Hello, I want to major in psychology hopefully becoming a psychologist in the future after going to gradschool. I’m thinking about having business as a double major or minor because I feel like I’m gonna need business knowledge in the future, do you think it is a good idea to study business as well ? If yes, can you give me any thoughts about this schools’ psych and business program, like which one might prepare students best for grad school and real life in terms of business ?I like them because they are small decent colleges that are not bad in psych and have business department.
Any thoughts would be appreciated. Thank you 
All I can offer is that all 3 are well respected schools.
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I don’t think you can go wrong with any of these 3. They were all on D20’s list at one time during the application process. I will tell you Clark is a powerhouse for psych! You get a lot of resources and opportunities from a small, relatively less well known school. Those who “need” to know about it such as Grad programs and employers, will understand what they have to offer.
Skidmore students are a bit more artsy but it is a great place to combine different academic interests into an education that fits your goals and objectives.
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My husband is a clinical psychologist with a psychodynamically oriented practice. While he did not go to Clark, I will tell you that Clark is EXTREMELY respected in the psychology field. It is where Freud lectured when he came to the United States, and Clark has continued to have a great program since then.
However, grad school is a must in that field anyway, so you may decide on your undergraduate college considering a whole range of other factors, not just the perceived strength of the psychology major.
Son (who is at Williams- and NOT a psychology major) did not look at Dickinson, although it is a great college, but we visited and liked both Skidmore and Clark. Skidmore is a more selective college overall.
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My son is a psych major and we looked into Clark a little bit. It was late in his search and he had other good options so it never became a real contender, but just during that time we could tell that Clark has an excellent psych dept, well known. I imagine there are possibly more psych research opportunities there than at other schools its size. The only other thing that comes to mind for Clark is “quirky” in terms of student body, I’ve seen that a couple of times. I think your plan to minor in business is a good one; if you end up being a practicing psychologist, chances are you will run your own business (office/practice) as well.
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I assume you’re just deciding where to apply, correct?
Taking business classes isn’t the only way to acquire small-business savvy for running a private practice, but it’s not a bad idea to acquire some background. A minor is probably plenty for this objective - and the more flexible the minor is, in terms of tailoring it to what’s useful to you, the better.
While I don’t think the business aspect should necessarily be sufficient reason to rule out a school, Dickinson’s business program is more international business focused, and they don’t offer a minor, so in that sense it would be the worst fit of the three. But there are plenty of other reasons to like the school and to keep it on your list.
Clark is indeed a great school for psych. And, their Management minor is very flexible - six classes, but only one fixed requirement and the rest electives.
Skidmore has an active program of clinical field placements for psych undergrads. I’d look more closely at this - see if you like the kinds of settings being offered and whether similar opportunities are available at the other schools you’re considering. Skidmore’s business minor is less flexible than Clark’s: four fixed classes and two electives - still not onerous but a bit more structured.
At any rate, you’ll want to apply to a range of schools that you’d be happy to attend, so this is a great start on a list. As already stated above, you’ll have to go to grad school anyway to become a clinical psychologist (or, getting an MSW is another route to getting into private practice as a therapist), so the important thing for undergrad is just to lay a strong foundation, and attend somewhere that’s a good fit for you across many dimensions, so that you’ll thrive there and be well prepared for the next stage. Many, many schools offer good psych departments and a good overall education, so think about all the other aspects of where you’d be happiest and most involved in college life.
Have you run the Net Price Calculators for these schools and determined that they’d be affordable for you?
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Thank you for your opinion ! I want to go to college with smarter people so Skidmore seems to be better than Clark (higher test score and more selective). I’m just wondering if the Skidmore psych program is not as good or as respected as Clark since Clark psych seems to be very famous and popular. Do you think going to Clark would give me an edge when applying to grad school ?
^No. It won’t matter.
Grad schools appreciate strong colleges, too.
If being around smart students is important to you for the best learning experience in college- which is a wonderful four years of immersion in the life of the mind- think of college as an amazing experience in and of itself and not just a step en route to a career- then go to a highly selective college with a great all-around reputation and do well there.
But if you want to major in psychology as an undergrad also, then look at the courses and professors’ research interests and see if they match your interests. That will be important to your satisfaction with your major. For example, Williams College is an amazing college but their psych department’s current foci do not align well with the type of psychology my family finds most interesting. Honestly, we all thought the best psych-oriented courses at Williams are in the History and English departments, LOL. (My spouse went to Vassar and majored in psych and loved it, but that was many years ago!!!) Clark’s psych major today would have suited my spouse well, because it is famous for the type of psych he practices and believes in… TBH, I didn’t study Skidmore’s catalog for psych; my son always planned to major in history and just take some psych courses for fun. But Skidmore is an amazing college all around. I think my son also would have been very happy there. My brother-in-law went there back in the day. And we have a close family friend who just finished their freshman year at Skidmore and is absolutely loving it.
