<p>Im interested in psychology and plan on majoring in it in college.
What public universities are good for this field? Thanks. </p>
<p>Oh, also I forgot to mention that I am not interested in east coast state schools because I am from New England. However all other schools, probably around Arizona as the furthest are all options.</p>
<p>UCLA and UC Berkeley are amazing for psychology </p>
<p>Why specifically public universities?</p>
<p>If it is because they are less expensive, that may be true at list price compared to the most expensive private universities, but public universities are generally not good with financial aid for out-of-state students, so the net price may be lower at some private universities compared to some public universities, depending on your financial situation.</p>
<p>Please read <a href=“Before you ask which colleges to apply to, please consider - College Search & Selection - College Confidential Forums”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/college-search-selection/1621234-before-you-ask-which-colleges-to-apply-to-please-consider.html</a> so that you can give information that will help others help you better.</p>
<p>My financial situation is all set, my parents plan on paying for my college and grad school no matter where I go however I love big schools and school sports games, etc. I like the “public” experience better overall. </p>
<p>My GPA and course rigor shouldn’t limit me from going to any public schools, it may make some of them reaches but I talked with a college counselor who said nothing was unrealistic with my grades and extracurriculars.</p>
<p>Also I scored a 2100 on my SATs </p>
<p>By “grad school”, if you mean PhD program, that should be funded (tuition waiver and living expense stipend, usually in exchange for being a TA).</p>
<p>You can presumably look up psychology rankings as well as anyone else, but you may want to dig deeper to find out how well psychology departments and the schools that they are in fit your interests. You can check faculty rosters and course catalogs to see what areas they emphasize (biological, cognitive, developmental, clinical, social) and how they match your interests. At large schools, the psychology department will typically be large, as the major is quite popular. Classes will also tend to be large.</p>
<p>Public schools also vary. Some are small LACs, though that does not seem to be what you are interested in. The size of the sports scene varies, and varies by sport. The percentage of students in fraternities and sororities can affect how much of an impact they have on the campus social life. Of course, some public schools have a larger percentage of commuter and non-traditional students, who are less likely to be part of the campus social life. The area that the school is in can have an impact on what off-campus activities are available.</p>
<p>If you’re from New England, I can understand maybe wanting to get out of New England but ruling out the entire East Coast? The mid-Atlantic and South are very different from New England and there are some great publics like Maryland, Virginia, William & Mary, UNC (several campuses, but especially Chapel Hill), South Carolina, UGA, Alabama, and UF.</p>
<p>There are also private schools with big sports - USC comes to mind, as does Syracuse.</p>
<p>Anyway, psychology is one of those majors that is everywhere and you don’t need to go to any special or specific university for a good solid psychology education (not to mention that you may change your major anyway). UCLA and Berkeley do have good graduate psychology departments, as do Wisconsin, Michigan, Minnesota, UIUC, Washington, Virginia, Colorado, several other UC campuses (UCSB, UCSD, UCD), Arizona, Oregon, UT-Austin, Missouri…but those are graduate departmental rankings. The things that are important to prospective doctoral students are not necessarily the same things that are important to prospective undergraduates, especially since you will only be taking 1/3 of your classes in the department and it’s not really your “home” at the university the way it is for doctoral students.</p>
<p>Basically, you could pick any large public university not in the Northeast and it would have a good solid psychology major.</p>
<p>For your stats and geographic preferences, sports interests, etc., check out some of the Big10 schools. Michigan, Illinois, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Northwestern (private and more selective than the rest), Ohio State, Indiana …</p>
<p>Since money is no object and your main criterion is to leave New England, you should look into public flagship’s honors programs. ASU’s Barrett, Penn State’s Shreyer, South Carolina Honors are all examplar and could be your “reaches”, along with UVA, UNC-CH, UCB, UCLA, UCSD,UMich, W&M. Then UAlabama’s Honors could be your safety, and every other Honors College in between would be your matches.
Honors programs are especially important for students in popular majors such as psychology, since you’ll be in very large, impersonal lecture halls otherwise. The honors programs will allow you access to more comfortable dorms, research opportunities (essential if you want to go to grad school), and a few perks (such as priority registration, which at large state universities is worth its weight in gold :p).</p>