<p>Hi,</p>
<p>I'm wondering if there is a website which shows where graduate students from programs around the country attended college. I'm particularly interested in finding out where students, who were accepted to top tier graduated programs for psychology, graduated from college. </p>
<p>Thanks!! </p>
<p>I assume you’re hoping to derive info about what schools place more students into grad Psych programs in order to guide your daughter’s college choice. This data won’t tell you much. Psych grad programs abound. But the feeder schools of their students are a LOT more linked to nearby great schools and access to fin aid/fellowships. Would you be surprised that UCBerkley would have many more CA residents in their grad psych program versus students from the south?</p>
<p>Also, to be frank, almost no one can progress in a career with a BA in psych w/o a MA or higher. I wouldn’t be surprised if grad psych students are an inordinately percentage of a masters-candidates in the US. Again, this dilutes the pool. </p>
<p>You should direct your kid to becoming a top scholar in whatever college she attends. That means taking rigorous writing and research courses. It means having the guts to meet profs and discuss their work. It means not being a wallflower and just forgettable. There seems to be a billion psych majors at the undergrad level. She needs to be focused on distinguishing herself regardless of what college she attends. A boring Masters applicant from a “name” school is still a boring candidate. The undergrad program itself will carry less weight than her GREs and scholarly work and hopefully prof rec letters.</p>
<p>You might have more luck by looking at the individual undergrad colleges websites to find a list of where their graduates have gone to grad school.</p>
<p>You may find this on the site of an individual elite PhD program. But which programs are elite depends in large part on the subfield; clinical is ranked very differently from cognitive, for example.</p>
<p>Also depends on whether the student would be seeking a PsyD or a Ph.D. in psychology. And, if a Ph.D., which area of psychology (clinical, experimental, school, social, organizational, developmental, educational, forensic . . .)</p>
<p>Also, I think you’d be dealing with a very small ‘n’. How many undergrad psych majors actually go on for a doctorate? And even if there are 10-20–which would be A LOT for one college–they are likely spread among different fields of psychology. In other words, there’s not enough of a sample to consider any particular college a “feeder school” for any particular grad program.</p>
<p>As a former psych major, my advice: Go to a college that has a strong undergrad psych department. Worry about grad school later.</p>
<p>@Hanna is right. You could identify several highly ranked psych PhD or PsyD programs (depending on which one you might be interested in). Then on the websites for the graduate programs one frequently finds lists of the currently enrolled doctoral students. Short bios on those lists MAY mention the undergraduate programs that the students attended…[LATER] Well “MAY” was the operative word. I tried this out by looking at several doctoral programs at different universities, and NONE of them listed the undergraduate colleges of current students. (For example, see this list: <a href=“https://psychology.stanford.edu/view/graduatestudent”>https://psychology.stanford.edu/view/graduatestudent</a>). An alternative approach is to find one of those summaries of the undergraduate origins of doctoral recipients in different fields. NSF (National Science Foundation) has such data. Then you could get an idea which undergrad institutions are likely to feed students to doctoral degrees. Be prepared to find that small liberal arts colleges are likely to contribute disproportionately.</p>
<p>Agree with the lac as prep school for PhDs.
A friend of Ds for instance from college, majored in psych and now is a prof at a southern university.
It hasn’t been 10 years since they graduated college. More like 8.
<a href=“The Colleges Where PhD's Get Their Start”>http://www.thecollegesolution.com/the-colleges-where-phds-get-their-start/</a></p>
<p>Hi emeraldkity4, thank you for the article. It is very interesting and just the sort of thing that I wanted to see!! My d is looking at small LAC and a few of them are even on the lists included in the article!! Thanks.</p>
<p>“I tried this out by looking at several doctoral programs at different universities, and NONE of them listed the undergraduate colleges of current students”</p>
<p>Shoot. You can often Google them to find out, at least if they have uncommon names.</p>
<p>Some programs will have profiles of the grad students and some have zero. I think many of the students have Linkedin accounts. You could go to a program, find their list of grad students, then find them on Linkedin if you have that kind of time and desire.</p>
<p>The psych prof, always has been a top student.
