<p>inspired by the "how is the economics program at yale" thread...</p>
<p>so how is the psychology department at yale university? I'm just curious, being that I've yet to graduate high school.</p>
<p>in a word, awesome.</p>
<p>Oh wow the psychology department here is famous for having really personable, FUNNY faculty. I'm not personally a psych major, but if I didn't love econ and international studies so much, I very well might be. I'm taking an intro Psych course right now, and I know at most schools Intro Psych classes are either really boring or tedious. I have enjoyed EVERY MINUTE of EVERY LECTURE so far. I'm actually even enjoying studying for the psych midterm (which is in two days), because the professor has presented the material in such a way that you can't help but love it. </p>
<p>The psych department has numerous award-winning professors, who all teach undergraduates. And it's cool to be able to study out of the book that your professor wrote.</p>
<p>I'll second Janerdoo - psychology here is a popular major because the introductory course is awesome (huge and extremely popular) and the major seems to be taught with a light-hearted touch and not taken overly seriously. If you are pre-med or want to pursue psychology more seriously, there's the behavioral neuroscience track of psychology, which attracts a fair number of people interested in cognitive/neuroscience.</p>
<p>I was wondering if psychology is a lot of reading and writing like humanity majors..</p>
<p>is psychology a more science oriented discipline or humanity based study?</p>
<p>what about cognitive science??? Thats the major i filled in on my app and the one i'm most interested in, does anyone know anything about this major?</p>
<p>thanx!!</p>
<p>hupkorea: psychology is a mix of humanities and sciences. unlike a science major, you don't graduate with a B.S. (you get a B.A.), you don't have to take all the intro science classes (if you major in bio, for instance, you have to take chem, orgo, and physics), and you don't have problem sets. however, you don't do nearly as much writing as you would in a humanities class, just one (or maybe two) term papers.</p>
<p>also, i second whoever said that intro psych is a good class. the professors who teach it don't take themselves too seriously; they joke around, tell stories, etc., and it covers a wide range of topics in psychology so that you're bound to find something you like. the only caveat is that each professor teaches the class very differently, depending on what his or her speciality is. last semester's professor was a personality psychologist, so his class focused more on personality and social thinking, whereas this semester's professor studies cognitive development, so the class leans more toward cognitive science stuff. beyond that, though, it's an excellent class, and the major seems to be equally good.</p>
<p>flowertje: cog sci is VERY different from psych. i made the mistake of taking introduction to cog sci last semester, thinking that there would actually be psychology involved, but there really isn't. the intro class first wastes about a month going over 'general themes' of cog sci (meaning very basic concepts about the study of the mind), and then the professor spends a couple classes per topic on various aspects of cognitive science: computer science, linguistics, cognitive development, perception, and philosophy of mind. on the whole, the lectures didn't delve into any of the topics in a very in-depth manner, just skimming over the surface of each. the one exception was perception, which is the topic that the professor studies. he spent an inordinate amount of time talking about his own work....he even made us read his published papers and then write about why his findings are relevant and useful. on the whole, i came away from the class feeling like i'd sat through a semester-long advertisement for the cognitive science major without actually learning anything. if these topics sound interesting to you, then go for it, but if you're interested in actual psychology -- why humans do what we do -- take intro psych, not cog sci. you definitely won't regret it. :)</p>
<p>Intro to Psych is great from what I hear--the professors are supposed to be pretty cool. </p>
<p>I liked Intro to Cog Sci; it was unlike anything I had ever studied. However, the famous professor who's taught it in the past won't be teaching it for the next year at least.</p>
<p>If you're interested in psych, I encourage you to look at the online course catalog (<a href="http://students.yale.edu/oci/ycps/ycpsProgramCourses.jsp?subject=PSYC&dept=Psychology%5B/url%5D">http://students.yale.edu/oci/ycps/ycpsProgramCourses.jsp?subject=PSYC&dept=Psychology</a>) and compare the course offerings to those at other universities. I know that Stanford, for example, offers a class on Sleep and Dreams, while Yale has nothing of the sort.</p>
<p>wow..great information. thanks</p>
<p>Stanley Milgram.</p>
<p>How long is the psychology undergrad course at yale? Is the phD program here good? What is it focused primarily on?</p>