Forensic psychology!

College Search & Selection
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<p>My sister is a junior right now and doesn't know what she wants to do with her life (naturally!) but is beginning to think about it.</p>

<p>Right now, she's interested in forensic psychology. The only school she could find that explicitly offered this major was University of Toronto, which according to Academic</a> Ranking of World Universities - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia is 24th in the world! O__O And its requirements didn't look too difficult -- the site said that international applicants are most successful in admissions with SAT scores of 600+ in each section. (She got a 191 on the PSAT her sophomore year, so she'll have no trouble getting that!)</p>

<p>In addition, I searched "forensic psychology" on here and saw some suggestions of majoring in Criminal Justice or Psychology (or a double-major or major/minor combination of the two.) </p>

<p>I believe that most jobs in forensic psychology would require a PhD, right? Obviously, my sister isn't sure that this is what she wants to do, so any insight as to what would be required to get a job in this field would be helpful.</p>

<p>In addition, can anyone recommend some schools that offer programs conducive to such a career path?</p>

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<p>First, you're going to find very few schools that have a major in forensic psychology. Psychology on the undergraduate level is a general degree and most people specialize at the graduate level. You're correct in thinking that she'll need a Ph.D to be a forensic psychologist.</p>

<p>College Board displays four colleges with a major in forensic psychology -- Toronto, as you mentioned; St. Ambrose University in Davenport, Iowa; Florida Institute of Technology and Bay Path College in Longmeadow, Massachusetts.</p>

<p>There are many more colleges with criminology majors; CB turned up 152. Auburn in Alabama, a couple of Cal State campuses, CUNY's John Jay College of Criminal Justice (which is ideal for this pursuit), Gallaudet University (which is a school that specializes in deaf education in Washington, D.C., but hearing students are of course allowed), Indiana Universtity of Pennsylvania, Juniata College, Marymount, Marquette, North Carolina State, Ohio State, Old Dominion, Quinnipiac, St. Joseph's (in Philly!) a couple of SUNY locations, Suffolk University, the College of New Jersey, University of Maryland in College Park, University of Miami, University of Minnesota, University of South Florida -- those are just some of the ones that jumped out at me.</p>

<p>In any event, I know that my sister-in-law is majoring in forensic science at Albany State University. Forensic science is a little different from forensic psychology, in that you're actually taking natural science courses and learning not only about the psychology of the legal system but also about how to find and analyze evidence. College Board finds 125 colleges that offer a major in forensic science, including Baylor University, Cal State at Chico, Chatham University (which is a women's college I believe), College of the Ozarks, Columbia College in Missouri, Hofstra University, Loyola University (both Chicago and New Orleans), Pace University (in New York), SUNY-Buffalo, Texas A&M, the University of Central Florida, the University of New Haven (in the same town as Yale), and Virginia Commonwealth University.</p>

<p>A combination of psychology and criminal justice would be ideal. Most colleges have psychology majors.</p>

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<p>Thank you very much for the helpful post! </p>

<p>We live close to College Park and my sister already knows that she wants to apply there, so it's great to see that it offers a relevant program. And now we have a lot more schools to look into! Thanks again.</p>

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<p>My pleasure :)</p>