<p>I love Grinnell, but I also love psychology. From what I hear they don't seem to have that great of a psych program and they don't offer as interesting of a range of psych classes as some other LAC's I'm looking at. Can anyone speak for whether or not Grinnell's psych classes are interesting, engaging, and generally worth taking?</p>
<p>I’m probably gonna be ending up majoring in Psych, so here’s my take on things: The facilities are good, probably not as good as other schools, but there are enough classrooms, observatories etc. And there is a huge emphasis on research, a lot of higher level classes require you to do independent research by conducting your own experiences etc. Even the intro-class requires laboratory work. Grinnell’s Psych department tries really hard to be as scientific as possible. I have to agree though, that there aren’t as many courses offered as at any bigger school, but that is not Psych-department specific. The main problem right now is that a couple of classes won’t be offered next fall, so the variety of courses might be smaller than usual. As far as classes being worth taking, it depends on the professor. A lot of people hated their intro-class, I loved mine. The upper-level classes are generally more interesting from what I’ve heard, and enganging, since a lot of them include laboratory work.</p>
<p>Not sure if this helps you or not, but this shows the PHD productivity. Grinnell fares quite well in regards to Psychology. There is a pretty strong correlation between phd productivity rates and undergrad programs. Some may debate this though. Regardless, being ranked 11th overall is pretty darn good.</p>
<p><a href=“http://web.grinnell.edu/institutionalresearch/webdocs/PhDProd_F06.pdf[/url]”>http://web.grinnell.edu/institutionalresearch/webdocs/PhDProd_F06.pdf</a></p>
<p>Psych courses sometimes show up in odd places. Right now, S is taking a Psychology of Sports class offered in the PE Dept which he says is great. And two friend who are graduating psych majors have been accepted into clinical psych programs at major universities next year so Grinnell seems to be getting their grads placed. Might be worth checking with the dept about what programs their grads have been accepted into.</p>