<p>SpinDoctor -- I have no direct experience with med school admissions criteria but my sense is that exposure to the research process would be viewed as valuable. Much of your training will draw directly from research literature. This is how we generate most of our knowledge in the sciences (both social and basic sciences). It would also emphasize your focus and discipline and give you an opportunity to work closely with a faculty member. This, in turn, provides the faculty member with more depth so that he/she can write a stronger letter of recommendation when med school apps are due. Finally, it would give you a level of knowledge about a behavioral area that is far deeper than what you will be exposed to in the general classroom coverage.</p>
<p>I see. Thanks for the help.</p>
<p>By the way, where did you go to school?</p>
<p>One big problem of interestedadd's list is that it heavily favors liberal arts colleges. Since the number is divided by total enrollment, smaller schools are favored. For example, Cal's psych dept may not be even 2x bigger than Swarthmore's but it's enrollment is 10x Swarthmore's. Also, LACs tend to have larger % of students pursuing grad degress, regardless of what their majors are and which LACs they attend.</p>
<p>Berkeley and Swarthmore have about the same percentage of total graduates majoring in Psych: 5.0% for Swarthmore, 4.4% for Berkeley for the Class of 2004.</p>
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Also, LACs tend to have larger % of students pursuing grad degress, regardless of what their majors are and which LACs they attend.
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<p>That is true. It's easy to see these types of schools in the total PhD production per 1000 current undergrad enrollment. Clearly, LACs are over-represented. It is difficult to sort out how much is attributable to the self-selection of students and how much to the quality of instruction. It's almost certainly some combination of both.</p>
<p>SpinDoctor -- Undergrad (BS) at Murray State Univ in KY and MA & PhD at Univ of Iowa</p>
<p>Graduate degree is different from undergrad, though, right? I mean, not all grad teachers teach UG classes...</p>
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<p>I mean, not all grad teachers teach UG classes...</p>
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<p>Depends on the school. At some universities, all of the arts & sciences faculty are required to teach undergrads every year. At others, profs can choose what/where to teach and may primarily teach grad students.</p>
<p>SpinDoctor -- I'm not sure I understand your question. All regular faculty at colleges and universities who teach in a psychology department would have a PhD degree. Occasionally there are MA-level instructors but they would not be on the regular faculty and would be hired to teach an occasional course. Some community colleges do hire MA-level instructors.</p>
<p>As Hannah said, faculty (PhD-level) would typically teach both undergrad and graduate-level classes. At major research universities, there are sometimes faculty who teach only graduate classes but this is not typical even at those institutions. </p>
<p>If this is not what you're asking, please try again and I'll try to be less dense.</p>
<p>Anyone familiar with Georgetown's Psych Dept?? My son is transferring there - as a junior - and seems to be leaning away from Govt. major towards Psych.</p>
<p>I think Stanford is the best in psychology.</p>
<p>listing the rankings of PhDs for LACs may be very misleading. Some of the psychology programs may not be research-oriented but may have a strong professional component. OP said "I want to do a Psychology Major for Premed."...so keep that in mind.</p>
<p>I am interested in a degree in I/O psychology. Any idea on good undergrad universities for that? Or do you only specialize in grad school.</p>
<p>All top schools will have good psychology programs. Pick the one the fits you best.</p>
<p>Specialization does not occur at the undergraduate level. However, you would benefit from conducting research with I/O faculty members. This would make you more competitive when you apply to graduate schools. Do some looking at scientific articles published in the area of I/O Psychology and look at schools where the faculty are located. Take a look at teh website for the Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology (SIOP). That should be very helpful. The url is <a href="http://www.siop.org/%5B/url%5D">http://www.siop.org/</a></p>
<p>If your goal is psychiatry, you should probably take a Clinical or Abnormal Psych course. Developmental Psych would probably be useful, too, since mental illness usually develops over time due to family dysfunction and genetics. Psych of Learning would be good because some of the best psychological therapies are based on this area.</p>
<p>As far as majors are concerned, you would probably be better off majoring in Biopsychology or Neuroscience instead of Psychology. As a Psych major you would be required to take a lot of courses from the softer, non-scientific side of psych which would be less relevant to Psychiatry. </p>
<p>Schools with Biopsychology majors:
Barnard
Bucknell
Columbia
Cornell
Washington U St Louis</p>
<p>Schools with Neuroscience majors:
Allegheny
Amherst
Bates
Boston U
Bowdoin
Brandeis
Brown
Clark
Colby
Colgate
Connecticut C
Cornell
Emory
Franklin and Marshall
Hamilton
Haverford
Johns Hopkins
Kenyon
Lawrence U
Macalester
Middlebury
NYU
Northwesern
Oberlin
Pitzer
Pomona
Rice
Scripps
Smith
UC Irvine
UCLA
UC Riverside
U Minnesota Twin Cities
U Pennsylvania
U Pittsburgh
Washington and Lee
Washington U St Louis
Wellesley
Wesleyan</p>