freshies. We will provide snacks, but if you would like to contribute, feel free to bring something to share. You will need to bring your own cutlery though! For the breakfast, we will meet at 10 am at Schlossgarten. If the weather is not good enough then we will have the breakfast indoors in the EW building (building 15) that is close to the Schlossgarten.

Welcome talk

On Monday, 30th March, we will meet at 13:00 for the Student Body Welcome Talk. We will meet in person on Campus Schloss in Building 15, room will be announced in an updated schedule that will sent later. If you have trouble finding the building, paste the following coordinates into your maps app of choice: 52.27112462288738, 8.045530346186835. You can also join online on BigBlueButton (the conference call software of our university), click on THIS LINK to join.

Should I attend Freshie week?

Attendance at none of the Freshie week events is mandatory, but we highly recommend at least attending the Freshie Week tutorials, as they are the only proper way to get information on course selection and university procedures. Here you will learn how to navigate StudIP, which is “the” university website here in Osnabrück that you will interact with a lot throughout your studies. These tutorials will be particularly important to you as you will be studying under the new 2024 study regulations which came into effect rather recently. While other Coxis will always try to be helpful, many people above the 4th semester study under different regulations and may not be able to give you the right information!

Generally, we do advise you to join the events in person, if possible. The Welcome Talk and the tutorials can be attended online, too.

During the Freshie Week, we will share slides and information via the Stud.IP event Cognitive Science Freshie Week – SS26. If you have set up your university account already, feel free to join this event. If you do not know how that works or have not set up your account yet, do not worry, we will help you to do so during the Freshie Week tutorials!

You can find the course list for the semester here, too. We will explain how to sign up for courses and all other relevant details in the tutorials.

Staying connected

The IKW’s (our institute) mailing list. Sign up HERE. This mailing list is the only official way to communicate with you, as your mail addresses are protected by privacy law and we are only allowed to use them to send you information concerning the Freshie Week! If you do not sign up, we will not be able to contact you anymore.

For changes in the Freshie week schedule, please check your university emails regularly (after signing up for the institute’s mailing list), or check the schedule on this website.

Most communication within the student community happens via Telegram. We have set up a group for you, where you can ask Freshie-related questions!  You only need to install the Telegram App (or use the Browser version) and follow THIS LINK.

There are also other Telegram groups, like the big Intergenerational Chat with all Coxis in it, for which you will get the link during the Freshie Week.

Freshie Weekend

Twice a year, we organize a “class trip” to a castle in the middle of Germany and you are invited! We are having our most amazing Coxi-weekend from 17.04-19.04, so we will have two cozy and cuddly nights at our very own stronghold, lots of food, fun workshops, and plenty of socializing! You can find more general information here, but this will be mentioned in the Freshie tutorials again, so don’t worry about missing the event!

What if I can’t attend Freshie week at all?

This is super important: If you are unable to attend the Freshie week at all, please write an email to the Mentoring Team (cs-mentoring@uos.de) as soon as possible, so we can figure out when to set up a meeting to get you started for your first semester.

If you have any questions or concerns that cannot wait until the Freshie Week, please also send an email to the Mentoring Team.

If you’re a Master’s student joining us late due to visa issues or any other delays, don’t worry — you haven’t been forgotten! We understand that the start of your studies may be challenging, and we’re here to support you. Please feel free to reach out to the mentoring team or the Dean of Studies Dr. Gregor Hörzer at gregor.hoerzer@uos.de for guidance and assistance with catching up on important information and getting settled into the program.

We’re committed to helping you transition smoothly into university life! See you all soon! 

All the best,

your CogSci student body🦦,

the CogSci Mentoring Team,

Laura Krieger, coordinator for individual study planning (laura.krieger@uos.de),

and Dr. Dr. Gregor Hörzer, Dean of Studies, (gregor.hoerzer@uos.de).

Actionable Plan

We know this was a lot of info, and to get a sensible list of things you should do now before the Freshie week starts:

As a thank you reading all the way to the bottom, enjoy this super cute picture of a duck. It loves you!