Best Undergrad Psych Programs

[anonymousername]

I can't seem to find a UG ranking for Psych BA/BS programs. Anyone have?

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[erg923]

Probably doesnt exisist. Not sure what/how they would rank that. The number of big names and NIH money flowing through the place doesnt really have much affect on undergrads other than maybe increased volunteer research opps. Some people prefer big classes and big names to hop-nob with whereas other prefer small classes, cozy labs, and lots of 1 on 1. Its different for everyone. Pick undergrad based on the qualitry of life there, the cost, and the overall quality of the eduation they provide...not the psych department.

 

[terpskins10]

Agreed. Undergrad is what you make of it.

 

[mtat]

I would look at the rankings.
But important things to think about when picking a school is: how good of a graduate school do they have?
If there is a good graduate school there will probably be good opportunities for research (which is critical for going to graduate school in psych, which is critical for psych majors because a psych BA is basically equivalent to a high school diploma). For example, I am in the middle of applying for graduate school right now; my undergraduate school has a great grad school, so now i have the chance to attend here because i have worked really closely with the people i am applying to.
Schools like U of Wisconsin-Madison, U of Minnesota, U of Kentucky, U of South Florida, Florida State U, U of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, U of Missouri - Columbia, USC, LSU all have good graduate programs. Also, be wary of rankings for graduate programs, as it is not so much the school as the person you are working with that matters and rankings are often very misleading because of this. Also, there are often multiple graduate psych programs (e.g. clinical, developmental, etc.) that differ in quality.
Additionally, i know U of Central Florida - Orlando (UCF) has a TON of awesome opportunities for undergraduates; they have amazing facilities and they really let the undergraduates get heavily involved in the labs, taking them to conferences with them and allowing them to contribute to the research beyond data entry and running participants.

 

[AnnoyedByFreud]

University of Washington has a LOT of research opportunities for undergrads, if you're interested in research.

 

[NeuroPhD2010]

Places I'd say to look at for undergrad psych include: UCSD, Washington University in St. Louis, Indiana Univ., Stanford, U Michigan (main campus), UCLA, U Arizona....in all honesty, there are a lot of good ones out there! decide which area of psych you are most interested in, look at schools' undergrad catalog which states the courses selections, and go from there. also, keep in mind that how difficult an undergrad school is to get into varies greatly.

 

[Wolfman89]

The University of New Mexico has a pretty decent program for undergrads, and there are opportunities to participate in research and a subject with the MIND Research Network near by.

 

[krisrox]

Look at the psi chi website or websites for undergrad research conferences and see which schools have produced a lot of undergrad research or whose undergrads have won research awards. That's what's going to help you out most for grad school.

 

[whypsy]

You could roughly use the various graduate school rankings as a guide, because it would be difficult to imagine having an awful undergraduate program with an amazing graduate program. Their undergraduate classes are taught by the same professors and students in the graduate school. It tends to trickle down.

The U.S. News and World reports is overly simple but not terrible as a general guide. In addition, those schools that tend to be considered relatively prestigious have at least better than average psychology departments. However there are quite a few schools you might never guess that are power houses in their various psychology disciplines.

Also I would note the differences in research psychology schools versus clinical psychology schools versus counseling psychology schools.

 

[chman]

University of Washington has a LOT of research opportunities for undergrads, if you're interested in research.

I'm transferring there to major in psych. I am really hoping to get into some good research there, especially with the addictions work they do.

 

[Wolfman89]

I'm transferring there to major in psych. I am really hoping to get into some good research there, especially with the addictions work they do.

Good luck to you!