| The
eight courses that I would advise all psychology majors to take:
General Psychology
|
Planning Your Undergraduate Psychology
Major
Advising students on their academic program to some degree depends on their long term goals. This makes advising more difficult since it is the rare student who knows what he or she would like to do upon graduation when they are in their first, second, third, or even their fourth year of college. Careers often develop, as a matter of job experience and this may delayed until after graduation. However, most students have some idea if they would like to continue their education beyond college and to seek an advanced degree or whether they would like to experience work in the "real world" first. My recommendations for each student is slightly different For the student who decides not to immediately pursue an advanced degree, an undergraduate degree in psychology is an excellent liberal arts major because of the diversity of the subject matter in our field. It is part science, part humanities, part mathematic, part art, and part philosophy. It should help to encourage you to develop broad interests and talents, qualilties which are needed in the 21st century. Many of our psychology majors who have graduated have gone on to develop careers in areas far removed from psychology, but yet believe psychology has proved invaluable in working with others, gathering evidence, working with numbers and analyzing data, presenting arguments or understanding themselves. If you fall into this category, don't feel uncomfortable about not planning to go to graduate school to "legitimize" your major; you are in excellent company. I would, however, recommend taking the bare minimum of courses necessary for the major, and use this freedom to select your courses wisely so that you develop your realized and latent talents. Diversity should be your goal. My suggestions of courses if you limit yourself to the minimum of eight are on the left |
| "What do I do with a Psych Major?"
I wish I had a nickel every time I heard that question. The answer is that it depends on your imagination. I may be a bit biased but psychology is one of the best majors in a liberal arts college. It contains elements of philosophy, biology, history, mathematics, lterature, chemistry, education, physics, and sociology. An article that appeared in the APA Monitor may be of interest to you. |
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| A good place to start to look for information on graduate school is
the APS
Web site.
Other Possible Sites are: American Psychological Association Psych Web |
Graduate School
If you are a student thinking of graduate school, you should develop some research competence early in your career at Gustavus, and conduct a research project either alone or with one of the members of the department. This will serve to differentiate you from all of the good student applicants that are attempting to enter graduate school. This means taking your Statistics and Methods courses early in your career. My personal opinion is that any prospective graduate student should have some affinity for research, or at least appreciate its importance in psychology, regardless of the area of psychology he or she plans to enter, and this includes clinical psychology. Early practioners realized that methods of therapy need to be empirically tested to see if they had value for their patients. A position similar to the medical doctors who take an oath that they will cause their patients no harm. Unfortunately, we may have moved away from these goals, but it is something I would like to encourage. If you are a student planning on graduate school take more courses than the minimum required for the major, maintain as high a GPA as you can, get to know your profs well, and DO RESEARCH. |
| Write for materials early
Compose resume Choose people who know you well Provide list of schools and deadlines Provide stamped addressed envelopes Check to see if letters have been sent and received by graduate school A note of thanks is appreciated |
Letters of recommendation
If you decide to apply to graduate school you will need some of your professors to write letters of recomendations for you. Choose those profs who know you well and to whom you have demonstrated your competence; they will have more to write about and hence write better letters. Sometimes a professor outside of your major is a good choice if you have worked with them a great deal. You will need to contact the various universities you would like to attend for materials. Do this early so you can prepare at your leisure. Take some time to write a well organized resume of what you have done over the last four years of college. List the courses that are pertinent and the grades you received, and any academic honor or recognition for achiement you received . Include non-academic activities both on and off campus that might bear on your recommendation. Don't rely on your prof's memory to comment on things you would like in your letter. If there is something you think needs emphasizing in the letter, tell let them know. Most recommendation forms will ask you if you waive your right of access to the information that appears in the recommendation letter. Advice will differ on what you should do, but regardless, you should choose people you trust well enough, that right of access will not be an issue for you. Some professors do not like to write letters when the right to access has not been waived. Writing recommendation letters is not an enjoyable activity, you should try to be helpful as possible to make it easier on the person writing your recommendation. They will be very appreciative. You should provide each letter writer with a list of schools you will be appplying to, and the dates the applications must be in, as well as stamped envelopes with the addresses of the graduate schools typed on them. Click here for suggestions about how you should handle reference letters. This document writing by one of our majors, Nicole Fuerstenburg, is very helpful. Good Luck! |
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