Hi, so I live in Georgia and I want to major in psychology. As it stands, I have a 3.9 GPA and got a 29 on my first ACT ( 34 E, 22 M, 35 R, 25 S), although I plan to take it again. When I search for the best psychology schools I see Emory, Georgia Tech, UGA, Georgia State,etc. I’m trying to figure out which of those should be my top school. I’m also interested in Johns Hopkins in Maryland, and Vanderbilt in Tennessee. I’m a rising senior and short of University tours I’m not sure how to get a feel for the vibe and rigor of the school. All I’ve had to go on are statistics and I just want to find the right school environment for me. What would you guys suggest, and which of the schools in georgia do you think is the best for pyschology? ANy psychology majors or graduates on here? Thanks so much.
To be honest, there are many many psychology majors out there.I would look into my state public schools for the best value. To be a psychologist, you need to get a PhD and I am not sure if they are always funded.
You might seek to study in a department that offers instruction, either through full courses or course elements, across major areas of modern psychology, particularly biological/physiological, clinical, cognitive, developmental, social, personality, educational and sensory psychology. Opportunities for research and fieldwork should also be considered. With respect to college suggestions, look into Bates, Wesleyan, Hamilton, Vassar, Pitzer, Lewis & Clark, Gettysburg and, if female, Smith, Mt. Holyoke and Barnard. A few from this group are of moderate selectivity. The remainder would appear to be reaches, though the impact of this could be meliorated by test optional/flexible policies in some cases.
What do you want to do with a psychology degree? Are you interested in clinical practice as a psychologist, or more in theory/research? For your undergrad education, are you most drawn to seminar-style classroom discussion, or the ability to participate in high level research, or opportunities to get practical experience in community settings, fieldwork, co-op jobs, etc.?
Also, your list of schools-of-interest gives no clues as to your financial constraints. Are your options wide open financially, or would you need merit aid or need-based financial aid to consider options outside of your in-state public U’s?
Agree with the above that you need to think about cost constraints and about what you mean by “best for psychology”. You can get a good undergraduate education in psychology at any of those schools, although you’d have smaller classes at Emory (and especially at Oxford/Emory). The visits should give you some idea of the campus atmosphere and culture and all four of those colleges are pretty different (I’ve done tours at all but GSU - but have been there several times).
If you are thinking about graduate school in psychology you should know that admission to PhD programs, especially in clinical psych., is extremely competitive, so the “best” choice would be somewhere you feel is a good fit for you and where you can get the most research experience (that will be key). Check out the psychology faculty in each department and see if any of their areas of research interest you. If you are interested in animal research, Emory has the Yerkes primate center, but I don’t know if undergraduates can participate in research there.
Emory/Oxford would be your best pick. Not sure you can get into Tech but always worth trying I’d you’re strong in science and math.
Agnes Scott should be on your radar too.
A bit further away:
Clark university is very strong in psychology and would be a good match for you.
Muhlenberg is another good university for you to look into.
Honestly there are many many many colleges that would offer an excellent undergraduate education in psychology. For example, my D went to Lafayette College and loved the psychology department – she enjoyed the classes and had the opportunity to work on multiple research projects with professors (one of which culminated in an article she co-authored with the professor being published in a scholarly journal).
One thing you might do is to look at the online course catalogs for different colleges to see what courses are offered in the department. But mostly I’d recommend that you seek out schools that are good fits academically, socially and financially.
This. Note that many students who’ve taken AP Psych think they want to be psych majors but wind up hooked on other areas of study they hadn’t been exposed to in high school. Roughly 2/3 of undergrads change their major(s) at least once, in fact.
Since so many colleges have good psych departments, I recommend beginning with other factors like cost, selectivity, location, size, and so on. Being fixated on the “best” programs in psychology is not, I think, very productive at this stage.
Visiting a variety of nearby schools (public and private, small and large, rural and urban) is a good way to get a better idea of what you’re looking for in a college.
