Psychology

Psychology
Academic Bulletin

Area of Study: Social and Behavioral Science
Programs: Major (BA & BS) and Minor
Major/Minor Exclusion: A student minoring in Psychology may not major in Neuroscience.

When advising a student interested in Psychology, please note the following:

Entering students may take any 100-level course; however care should be exercised regarding enrollment in Psych 110, which can be a challenging course for first-semester, first-year students. Psych 110 is recommended for students who have demonstrated success in AP/IB/college-level courses (earning a 4 or 5 on AP exams, transfer credit for Science/Math). There are an increased number of seats being held for first-year students in the other 100-level courses and suggest that advisors steer students to those courses.

Psychology 110 is required for both the major and the minor. This course may be taken at any point in the students college career. It can benefit students who take the MCAT to take Psych 110 the semester prior to the MCAT.

FSPSY201 is not required for the major and, at this point, is NOT being offered; Psychology majors need to take a non-Psych FS201.

Psych 206 is required for minors and majors; Psych 207 is required for majors. It is best if the student begins the Statistics and Research Design sequence (206/207) in the Sophomore year. It is fine for students to take psych 110 the Sophomore year along with 206 or 207.

Three upper level courses (300 or 400) are required for majors, one of which must be designated as a Structures of Power and Privilege (SPP) course.

Junior Seminars are signature courses, so students should decide which seminar they wish to take late in their Sophomore year and then speak to the professor who is teaching that course, even if it is planned for the spring of the Junior year.

Students can begin independent studies (Psych 590) as early as their sophomore year. To determine what opportunities are available, students should contact professors doing research in the department.

Internships are usually taken Junior or Senior year. Psychology 540 is a co-requisite for all clinical internships.

Academic Advisor: Ask a faculty member they have established a relationship with, however, since we have several VAPs or a few of us are at absolute advising capacity, we may have to tell the students we cannot take on additional advisees at this time..we would then point them to colleagues who still have availability (we share a departmental form where everyone indicates how many advisees they have).

Junior Seminar: It doesn’t matter what semester students take the Junior Seminar, so long as they don’t have study away plans. We hold an open meeting in March for rising Juniors and Seniors to take them through our Junior Seminar and Senior Project prucedures. At this meeting (and in a follow-up email), students will be given a form to indicate their preference for Junior Seminars. The chair then makes assignments to seminars for all rising Juniors to assure roughly equally distribution of enrollment across sections. Once the chair has assigned students to a seminar, the instructor reaches out, givems them permisison to register, and students can register when registration starts.

Senior Comp: Students can complete any of the  options (2 semester comp Fall and Spring, 1 semester comp taken in senior year either fall or spring). In rare cases, we do “off-cycle” comps where students start in the Spring of their Junior year and finish in the Fall…e.g., if they wish to graduate early. We also ask rising Seniors to complete a form about their comp topics and preferences and based on that we make assignments to readers.

Suggested Course Sequence for a Major in Psychology

Required courses for a Minor in Psychology:

Minor Requirements: 20 credits, including
Psych 110 (avoid this in the first semester; consider taking it in the sophomore or later year)
Psych 206
One course from each of two Core Area categories (150s, 160s, 170s) NOTE: This is a good place to start the minor
One course from those numbered in the 300s or 400s
NOTE: For students who are transferring in one or more of these courses, please make sure they understand that if they receive 3 credits (instead of 4) per course, they still will need a total of 20 credits in Psychology to earn the minor.