<p>Hey everyone! I really love Rice and I'm really interested in the school, but I have some reservations about their psychology major. It seems like a great major but I'm not sure if I would have enough opportunities for where I want to take my degree. Right now I'm thinking I want be a clinical child psychologist. </p>
<p>How would Rice's program be for preparing me for that career path? Any info about their supposedly amazing psych program?</p>
<p>Psychology is one of Rice’s most popular majors. But as an ‘outsider’, I wouldn’t call it “amazing”. I’ve seen their facilities; they’re pretty nice. But my impression is that the major isn’t big because it’s great, but because it’s full of a bunch of defunct engineers and pre-meds. As a fellow social science major (I’m poli sci), I can tell you honestly that I got a real ‘sciencey’ vibe from Rice. So their psych major is probably oriented toward brain chemistry and such, and it’s probably great for that. If you’re in CA, why not check out Stanford? It’s like, psychology Mecca!</p>
<p>Hi I’m a psych major at Rice right now. So far, I have only taken the two intro classes and the stats class, which I really enjoyed (well the stats was kind of boring but hey it’s stats). Rice’s program might not let you focus specifically on the area you think you want to study, but you can choose from a bunch of courses so you can learn about specific areas that interest you. The major requirements are not too difficult, which makes it easy to double major in other things. All this being said, I would agree that it is focused a little more on the cognitive side rather than the social, but again there is a variety of classes to choose from to really focus on what you want. If you have any other questions about psych or Rice in general, feel free to pm me.</p>
<p>im an engineer/theatre major but I took one psych class</p>
<p>Dr.Hebl was sent from the gods. She is amazing. I dont have any other experience though (she teaches social psyc)</p>
<p>Yes! I was in her intro to social class too. I don’t particularly like social psych but that class was really fun because of her.</p>
<p>Wow, everyone seems to love Rice’s psych program…what subfield are all of you looking to go into? I’m interested in the more social aspect of it, and I’d like to work with children and teens. It helps so much to have amazing professors!</p>
<p>I’m a psych major (+pre-med) and from my experience so far the professors are generally excellent lecturers and very dedicated to their subject…however be aware that since there are many psych majors (especially since the major is only 29 credits so a lot of people double major in it with something else), many psyc classes including upper level will have 40+ people. It is fairly easy to get involved in psychology research though if you want a smaller student faculty ratio- many professors will let you join their lab if you just talk to them about it.</p>
<p>I’m goint to have to disagree with a few of you…I’m also a psychology major (and pre-med) at Rice and I have been extremely disappointed with the program here. Quite frankly, the psychology department lags behind the other social sciences and is not a well-respected program by any means.</p>
<p>Also, you would think that Rice would favor cognitive psychology over the other branches, but this actually is not true. Recently, we have lost two cognitive psychology professors and are replacing them with I/O professors.</p>
<p>If you are looking for a joke of a major where you can take multiple choice tests and get all A’s, this is it. It is perfect for pre-meds who have to take difficult science courses. If you are genuinely inteterested in the field, though, there are many other schools with much more respectable programs (i.e. CMU, Michigan, Stanford…etc)</p>
<p>Just to respond to joshb110, I think that what you are saying has merit, but I also believe that the psych program can be experienced very differently depending on how you approach it. If you are a premed looking for “a joke of a major” I’m sure that you can make it into that. Yes, it is possible to well in these classes unlike some of the big science classes which are curved unbelievably. However, I also believe that if you have a genuine interest in the field, this major can provide a lot of opportunities. I have found the professors to be very helpful in many ways including giving information about research positions not just at Rice but in all sorts of areas. Also, because it is only a 29 hour major it is not horrible to double major. While I’m not going to say anything bad about our engineering program, I think it kind of sucks to have such limited availability in the classes you take. I have been able to take classes because they sounds interesting and will be able to double major without killing myself. And the program does still favor cognitive regardless of the professors as the majority of the classes are based on areas in cognitive psychology.
All that being said, you are entitled to your opinion but I just think the program is one that you get what you put into it. If you are looking for an easy major to keep your GPA up, psych might be that, but it can also be a rewarding major for people who want to learn more about the subject.</p>
<p>“While I’m not going to say anything bad about our engineering program, I think it kind of sucks to have such limited availability in the classes you take.”</p>
<p>Very true. I agree. and as an engineer its hard to double major/take lots of unrelated classes to major. Im trying to double major in Theatre and thats hard</p>
<p>You can make a lot out of a psychology major at any institution you attend, but that was not what the poster was addressing. Also, while the majority of our classes might be cognitive based, we offer significantly fewer than other colleges that have stronger psychology programs. </p>
<p>When 90% of your classes give you multiple choice tests that are based solely on the assigned readings, its impossible to find the major intellectually challenging. I expected a lot more from the major, but whatever.</p>
<p>Okay I see your point about making the most of the major but to answer the OPs question as to whether or not Rice will prepare them for future studies, I still think that it will. While we do offer less classes (which I’m pretty positive is true for most departments because of our significantly smaller class size) we offer the classes that are needed to learn the major ideas in psychology. Now, I’m pretty sure you are older than me, so maybe you know better, but after just one year I feel confident working in labs not only at Rice but also at other institutions. I feel that these classes have given me enough information to understand what is going on which then makes me able to go more into depth in a certain area. And I still feel like a person doesn’t need super hard tests to make a class or a major intellectually challenging. I don’t learn the material for the tests, I study it because it’s interesting and what I’m going to need in the future. Anyway, I feel like Rice’s program is strong enough to prepare me for grad school, which is what the OP wanted to know. And I am not saying that there aren’t many better programs, but I don’t think Rice’s is necessarily bad.</p>