This is a complicated question. Forensic psychology is the intersection of psychology, sociology, criminology, and law enforcement. To be certified as an expert witness as a forensic psychologist, you need either a PhD or a PsyD. Forensic pathology is a medical specialty and therefore means medical school. As Parentologist, Momocarly, and Merc81 have already wisely said, we’re talking about years of advanced graduate study. Is this your plan? Are you prepared for that financially?
Professionals who work in the FBI’s Behavioural Sciences Unit typically have 7-15 years of criminal investigative experience before they get there. That’s another career path. They might even pay for grad school. To get into the FBI, you need a college degree. A law degree. You also need to pass a physical fitness test and a very difficult multiple choice test, which covers 5 areas: logic based reasoning, figuratively reasoning, personality assessment, situational judgment, and preference & interests. If this is your path, then it can give you some direction for what to study in college.
As Parentologist said, colleges that offer degrees in forensic psychology are typically not too colleges and are therefore not likely to get you where you want to go. So, you need to make some choices about a career path. Psychologist? Medicine? Lawyer? Law enforcement? Depending on your goal, there will be a different path to follow through college.
In addition to Penn State, which was already suggested, here are some colleges with strong programs in criminal justice and are not in big cities (at your request):
Penn State
Michigan State
Cal-Irvine
Florida State
University of Maryland
In addition to the profiling program at the University of Central Florida, the University of Utah offers a profiling related program in criminology in its College of Sociology & Behavioral Science. I don’t know if the cities of Orlando and Salt Lake City are too big and therefore the kinds of urban areas you are trying to avoid.
The problem with all of these schools is that they are all very big universities and you are looking more mid-size. I’m trying to give you the broad overview. Can you select a career path from the options listed above and a major from the ones suggested above since forensic psychology is probably too specific at the undergrad level?
You can get a master’s in forensic psychology at George Washington or University of Denver and could think of a 5-year BS/MS approach, but again we’re talking about big cities. So, maybe a 4-year college elsewhere with a master’s degree to follow? Does that make sense financially? And again, would be your undergrad major?
