I Know where I want to go for my undergraduate and it’s not the same university , so what professional college would be best for a graduate degree in psychology.
What do you want to do with that degree? Practice? Teach? Here’s a USN list of the top graduate psychology departments:
Stanford, Berkeley, UCLA, Harvard, Michigan, Yale, Princeton, UIUC, MIT, Minnesota
Do you want do to academic work? Clinical? Child? Adult? Forensic? Got to the APA website for a description for APA approved programs. VERY VERY competitive.
And there’s a difference between wanting a career in counseling/therapy vs. being a researcher on the links between cognitive development and genetics or brain science and environmental pollutants. There are different answers to “best” depending on your goal.
No need to decide now. A lot will depend on what part of the field you want to pursue. Once you are in college you will learn more about the possibilities and have the opportunity to get advice from professors in the field.
There are many, many good graduate psychology programs. As stated in comments above, deciding what area of psychology you want to pursue is important. Having good internship possibilities is probably most important to finding jobs when you graduate. I hire new graduate students for community mental health clinical programs and I do not put any weight on where someone graduated from - internships, career interests and skills are what matter for being hired.
http://www.apa.org/pubs/books/4270101.aspx
This guide is excellent for helping you to learn about graduate programs in psychology of every type.
DS is a college sophmore and double major in economics and psychology. He started out thinking he was interested in grad school in behaviorial economics, he has changed his interest to industrial psychology. Will he have to pay for grad school or are there funded programs? He tells me there are lots of jobs in industrial psych and i shouldn’t worry. i hear leaving an economics focus and moving to a psych focus an worry.
Clark U. and Lesley U. are both good for psychology, if you end up wanting to focus on the kinds of things they offer.
What kind of graduate program? Masters? PhD? PsyD?
The jury is still out on which area of psychology i would like to pursue but I know for sure I don’t want to teach at a university. For me it seems I want a bit of all the areas in psychology ( ex. Although i like the idea of vocational psychology and being able to identify others skills and help them take direction in their life I want more. Mainly i want to be able to know the reason and cause of people’s every action). Clinical psychology isn’t something I believe would be a great fit for me, this may sound juvenile but I’ve had a quiz suggest forensic also , some part of sociology interest me as you can see i am quite scattered. What field would you all suggest?
@Mom24boys, most PhD programs are funded – but most Master’s are not. So it depends on the degree he’s seeking, and the school, the program, and his ultimate goal.
Are you sure you want to be a psychologist? You don’t seem to want to do many of the things psychologists typically do.
I want to be able to tell you why people do little things (ex. someone walks in a room and says’‘hello’’ everyone whereas another person walks in and says ‘‘greetings’’ , this individual is either trying too hard to reinvent themselves as well mannered because of a certain background that makes them insecure so they overcompensate with being overly well mannered ). Things of this sort
Sounds like a grad program in counseling, social work, vocational counseling, that kind of thing would work better for you.
College-- you will learn in Freshman year of college that sometimes people do what you describe because English is not their native language. Or they are native speakers but grew up in a household of non-native speakers. Or they have a communicative disorder and so were taught from an early age how to handle routine verbal exchanges.
This does not require grad school in psychology. This requires living with people who didn’t grow up like you did. Not every verbal tic is a sign of a psychological disorder or even a sign of anything (even Freud said that sometimes a cigar is just a cigar).
Younwant to,study human behavior…it sounds like.
But the example you gave really doesn’t sound (to me) like something you would,be studying inndeoth in grad school,
Does the APA have info on its website about careers in psychology? And what it takes to get there?
Isn’t this exactly the kind of thing you should be asking at your college career center? Go there, they will help ensure that you are on the right path.
There are many, many colleges and universities that will give you a good undergrad education to be eligible for the type of grad program you want later. Other posters have pointed the variety of grad school fields plus that what you really want may actually be a different major/field. Focus on schools that offer solid programs in topics similar to psych plus meet many other criteria for you. This includes affordability, academic and social fit, geographic region and other factors. There will be time once you are in college to refine your interests as you discover much that you didn’t know existed while in HS. Do not “put the cart before the horse”- concentrate on a school that seems to offer you a good well rounded undergrad experience. Grad school will follow.
@Lindagaf I don’t think this student has started UNDERGRAD yet. He says he knows where he WANTS to go for undergrad.
To the OP…I would strongly suggest you go to undergrad school. Take a variety of courses. See what piques your interest. Work with your academic advisor to find a major that aligns with your interests.
You may find that psychology isn’t your cup,of tea…at all…once you ache tried other things.