Academic Planning: Psychology

Advising Toolkit

The top 5 things to consider when planning a major in psychology

  1. Take Introduction to Psychology (Psy 1051), Introduction to Statistics (Stats 1601), and Research Methods in Psychology (Psy 2001) during your freshman or sophomore year. Psy 1051 and Stats 1601 can be taken concurrently and both are prerequisites for Psy 2001. All three classes are prerequisites for some upper division psychology courses and they are all offered both fall and spring semesters.
  2. Students must take at least one course in each of five categories: Learning and Cognition, Biological and Comparative, Personality and Clinical, Social and Applied, and Developmental. A senior seminar must also be completed. In addition, students must take at least one class that is designated as a lab class. These classes are: Psy 3101, 3111, 3112, 3201, 3211, and 3521.
  3. Courses required in the major cover the following General Education Requirements (GERs):
            History: Psy 3611, History of Psychology
            Mathematical/Symbolic Reasoning: Stats 1601 (as well as other statistics courses)
            Science with a Lab: Psy 3201, Comparative Psychology and Psy 3211, Biological Psychology
            Ethical and Civic Responsibility: Psy 3403, Adult Development and Aging and Psy 4102, Introduction to Professional Conduct, Legal Constraints, Ethics in Human Services
            Human Diversity: Psy 3542, Multicultural Psychology and Psy 3051, Psychology of Women
  4. The senior seminar must be taken during the senior year unless there is a very good reason to take it as a junior (e.g., National Student Exchange, study abroad, etc.). Sections are offered fall and spring on various topics. Emails are sent out to juniors and seniors along with a web link so they can categorize their preferences for topics and semesters. In order to receive this email, students must have designated psychology as one of their majors.
  5. If you are planning on attending graduate school eventually, you will need research experiences (2-3). You will also need three letters of recommendation from psychology (or other) professors, so you will want to do research with several professors. In addition, take advantage of internships, volunteer experiences, summer research opportunities, field opportunities, and employment in the area of psychology you think you are interested in.