<p>What schools in California have the best psychology undergrad programs? I'm looking mostly at private schools and cal states and I'm also open to schools in Oregon or Washington.</p>
<p>Stanford and UCB are probably the ‘best’ but can be hard to get into. If you share your stats, we can better guide you to appropriate schools.</p>
<p>You cannot go wrong in just about any major at Stanford or UC Berkeley. I would also add UCLA to the list. These schools are difficult to get into. The University of Washington in Seattle also has a good academic reputation and I would think their psychology department is good. UW is a little easier to get into than the aforementioned schools.</p>
<p>I’m currently a first-year at Cal Poly Pomona, looking to transfer after two years. I’ve heard that it’s more difficult transferring from a CSU to a UC so I was considering switching to another CSU or going private, but if my GPA is competitive enough at the end of this year I’ll try for UCs as well. I’m just looking for schools to keep in mind for now until next year when I can apply for a transfer.</p>
<p>What is your ultimate educational goal? If you are planning to go on to grad school, perhaps stay where you are and get great grades. Save the extra money for grad school. </p>
<p>and why do you want to leave CPP?</p>
<p>I want to go into psychiatry, and I’m concerned that CPP’s psychology program may not be the strongest. I do plan on going to grad school later. So I guess a better rewording of my question would be: which CSU has the strongest undergrad psych program? I live in Southern California currently.</p>
<p>I wouldn’t worry about trading up a few rungs on the CSU ladder. Particularly since you plan to go to grad school, Get the best grades/experience you can at CPP and head to a top tier UC for grad school.
Good luck</p>
<p>Transferring from a CSU to a UC is probably almost impossible. UC to UC is very difficult and probably requires a 3.7+ GPA. You might want to consider going back to a community college and then transfer to a UC.</p>
<p>Of the private schools in CA, only Stanford has a top ranked psychology department. USC’s great reputation is known more for the professional schools such as business, law, engineering, health profession (dental, pharmacy, medical, etc.), film, etc. USC is generally not highly ranked in the sciences, math or social science areas. I don’t believe the other CA private schools rank well in psychology as the UC’s.</p>
<p>Alternatively, you can stay with CPP, get top grades and apply to a top 20 graduate school in psychology. UC Berkeley and UCLA are in the top 10. UC Davis is a top 20 to 25. The Univ. of Wash. is a top 15. I don’t remember whether UCSD has a graduate psychology department. If they do, I am sure it is probably in the top 25. Stanford is in the top 5 and USC is around 40. This is all in the US News & World Report 2013 graduate school rankings. </p>
<p>Just for clarification, is your goal to go to medical school to become a psychiatrist (MD or DO) or to go to grad school and become a psychologist (PhD or PsyD)? </p>