The courses required for this program are essentially identical to those required for all Psychology majors. They are designed to provide you with a relatively broad undergraduate-level education in Psychology. Most students complete all coursework within 1-2 years. Many courses have pre-requisites and not all courses are offered every year. Careful planning can ensure that you are able to take all the courses that you need and want before applying to graduate school.
Although course schedules are tailored to the needs of the student, here are some general guidelines to keep in mind regarding the required coursework.
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Requirement #1. Science of Psychology: W1001. This introductory psychology course is usually taken during the first semester of the program, unless the student has acceptable transfer credit . Although many upper-division (3000-4000 level) courses have W1001 as a pre-requisite, it can be taken concurrently with many 1000-level and some 2000-level courses. It is usually offered in Fall, Spring and Summer I sessions.
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Requirement #2. Laboratory. This course can be taken at any point during the program, although it is advisable to take it before applying to graduate school . Some students find that it is best to take statistics (Requirement #3) prior to taking the lab course. Because both statistics and the lab course involve more assignments than the average lower-division course, some students prefer not to take both in a single semester.
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Requirement #3. Statistics. This course can be taken either in the Statistics department (W1111, W1112) or in the Psychology Department (W1610). It is preferable to take the Psychology course W1610 if it is being offered. It should be taken earlier in the program, rather than later, and should be taken before applying to graduate school .
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Requirement #4-6. Group I-III Requirements. You can meet these requirements with courses at any level (1000-4000 level). Generally, first you should take the course in the group which corresponds to your area of greatest interest and leave the group that is of less interest for later. Taking a lower-division course in your area of interest early will allow you to advance to upper-division seminars more quickly. If you have already taken a lower-division course in one or more of these areas at your undergraduate institution, you might want to consider taking an upper-division course to fulfill the requirement.
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Requirement #7. Advanced Seminar. You will need to take at least one advanced (3000-4000 level) seminar. Because these courses often have pre-requisites, they are almost always taken after the first semester. You should choose the seminar that most closely matches your proposed area of graduate study. If you can, take more than one seminar. Besides providing you with more in-depth information on a topic, they most closely represent the type of class interaction that you will experience in graduate school. They also give you more personal interaction with a professor. Most professors are much more amenable to giving letters of recommendation to students in their seminars than in their large lecture courses.
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Requirement #8. Independent Supervised Research. You must take at least 2 semesters of independent supervised research. You should have at least 1 semester of research experience before applying to graduate school and "the more the better." Generally, students focus on coursework their first semester and start to get involved in research in their second semester, but some get involved as soon as their first semester. See Research Experience for more information on this requirement.
