<p>I'm having a really hard time deciding between UC Berkely and Vanderbilt going into psychology. I know Cal has a top 10 program for psychology but I've been hearing a lot about how undergrads are barely given any attention and that it's getting harder to graduate in 4 years since a lot of classes are not available.</p>
<p>Yet, I've tried to look up the psychology program at Vandy and haven't come up with any results. Can someone please enlighten me?</p>
<p>Thanks!</p>
<p>there are many subspecialties in psych if you are looking at graduate school PhD pathways such as getting your doctorate in clinical psych vs cognitive psych. Perhaps you have made some headway in choosing this direction, perhaps not. Perhaps you are a premed and not a future PhD in psych or you have other plans after your undergrad degree. Top ten sounds impressive at UCB but the opportunity for research and lab work in undergraduate school is an important aspect of prepping for doctorate pathways. Vanderbilt has several academic journals published annually on their website so you may want to look at the undergraduate publications at both institutions online.
If you are interested in psych outcomes that lead to counseling careers, Nashville has many places for internships close to campus.<br>
Your social/emotional fit in a college is also an important factor re how you face each day of work and challenges. Vandy and UC Berkeley are both excellent schools but they are not very similar.<br>
To up your chances of someone chatting with you on this that is on a career path that interests you, it is not unusual for an accepted student to ask for a senior or for a professor in X department to email him or her for further discussion if you can’t come to both accepted students days in April. Take a look at the pages on each website that discusses where alum from each dept are heading.</p>
<p>Thanks! This was extremely useful. Gotta do some digging now.</p>
<p>Lucky you! you have two wonderful possible future alma maters.</p>
<p>I have a 22 year old friend who just finished undergrad in psych at a fine liberal arts college and she has been accepted to many PhD programs with stipends. I won’t ID her undergrad school out of respect for her privacy and the fact that she is not my daughter. However the critical factors in her winning graduate stipends have to do with her extensive resume in research and lab accomplishments, student teaching, teaching assistant and lab assistantships. Psych in her college is taught as a lab science. She has had opportunities to write, and her references are excellent as is her GPA and her talent as a writer.<br>
Peabody has many wonderful alternative paths for people interested in using psychology degrees so take a gander at their PhD and masters pathways as well since having graduate programs on campus does enrich the studies and lectures offered to undergrad students at Vanderbilt.</p>
<p>Are you a psychology major? If so, it depends on what field of psychology you are interested in. </p>
<p>If you are focusing on the social aspects of psychology, as a social science, then go to berkeley.</p>
<p>If you want to become a clinical psychologist, neuropsychologist, the medical side of psychology or use psychology to go to med school, then Vanderbilt would be a better fit for you since there is the med center on campus to do research, internships and volunteering.</p>
<p>Yep, extremely interested and plan on pursuing a Ph.D, if possible. I don’t know if 10 years of school will sound appealing after I’m done with undergrad.</p>
<p>I’m looking to go into clinical psychology, so hopefully Vanderbilt will offer a lot of research opportunities!
Thanks for all the advice!</p>
<p>@parisrosaries, did you also get accepted to UCLA, or UCSD? if so those are also great schools for psychology.</p>
<p>I didn’t apply to UCLA, and I got rejected by UCSD :(, so it didn’t work out so well. I feel like I should’ve applied to UCLA, would’ve probably made my decision a little easier since LA probably has one of the better psychology programs of the UC’s.</p>