<p>But I want to major in psychology as a means of eventually being able to do either law or medicine and psychology is a good major to do so you can have the choice. So, which colleges have really strong psychology programs?</p>
<p>What are your geographic restrictions? Also, what type of grades do you have? These questions will impact your answers. Also, are you looking for a large or medium size university or a LAC? Any other specifics will help us narrow down some suggestions.</p>
<p>[Ranking</a> of U.S. Undergraduate Psychology Programs](<a href=“http://www.socialpsychology.org/gunder.htm]Ranking”>Ranking of U.S. Undergraduate Psychology Programs)</p>
<p>This depends a lot, actually. I see that my school, Columbia, is on that list. I’m a grad student here but I interact a lot with the undergrads, and make no mistake – Columbia has an excellent psychology program, but it depends on what you’re interested in. Columbia’s psychology program is excellent for students interested in cognitive psychology and behavioral neuroscience, but not so great for those psychology students interested in social psychology. We only have 5 social psychologists in the department. Two will be on sabbatical next year, one is brand-new and won’t be taking any new students (although she does teach an EXCELLENT upper-level mixed grad-undergrad class I took last semester, and will be teaching the lower-level version of it in the fall), and the other one is a famous professor who rarely teaches undergraduate classes (although it does appear that he is teaching a personality class next semester, which is awesome because that is his specialty).</p>
<p>I know a lot of the students (undergrads and grads) have complained because they want a better variety of courses, especially in the social area, but the heavy emphasis on cognition and neuroscience makes a lot of classes lean that way. Like I said, our department is still excellent and I would encourage any undergrad interested in psychology to come here, as well as any graduate student, but would just advise them of the preponderance of cognition and neuroscience research. I also advise all students to take a look at the courses offered in the departments of the schools they’re looking at, if they are really interested in a certain degree – they should be listed on the website. Sometimes a department will have a really cool-looking bunch of classes but half of them are only taught every three years or something, or aren’t even taught at all (my college advertised that they had gymnastics as a PE class in their catalog, which sounded awesome because I am a former gymnast, but that class is never offered any more. A quick look on their BannerWeb would’ve shown me it hadn’t been offered in the last 5 years.)</p>
<p>Also, don’t pick a college primarily or solely based on major. The majority of college students change their major. Pick a school based on its overall reputation. If you’ll notice, the schools with the best undergraduate psychology programs are generally reputable schools anyway (and have great graduate psychology programs, too, by the way).</p>
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<p>There are many such majors, really. They even let a few English majors into medical school and the ones they don’t, why, they’ll often send over to law.</p>
<p>Thank you everyone for your oustanding answers. BobbyCT, my grades are very good, but not outstanding, I’m top 10%, no geographic restrictions, and I’d prefer a big university. </p>
<p>Juillet, I’m definitely going to consider Columbia now and thank you for your really detailed answer and informative answer. Just so I can see the flip side of Columbia’s situation with social psychologists, do you know of any schools that have a great social psychology program?</p>
<p>Gourman’s list at Ranking of U.S. Undergraduate Psychology Programs includes only universities, so the majority of the best undergrad programs are omitted.</p>
<p>Try this list for advanced grad school undergrad prep, first posted by interesteddad:</p>
<p>Academic field: Psychology </p>
<p>PhDs and Doctoral Degrees: ten years (1994 to 2003) from NSF database
Number of Undergraduates: ten years (1989 to 1998) from IPEDS database
Formula: Total PhDs divided by Total Grads, multiplied by 1000 </p>
<p>Note: Does not include colleges with less than 1000 graduates over the ten year period </p>
<p>
Psych PhDs per 1000 overall graduates:</p>
<p>21 Pomona College
19 Swarthmore College
19 Barnard College
19 Vassar College
17 Bryn Mawr College
16 Wesleyan University
16 Pitzer College
16 Brandeis University
15 Wellesley College
15 Grinnell College
14 Spelman College
14 Williams College
14 Clark University
14 Haverford College
14 Brown University
14 Smith College
13 Kalamazoo College
13 Oberlin College
13 Scripps College
13 Yale University
13 Duke University
13 Carleton College
13 Drew University
12 Rhodes College
12 Hendrix College
12 Tufts University
12 Antioch University, All Campuses
12 Davidson College
12 Sarah Lawrence College
12 University of Chicago
12 Hamilton College
11 University of Rochester
11 Amherst College
11 Trinity University
11 Southwestern University
11 Austin College
11 Bennington College
11 Reed College
11 Emory University
11 Union College (Schenectady, NY)
10 Denison University
10 St John's College (both campus)
10 Kenyon College
10 Mount Holyoke College
10 Bates College
10 Occidental College
10 Franklin and Marshall College
10 Stanford University
10 Cornell University, All Campuses
10 Knox College
10 Allegheny College
9 Wake Forest University
9 Hope College
9 Earlham College
9 Beloit College
9 Wheaton College (Wheaton, IL)
9 Birmingham Southern College
9 Trinity College (Hartford, CT)
9 University of California-San Francisco
9 University of Pennsylvania
9 Benedictine College
9 Washington University
9 University of PR Rio Piedras Campus
9 Muhlenberg College
9 Agnes Scott College
9 Connecticut College
8 Harvard University
8 University of Michigan at Ann Arbor
8 Mills College
8 Colgate University
8 Rice University
8 College of the Holy Cross
8 Bard College
8 University of California-Irvine
8 SUNY at Binghamton
8 Carroll College (Waukesha, WI)
8 Macalester College
8 Hanover College
8 Randolph-Macon Woman's College
8 Dartmouth College
8 University of California-Los Angeles
8 Transylvania University
8 Furman University
7 Bowdoin College
7 University of California-San Diego
7 Columbia University in the City of New York
7 Whitman College
7 University of California-Santa Cruz
7 Northwestern Univ
7 Bucknell University
7 University of Dallas
7 Princeton University
7 Hampshire College
7 Pacific Union College
7 Fisk University
7 University of Denver
7 Chatham College
7 Southern Methodist University
7 Gettysburg College
7 Johns Hopkins University
7 Skidmore College
7 University of Notre Dame
7 Tougaloo College
7 Nebraska Wesleyan University
7 Goshen College
7 Bethany College (Bethany, WV)
7 College of William and Mary
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