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Like @helpingmom40 , at some point, my D considered all those schools and we visited all. D majored in psych. She was accepted to both Clark and Dickinson with excellent scholarships at both. She liked the students at both and felt she could have been happy at either. Dickinson was a final contender after she sat in on a couple of classes. Lovely campus and she liked their other offerings. I agree that Clark is probably strongest in psych, but psych will be likely be good at all three.
My D ended up not applying to Skidmore. She felt it was a little too “alternative vibey” for her. Of the three though, I’d say it probably has the best overall reputation and is more selective.
You will need to show interest at all, especially if you are hoping for scholarships. I’m not sure if Skidmore offers scholarships or not. I think Dickinson has become a bit less generous with scholarships in the last few years.
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Just going to pull you up on this: the correlation of “smarter” with “higher test score” much less “more selective” is weak at best. Selectivity is simply the # of people who want something vs # of people who get it, which is an extremely manipulable variable (just ask UChicago, whose acceptance rate went from 38% just 15 years ago to 5% now- all thanks to marketing). Similarly, standardized test scores are famously responsive to prep and background.
IRL, the average ‘smartness’ of the students at these three schools is going to be pretty similar: 100% there will be students who dazzle you with their smarts at all three places. Interestingly, some people (not @helpingmom40!) interpret Skidmore’s strong rep in the arts as indicating ‘less smart’, b/c some people (mistakenly) think artistically able = not so able academically.
Bottom line: using popularity and test scores as important decision metrics isn’t going to help you here. Apply to all three. Visit (in person if possible, virtually if not). Think about who you are, what environments you thrive in, what you want your college experience to be. Pick the (affordable!) school that suits you best.
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All three of those schools will have smart students. Grad schools will be interested in your GPA, your recommendations, and your resume. Those schools are not in the same category as East Podunk State.
As for Clark and its test scores, I personally hold zero store by them. Test scores are mainly indicative of parental ability to pay for tutoring (and I say that as a test prep tutor, whose two children both had very high test scores.) Clark is MUCH less expensive overall all than Skidmore or Dickinson. Probably about $15,000 a year less expensive. There are plenty of smart kids at Clark, and to this day, even my D (she attended a well-known test optional LAC), still remembers how impressive the students were during their Q&A at the info session. Between Clark’s price and its test scores, you are not talking about less intelligent people. You’re talking about, in general, less wealthy people.
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I love Skidmore! D20 nixed it because it is honestly too close (we are 10 minutes away and she swam in meets at their pool for years). I interact with lots of graduates in our community who loved their time there and stayed locally after graduation. I have a cousin who graduated from there with a double major in psychology and dance and she talks all the time about how she could weave the two subjects together for projects and her capstone. It is a great place! I only say how I feel it is “artsy” because most of the people I know who went there are artists, musicians, and writers - the very definition of “artsy”. It certainly isn’t derogatory but more to appeal to those who may want to explore their other interests while studying something like math. I think that makes them smarter, honestly.
Clark was on the short list. D loved it!! She had great interactions with students and staff alike. When the person she interviewed with found out she wanted to explore MUN, he called a friend who was very involved and he came to talk to her for another half hour. He volunteered at the Kennedy Institute in Boston and we were going there the next day and he gave her all kinds of insider tips. Ironically, she found she had more in common with the students she met there than her actual experience where she is going but that’s another story.
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Be very careful with this! My D said this all the time. She had 5s on all AP exams, a 4.0 UW, and 1460 SAT (780 EBRW, the top 1%). She chose a school with an average SAT of 1415 thinking it would challenge her to do her best. The issue is in terms of socioeconomic status, politics, and intolerance, she is miserable. Look for a good program with courses that interest you, and do your very best. More importantly, find schools that have students who share your worldview - not ONLY your worldview because you want diversity - because you need to find an environment where you fit in. As @Lindagaf said, high test scores can indicate that people paid for tutoring…or in our experience, come from elite prep schools.
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I’m guessing you will be able to find a number of school that provide academics that will meet your needs. You’ll have to figure out which are affordable. It looks like you prefer smaller schools and perhaps non-urban. I would investigate “vibe” a bit to see to what extent it will allow you to have the life outside the classroom that you’re seeking. Dickinson’s students are probably the most “mainstream”. Skidmore’s may be a bit more “alt”. There are no doubt students who would be very happy at both, and there are also ones who would be very happy at one and miserable at the other. If you aren’t planning to apply ED, you can wait to visit when you know what your options are, but if you are considering ED as an option, plan to visit in the fall when students are on campus to get a feel for each.
