<p>We are visiting next week - very excited. My son is possibly interested in majoring in psychology - maybe with a business minor. Can anyone comment on the Psychology program at VT? I had the notion that VT would be all engineering/computer science and business - was actually surprised to see what looks like a large Psych department. Any opinions on the quality of the department and the courses?</p>
<p>I’m currently in the Psych program here and it is indeed a really good program. In fact, a lot of the social science classes I’ve taken (Human Development, Sociology, etc) are overall all really good quality classes.</p>
<p>The teachers for the classes are fantastic. The only problem SOME may have with the program is that some professors are also students themselves, but they’re usually PhD or graduate level students from different backgrounds. Most aren’t fresh out of college, either…they have experience behind them and are just back in school. A few of mine these past two semesters have been HS teachers who are working on PhDs. All of the professors also have a wide range of personalities. Of course there are some jerks and people who aren’t THAT great of teachers, but those are scarce. I can really only think of three or four that come to mind, and that’s including teachers outside of psych. The ones I’ve had in psych are all really easy to talk to/relate to and I’ve yet to be past the intro level that is over 100 students. Three of my classes now have under 50 students in the class.</p>
<p>The classes I’ve taken so far have all been really interesting to me. With one exception, I really enjoy what I’m learning and am genuinely interested in the classes. I also get the opportunity to do group work, which doesn’t sound great at first, but so far, it’s actually been enjoyable getting to talk with people in class instead of just sitting in lecture.</p>
<p>If you have any other specific questions or courses you might want to know about, feel free to ask! I could probably think of a lot more things to say and I’ll post them if they come to mind.</p>
<p>That was very helpful - thank you. Are you doing a minor also? What do you think about job prospects for Psych grads who do not want to go directly to grad school? Does VT have good internship/recruiting opportunities for psych majors?</p>
<p>I’m in my first year right now, so I can’t speak to much about internships/recruiting, but in doing my own research, there are ALOT of opportunities out there. The only problem some people have is that they’re unpaid, but quite a few internships during the semesters are for credit hours, so I think that’s just as good. I haven’t taken the time to look into how the recruiting is, but I have a few graduating senior friends who already have their jobs set up after graduation, so I’ll probably ask them questions. Also, I know VT’s Career/Job fairs are always really good, but I’ve yet to check one out because of my class schedule. Your son could always check out one here during his freshman year just to get a feel for what it’s like and what to expect in the future when he’s actually in the market for a job.</p>
<p>As far as a minor, I am planning on minoring in Sociology, possibly double major if I The psych curriculum seems to set a lot of people up so that they can minor or double major with ease. I find most people seem to either do Human Development or Sociology if they’re into Social Sciences, or Biology if they’re interested in a route that will involve hard sciences.</p>
<p>Your question about graduating psych grads is hard to answer…I know plenty of people who have gotten jobs without grad school. But it really depends on interests and where they’re willing to take a job. Some of my friends have been able to get jobs back in their hometown, but I know people who have gotten jobs in surrounding states and even close by in Roanoke. I know a lot of people who go into teaching (of course) with Teach for America which is an amazing opportunity. A couple of other fields I’ve heard a lot about are education jobs (not teaching), behavioral, and social work. I’m sure there’s alot more. But, like I said, this question is harder to answer since there’s a wide variety of interests involved when getting a job.</p>
<p>It sounds promising - thank you for your time. We are going to try to attend a session on the Psychology dept next week in addition to the info session and tour.</p>
<p>I’ll be a freshmen next year at Tech and right now I’m thinking about going into something business related, so I applied and got accepted under business undecided as my major. I also really like psychology and enjoyed the AP Psych class I took my junior year of high school. I was thinking psychology could be my backup if I dont like business as much as Im hoping I will. I was wondering if anyone knows how hard it would be to switch from a business major to psychology when they are in completely different colleges at Tech.</p>
<p>Also is it realistic or possible to double major in something business related and also psychology? Or minor in one but major in the other??</p>
<p>Any thoughts on these 3 things would be very helpful.</p>
<p>We are thinking along the same lines as you. I am doing this research for my son and saw that majoring in psych and minoring in business looked very doable. We will be visiting next week and intend to ask more questions about this topic.</p>