Hi Everyone! I am making my list of colleges (class of '25) and want to study psychology and eventually go to law school. I am interested in Purdue as it checks a lot of boxes in what I am looking for, but I wonder about their psychology program, since the school is so focused on the hard sciences like Engineering and Computer Science. Does anyone have experience with their Psych program? I studied a summer at Brown and would like to be in a program with excellent professors and engaged students.
Maybe you can reach out and talk to a student ambassador in the program.
I’m sure Purdue is great - and it’s far more than a STEM school but it is known for that. They have lots of social science and humanity majors.
And for law school, where you go will matter little but getting a high LSAT and GPA will.
If Purdue is for you, I personally wouldn’t hesitate - but reaching out and speaking to a student in the program (they can set you up), is always a good idea.
Purdue is great, but when I think of schools similar to Brown, I don’t really think of Purdue. Are you considering any liberal arts colleges? When you say Purdue “checks a lot of boxes”, what are your boxes of interest?
I understood that, but part of their post just screams LAC to me, or at least schools that are well-known for psych. Pre-law, psych, Brown, engaged profs and eager students bring to mind a lot of schools before I’d think of Purdue. I’m just wondering why Purdue in particular.
Tangential comment: I was accepted to Purdue’s clinical psych doctoral program back in the day, but chose to go elsewhere. FWIW, It must have had a strong psych graduate program or I wouldn’t have applied. That said, I agree that engaged faculty to interact with and a Brown “feel” suggests a smaller environs.
Yes, sorry I wasn’t clear. I am not looking for a comparable school
to Brown; it’s very much out of reach, but I also want to be in a program with a robust curriculum and engaged student base — in that way, the bar is high.
I really welcome any other ideas and suggestions (please!) I am having an easy time finding schools that are a reach or possible target (seems “target” quickly becoming “reach” with the results of this season’s admissions.)
My UW GPA 3.6, W 4.1
7APs (including next year)
Lots of EC and leadership, research and volunteer experience
And I really want to dance on a competitive school dance team so that’s really important to me too.
I had to look up LAC, but I appreciate your input. I think Purdue hit my radar because I would also like school spirit and to dance on a school dance team, so I’ve been focused on bigger schools, like VT, Purdue, UGA, or Tulane where there is school spirit around sports, but it honestly doesn’t need to be football. Spirited engagement around Basketball is enough for me.
I welcome any ideas for LAC programs that have solid psych programs. Thank you.
Chose UF for its neuropsychology program and that the clinical psych program was housed in the hospital (was more interested in the med psych approach and strong relationship with the psychiatry dept which isn’t always true.)
My first thought is that for someone who wants LAC-like academics, but with larger-school-like school spirit, would be either 1) one of the mid-sized Catholic U’s with big sports, like Gonzaga, Providence, Villanova, etc. or 2) a large public with an honors college that would be accessible with your stats.
Thank you. I thought about Villanova and will research it more, and considered Gonzaga but I heard their dance stuff happens in portables and I’d like to be at a school that values dance either as an athlete group or a performing arts troupe with proper dance studios. Thankfully there are many so far! Your suggestions are getting me thinking about a whole new set of options though. Thanks again!
Yeah, I didn’t do a deep dive on the dance teams beyond confirming that they exist. But there are a lot of schools in this category, at varying levels of admissions competitiveness, and I’m sure at least some of them do well by their dance teams.
There are also non-religiously-affiliated privates like UMiami and Syracuse that might work.