Hi, my son, a freshmen, wants to apply for a psychology major in the future.
He really has a passion for it but doesn’t know how to show that he really likes the subject.
Are there any activities (both curricular and extra-curricular) he can do to show this?
Any words will be appreciated
Thank You
He will undergo a lot of changes in the next few years. In general schools will admit a student to the whole university (college) regardless of the major put on the application. Many/most college freshmen will change their major once they start college. Therefore, it doesn’t matter now. Once he is in college he will take the appropriate courses and show his passion.
Extracurricular activities should be geared to what interests your son and not preparing a resume for the college application. Good students are often multifaceted- they may be involved in a variety of activities that sound like fun. Music, sports and academic clubs come to mind. However, academics trump activities so he needs to keep his grades up. If your HS offers AP Psychology that is a good introduction. If not available he can self study the material and take the AP exam the spring after he has finished it. There is a lot more science than just the theories they taught eons ago in my day (because so much neuroscience research is being done).
Relax about the college major. His job now is to learn what he can in HS, keep his grades up and enjoy being a teen. ALL subjects are important as he will be competing with all types of students for a place in any colleges he later applies to. Getting a good knowledge base will also help him with the ACT and/or SAT when he takes them.
Psychology majors are located in liberal arts colleges – either freestanding liberal arts colleges or the liberal arts college within a university (often called the College of Arts and Sciences).
Students in liberal arts colleges don’t have to declare a major coming in, and many will consider several different majors before making a final choice – which they often don’t make until late in their sophomore year. Liberal arts colleges don’t require applicants to have proven their interest and aptitude for their particular major because the major isn’t all that important. The colleges are more interested in the student’s academic and intellectual interests in general.
This is very different from the situation with professional majors, such as engineering or nursing. For those programs, it may be important for a student to have a record that includes activities that demonstrate the student’s interest in and knowledge of the field. (If you were an admissions officer for a nursing school, would you want to admit a student who had never worked or volunteered in a health care setting?)
One of my kids applied to college as an economics major (a major which, like psychology, is located in the liberal arts college within a university). She had no extracurricular activities of any kind that had anything to do with economics. It didn’t matter. If she had chosen instead to apply to college as a business major (a professional major), her lack of relevant activities might have been a disadvantage.
Gotta say no…Psychology is a really common major. I would make sure he takes AP Psychology in HS to make sure he likes Psychology. Other than that, he should do things he enjoys as ECs and show leadership (usually by junior/senior year)
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He doesn’t need any particular activities to apply to college as a psychology major. If your HS offers a psychology course he could take that. Also keep in mind that your S is very young and his interests may change before or while he is in college.
If he is truly passionate about psychology, encourage him to see if he can find volunteer opportunities at a community mental health center, or at some point (he may be too young now) to volunteer to do back office work in a private practice, or find something through United Way. He should look for ways to volunteer in the mental health community.
Thanks for your considerate and supportive words.
Since my son turned to 9 th in HS,
I can’t help being a little nervous.
Like you said, I will watch him enjoying being in HS and supprot him.
Relax, mom.
btw- due to privacy issues any volunteer work may not accurately reflect the job of the clinical psychologist. There are different subfields in psychology and an advanced- MS/PhD degree likely will be needed for patient care. So much time before any of this is relevant.
HS is a time to gain a broad general knowledge base, learn skills (such as writing and math) and become an effective studier. It is also a time to discover many different activities through after school opportunities. Expect your son to try different things, dropping ones he loses interest in and moving on. He will evolve from letting you have a say in decisions to making his own decisions about which classes to take et al by the time he is a HS senior. You may have noticed differences in parental roles from elementary to middle to HS. The transition from little boy to adult is so many years in the making. So far you must have done a good job. He has, and will have, the tools he needs by the time he needs them- as you have noticed in past years.
He might enjoy volunteering in a setting where he works with people.