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I disagree with the comment about all high test scores being due to tutoring. First, many students at top colleges do not pay for tutoring for the SAT or ACT but use free resources such as Khan (if anything). Secondly, even with tutoring, many people don’t manage to get top scores. Knowledge and intelligence play a role, as well as preparation playing a role.
Yes, there will be super-smart students at many colleges. But of course there will be a higher percentage of super-smart students at the most competitive colleges. There is nothing wrong with the OP wanting to attend a college with smart students. That is a very valid criterion to use in choosing a college. Smart students elevate the dialogue not only in the classrooms but also in the dorms, dining halls, and clubs.
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We have experience at Skidmore and not at the other two, so I can’t offer anything there.
Skidmore appears to have a strong and thriving psychology department. The professors are engaged and act as good mentors and the kids get into grad programs and find psych.-related work after college. One kiddo close to us who has PhD in her long-term goals just graduated from Skidmore and landed a job as a human subjects research coordinator on a study being performed out of a large and well known research university. She is in the field based at a large regional hospital and is doing real work now. In fact, she was hired at a higher level (RC II) than is typical according to the woman whose place she is taking, who is also a Skidmore graduate and is off to get her PhD. What was relayed to us is the PI has developed a very favorable impression of Skidmore psych graduates and that gave her a huge leg up in the hiring process. A few other kids in her class went right into PhD programs, which if you look into it is a pretty tough thing to do right out of undergrad.
Skidmore is unusual in that it has a business program but is otherwise a pretty traditional LAC. I follow them a bit. The program is well subscribed and places kids at banks and consulting firms.
Like I said, I don’t know much about the other two schools so I have little to offer about them. But Skidmore is a very good school and from what we know the psych. department is solid.
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Those would be among the most misinformed people. Fun fact: in my day, Music majors were among the top three undergraduates as a group who did the best on the LSAT. Music majors are also well known to grasp coding very quickly and transition very well to computer science, a notoriously rigorous area of study. During my undergraduate years, the only other majors who ventured into my upper division Philosophy Logic courses, which were known around the university to be very hard, were Math and Music majors.
Many of the brightest and quickest minds I know are artists. I associate that attitude “art = not smart” with bitter neo-populism … people who hate everything that is even remotely intellectual. The opinions of those people really ought to be ignored.
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I have no expertise here. My only experience is taking the tests myself and going through it 3 x with my kids. My sense is that test prep can only get you so far. I think in terms of the socio-economic factors that come into play, you probably hit on the most important: quality of education. Prep schools understand how they are evaluated and prepare their students well for the SAT and ACT, both with formal test prep and through their everyday curriculum.
My D is a sophomore at Skidmore and plans to declare a major in Psychology. She also loved Dickinson, and in talking with a parent of a Skidmore student who is a year older than my D, her daughter also really liked both schools; I saw a lot of similarities in the two. D ultimately chose Skidmore over other schools because of its ballet program but Dickinson’s Italy study abroad program almost swayed her in that direction. Sometimes it’s the other opportunities that interest a student at a school that ultimately tip the scale. I’m sure all three of these will prepare you well for graduate school in psychology.
D did not look at Clark because she wanted a place where she could continue with ballet so I can’t speak to that school specifically but undoubtedly there are smart kids at all of these schools. Like others here I would caution about being too focused on test scores. D attended the dance scholarship weekend at Ursinus and met kids who were interviewing for some of their other scholarships. We were really impressed with the candidates who would have been D’s peers, and I was particularly impressed with the Ursinus faculty and students who spoke about their program offerings and what the students had accomplished with research and internships. Focusing too much on test score average may cause someone to discount a particular school but most of these liberal arts colleges offer incredible opportunities for motivated students to get involved with faculty and really shine. Remember that Clark is one of the Colleges that Change Lives for a reason.
D did really well her first year and applied and was accepted to the Periclean Honors Forum. She’s looking forward to participating in that. Take a look at that and at the other schools to see if there are similar programs if that’s something that might interest you.
D said she’s met quite a few students who are majoring in business so it seems to be a popular program. I attended a virtual lecture with Professor Mark Youndt from the business program last year (in addition to business courses he also teaches a first year seminar class called Human Dilemmas) and thought he was a fantastic teacher. I told my D to try to take a class with him sometime. I also listened to a Hidden Brain podcast episode with Professor Sheldon Solomon (Psychology) and found his research that he’s done with two other professors at different schools really fascinating. I’d love to take classes with or have conversations with both of them! And D has liked all of her professors and classes so far.
Have you visited the schools? Can you apply to them and decide later or are you really trying to narrow your list because of application fees? Keep in mind that both Skidmore and Dickinson value demonstrated interest. I’d recommend interviewing, especially at Skidmore because I don’t think they have a supplemental essay to say why you are interested.
Edited to add that before posting I didn’t notice when this original post was made. OP may have moved some or all of these schools off the list by now. 