Liberal Arts Colleges with Strong Psychology Programs?

<p>Hi,</p>

<p>I'm looking for liberal arts colleges with strong psychology programs - good faculty, a variety of courses, etc. and am wondering if anyone can give any recommendations? </p>

<p>Here are my stats:</p>

<p>GPA: weighted: 4.62; unweighted: 3.7
Rank: 113/624 (Top 20%)
SAT: 2270; CR 780; Math: 740; Writing: 750 (Essay: 11)
APs: English Language 5, US History 4, Statistics 4, World History 4, Calculus 3</p>

<p>ECs:
President of two clubs; art editor for school magazine
Junior Curator at state museum taking care of live animals 1.5 hrs a week
Part time job at state museum as a teaching assistant
Independent research project on conformity in social psychology </p>

<p>Top LACs are already out; I am well aware my credentials are not sufficient. I don't care if the LAC has a "good name" or not as long as its psychology program is strong. </p>

<p>Thanks all.</p>

<p>My D searched the last couple years for the same thing, an LAC with an exceptional psychology department. In her case, she felt Furman was the best program of all the LAC’s we looked at. They have an outstanding faculty and are well known for their research and internship opportunities. She is now a freshman there and couldn’t be happier.</p>

<p>Davidson is also outstanding. The truth is many of the LAC’s have strong Psychology programs so it is all about finding the right fit for you. Your stats will give you a strong chance of admission at many LAC’s. Good luck with your search!</p>

<p>Clark University claims to have a very good Psychology program - they are a small LAC outside of Boston. They offer a PhD in Psych as well. Here’s a description of the student body from princeton review:</p>

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<p>They usually give good money too. My son got a really good scholarship offer from them last year with lower stats than yours, but he had really unusual EC’s that they must have liked.</p>

<p>Wheaton College (MA) has an excellent psychology program. Check it out.</p>

<p>I second Clark, but I wouldn’t assume you have no chance at the top LACs. Your credentials are very good. You’re not a slam dunk at them, but you certainly would have a shot at many. Give yourself a little credit!</p>

<p>you can totally get into some of the top liberal arts colleges. what won’t get you in is the attitude that you can’t. apply believing that you can get in, and then also apply to some safeties. but don’t make the decision for the colleges, let them decide if you’re not worthy! i sure think you are!</p>

<p>Agree, you can get into top LACs; add Carleton, Grinnell, Hampshire, CMC, Macalester, Oberlin, Reed, Whitman.</p>

<p>Yes you certainly have a shot at the best LAC’s. Your class rank isn’t excellent but your scores are really good. Psychology is such a common major and strong at top LACs that I would just shoot for the best fit and academic quality. Check out Middlebury! But you could try Williams or Amherst as well and then some less selective places. Think about location, size, and funky vs. preppy vibe to choose which ones.</p>

<p>The psychology dept. at Whitman is very popular because of the outstanding faculty in that dept., but as the others have said, it’ll probably be good at any number of schools. I hear that in the 3 week block system at Colorado College, you get your own rat to train in Psych 101!</p>

<p>Davidson, Holy Cross, Colgate.</p>

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<p>True! The goal is for you and a partner to train the rat in a progressively more challenging series of tasks. As with other Colorado College courses, you get 24/7 access to a single dedicated classroom or lab for the duration of the 3.5 week block. My kid’s team unfortunately wound up with the dumbest, most neurotic ADD rat … which meant spending countless hours on after-school tutoring. The professor wound up giving the rat a social promotion and my kid a pretty good grade.</p>

<p>That sounds like a memorable experience! he’ll never look at a rat the same way again…</p>

<p>As a match, I would certainly check out Franklin & Marshall. It’s much stronger in psychology than many of the more selective LACs. Bucknell is another obvious suggestion not yet mentioned.</p>

<p>Huskem55 has had nothing but good things to say about psychology at Conn College, and apparently job and graduate school placement in the field is extremely strong there.</p>

<p>Rhodes and Furman are also great for psych and might be good places to look for merit money.</p>