She took a sabbatical ( about a semester & a half) from undergrad, to spend doing pysch research across the country.
She also was the top TA in her dept when in grad school.
Her undergrad required a lot of reading & writing, inc publishing a thesis, which may help students feel more prepared for their Ph.d.
Lacs can be awfully small, Id advise to find one with a good solid social sciences dept, and also to look at masters universities. In our experience, they have few TAs, and you can work closely with profs as they are mostly focused on undergrads.</p>
<p>I think emeraldkity (“EK”) has identified the key factors that put small colleges in a good position to create future doctoral students: (a) students do independent reading and research (whether they have a thesis, as Reed does, or not); (b) all instruction is by professors, not TA’s, © students may tend to take their coursework more seriously. Having attended such a college (Reed) myself, as well as been a faculty member at a large research intensive university my whole career, I recognize when students are self-teachers and independent learners. They are quite common at the graduate level but rare at the undergraduate, except in special honors sections of courses.</p>
<p>There are too many variables to make this information your reason to choose an undergrad school. Look for the best fit undergrad schools. Those will academic and social fits overall with known to be good psych departments. Look at ratings of grad schools in Psych as you likely want to consider being able to take grad level courses in the subfield while still an undergrad. That’s the rationale for choosing a top big research school. But- always remember that many entering college freshmen will change their majors once they discover areas in college. I disagree that small college students have the advantages listed in post #11 as Honors Program students will have access to the professors, be serious students and do research. Not ALL small colleges or large colleges have all of the same advantages/disadvantages- do not stereotype. </p>
<p>^^^Yes, you can have a great experience at a large university.</p>
<p>D1 went to undergrad at a large research university. She had amazing support from her “mentors,” two nationally renown faculty members. They advised her very well so that she was able to get two years of research under her belt, and even got published, along with a professor and other grad students in a paper before she graduated. Somehow in her early months at this U, she learned that the track to competitive grad schools required this, so she made a pointed effort to get to know her professors and start establishing relationships early on. I know she didn’t get that advice from clueless me. </p>
<p>She’s now working on her Ph.D in a very competitive program at a top U in her field of interest. </p>
<p>Walsh, I’m not sure exactly what you are hoping to learn. For your posts, it appears that you are trying to convince someone that attending a more elite school will be the ticket to success, and the ticket to a better grad school acceptance. </p>
<p>Honestly, your kid can be successful in the field of psychology with an undergrad degree from almost any college. The key is that your kid needs to be an outstanding student. Your kid needs to find opportunities to have excellent faculty mentors, participate in research, do meaningful internships, etc. </p>
<p>A bachelors degree in psychology won’t gain you an entry level position for a psych job. Your student will need to get a masters at least. </p>
<p>But really, there are tons of psychologists who did not get any of their degrees at elite colleges, and are still successful practitioners. </p>
<p>Why are you so caught up with what happened to others in the past? Why the need for an elite school? Why?</p>
<p>Here’s a list of the top PHD psych programs. <a href=“NRC Ranking of U.S. Psychology Ph.D. Programs”>http://www.socialpsychology.org/ranking.htm</a> </p>
<p>If you check the individual schools you can do some googling to figure out where their faculty and PHD candidates went to undergrad. </p>
<p>Personally, I think you’re worrying too much about prestige. I would focus on fit and affordability and let the chips fall where they may. </p>
<p>Where your child wants to end up living and working also matters, especially for clinical work that requires licensure. It is a lot easier to pass exams at a program in the state as they will be sure to include needed material in their program. Choose the undergrad program that fits and be a stellar student- as above. Also remember that the best grad programs in any given field are often at schools that do not make the top of the lists overall.</p>