Sorry I’m responding so late but I’ve been looking into the different areas of psychology and I think I want to do consumer psychology. I would like to go to Emory, but if I don’t get a full ride, it wouldn’t be the best place for me (financially) I’ve really been leaning towards UGA. Are there specific classes I have to take to prepare for consumer psychology, or do Igo about my Bachelor’s without getting into specialties yet?
Run the NPC on all universities listed on this thread.
To know about universities’ vibe, environment… Read the Fiske Guide and Princeton Review’s Best Colleges.
When you say “full ride” do you mean your family is low income and can’t pay, or that you need to get a merit scholarship because your family could pay but chooses not to, or something in-between?
What’s your EFC?
Have you got a new ACT score?
For Consumer Psychology you’d need a good math background, especially in statistics/applied statistics - perhaps marketing or organizational psychology minors.
If you are willing to travel north, Clark University in Massachusetts has an extremely well-regarded psychology department. It is the only college at which Freud lectured when he came to the United States, and it still is tops today.
It is easier to get into than some of the other colleges you named, and it gives generous merit aid.
If you’re interested in consumer psychology, then your best bet may be to target colleges with business schools where research in this field is conducted. Many of the ones that are prominent in this area are too competitive (UPenn, NYU)… but U of Denver is a fit for your stats, and is investing in this type of research: https://daniels.du.edu/new-center-offers-consumer-insights/ As the article notes, it is primarily marketing students who are involved at this center; but Daniels offers a marketing minor to non-business majors https://daniels-pull-universityofdenv.netdna-ssl.com/assets/MKTG-Minor-2017.pdf so you could pursue a psych major with a marketing minor and get practical experience in this specialty area while getting the broad academic foundation of a general psych BA or BS.
There are undoubtedly other mid-sized schools with business programs where this kind of crossover is possible. Clark, in fact, has a marketing minor too. https://www.clarku.edu/programs/minor-marketing U of Miami could be a good target for you too. http://www.psy.miami.edu/undergraduate/ + http://bulletin.miami.edu/undergraduate-academic-programs/business/marketing/marketing-non-business-majors-minor/ I would poke around the websites of any schools you’re considering to see what kind of research is being done there, as your core academics won’t be specialized at the undergrad level, but your research involvement can be.
@juillet is a long-time poster who knows the field very well and will likely have very relevant information for you.
In psychology, like most undergraduate fields, you’re not really looking for the “best program” as an undergrad. You can get a good solid education in psychology at such a wide range of schools. As others have already mentioned, what you really need is a place where you can get some research experience with your professors and (if you were interested in clinical, counseling, or school psychology) some volunteer clinical hours.
No, you don’t have to specialize as an undergrad. It’s nice, and sometimes helps tell your story better, if you can take some relevant classes in college and work with a professor doing research in a related area. But people change their subfields/research areas throughout college, and no graduate program is going to hold it against you for not knowing what specialty you wanted to enter when you started college.
Any of the schools you’ve mentioned will be good starts for someone interested in psychology. I wouldn’t necessarily go looking specifically for colleges where professors are doing that research or that have specialized programs for this area; they’re pretty uncommon on the undergrad level, and also, there are many other aspects of college that you’ll have to consider at this point. As for the research - again, it’s nice, but what you really need to learn are the fundamentals/basics of how to do psychological research in a lab.
I agree with the above comments that you should focus first on other aspects of the school, like location, size, student body makeup, cost, activities, etc. You can, of course, consider things like a marketing minor or professors doing research in an area along with those elements, but I wouldn’t choose a school solely or even primarily for those factors.
As for the places you’re already considering: UGA has a consumer economics major; that may be of interest to you if you are interested in consumer psychology. (Even if you still majored in psychology, you’d have a lot of classes in the area to choose from.) UGA also has a major in cognitive science, which is an interdisciplinary field that includes some psychology along with computer science, linguistics, philosophy, anthropology and neuroscience. Emory, of course, has Goizueta, where you could theoretically take some classes even as a psychology major. They also have a quantitative science major that would be a good companion to psychology (psychological research can get very mathy, particularly when you start to intersect with business/economics). Georgia State, in addition to a regular psychology major, has a major in social entrepreneurship you might be interested in. Georgia Tech has a good psychology department.