The Psychology Majors
The Psychology Department offers two majors: The Psychology Bachelor of Arts (B.A.) major, and the Psychology Bachelor of Science (B.S.) major. Both degree options introduce students to the broad range of topics that psychologists study, while also allowing students to choose an individualized course of study and focus on some aspects of psychology in greater depth. Both options allow students to gain research experience working in one or more of our psychology labs.
The Psychology B.A. major is particularly suited to students who wish to understand human behavior and mental functioning at the behavioral level. Students will take Psychology courses relevant to social, developmental, and cognitive psychology and will learn how animal models can be used to inform human behavior. Together these courses will provide students with an appreciation for the theories that have been put forth to explain human behavior and for the importance of considering clinical, cultural, social, and developmental factors when trying to understand why humans think, feel, and act as they do.
The Psychology B.S. major is particularly suited to students who wish to explore the brain mechanisms of human and animal behavior and mental functioning. Students will take courses from the Psychology, Biology, and Chemistry Departments that are related to evolution, genetics, physiology, neurobiology, and the neural basis of higher cognitive and emotional processes in humans. Together these courses will provide students with a strong foundation in the neurobiological processes that underlie behavior, motivation, and cognition. Pre-med students who are interested in majoring in Psychology are advised to pursue the Psychology B.S major.
The Psychology Department grants credit toward the major for A.P. examinations in Psychology, Calculus, and the natural sciences. Please see the Advanced Placement description in the university catalog for a complete description of this course credit.
Most students majoring in psychology are assigned a full-time faculty member in the Psychology Department as an advisor. Some exceptions include freshmen and students for whom psychology is a second major. Only double majors who list psychology first, (i.e., as their primary major) will be assigned an advisor from within the Psychology Department.
If for any reason you have not been assigned a major advisor from within the Department, you should seek some form of departmental advising prior to registering for courses. You can obtain advising from any faculty member. You need only pick up your degree audit from your assigned advisor.
Faculty advisors can be highly valuable as sources of opinion and guidance. However, it is unlikely that any one person will be able to answer all of your questions. Here are some suggestions:
- The Department holds informational sessions for students considering graduate work in clinical psychology.
- The main office has syllabi for almost all psychology courses. You can request that a syllabus be emailed to you.
Meeting Your Advisor
Keep in mind that the registration period is particularly busy. Each faculty member in the Psychology Department has many advisees who all need to pick up forms and receive advising during a brief period of time. To keep this process running smoothly, consider the following suggestions.
- Prepare your questions carefully ahead of time so that you get the answers you need.
- Read and know the specific requirements for the major before you meet with your advisor. These detailed requirements are listed in the Boston College Undergraduate Catalog and in the CoRSS. You must assume responsibility for knowing what you must take in order to graduate. Your advisor is there to offer advice and some perspective on larger issues rather than to repeat what is readily available in print or to tell you what to do.
- Make an appointment to talk to your advisor at some other time during the semester when things are not so hectic. Doing so will give you an opportunity to discuss the longer-term issues which are certainly relevant to your Boston College experience.
- If you are interested in some special programs, make an appointment to see the relevant advisor: pre-medical advisor Prof. Robert Wolff of the Biology Department in Higgins Hall, pre-law advisor Dean Joseph Burns in the A&S Associate Deans Office Gasson 109B, junior year abroad advisor Prof. Jeff Flagg at the Foreign Study Office, etc. Again, it is best to make these appointments before the registration period starts.
Your Degree Audit
Your DeGRE (Degree and Graduation Requirements Evaluation) audit, which contains your access code number, is mailed to your advisor. (Seniors' degree audits are sent to them directly.) You contact this person to pick up your audit form and access code and to review your course selections for the coming semester.
This document lists all courses that Student Services is counting towards your requirements for graduation. A completed requirement has *** in front of it. After you have declared a Psychology Major, there should be a separate listing of the major requirements you have satisfied and those which you have not. If you have a question about some requirement that is not marked as completed, you should check with Student Services. If the question concerns the Psychology Major, you may be referred to the Director of Undergraduate Studies. It is a good idea to straighten out these problems as early as possible.
Your Boston College degree audit will list all courses that BC is counting towards your degree. This document should also indicate whether you are listed as majoring in psychology. If you are listed as a Psychology Major, then your degree audit will indicate which major requirements you have completed, and which you have not, according to Student Services' records. For example, a course may be listed as something else at the end of the degree audit under the heading "Courses not counted towards the above requirements." Courses do not count as fulfilling major requirements unless they appear under the Psychology Major portion of your degree audit. Someone in the Psychology Department, usually the Director of Undergraduate Studies, needs to fill out a form to inform Student Services precisely how a particular psychology course you took somewhere else should be counted with respect to your Boston College Psychology Major.
Students planning to spend a semester or two studying abroad need to receive approval from their major department. This approval is obtained from your academic advisor. To prepare for this appointment, you need to complete your tentative schedule for your semester(s) abroad and for your remaining time on campus at Boston College. (In general, Psychology Majors do not fulfill many of their major requirements while studying abroad.) You should also obtain an up-to-date copy of your DeGRE audit to verify what Psychology Major requirements you have left outstanding. Review these materials on your own to see what you will need to take and when in order to accommodate your time abroad. Bring all these materials to your appointment with your academic advisor.
If you would like for one or several of the courses taken abroad to satisfy the requirements of the major, you should provide the Director of Undergraduate Studies with a course syllabus for each course, a current copy of your Boston College DeGRE audit or your social security number. The Director of Undergraduate Studies will decide if a meeting is necessary after reviewing the relevant material. You can set up an appointment by calling the Director of Undergraduate Studies directly.
Credit from study abroad must comply with the general rules about transfer credit.
The department allows students to take up to three Psychology courses outside of the department (with approval by the Director of Undergraduate Studies to meet the requirements of the major). This limit will not apply to the natural science courses associated with the Psychology B.S. major. Please remember that, in addition to courses taken at other universities, courses taken at other schools within Boston College (e.g., Lynch School of Education, College of Advancing Studies) are considered as outside of the department.
Non-majors may fulfill the Social Science Core requirement with any two Psychology courses with a number between 1010 and 1111 (e.g., PSYC1011, PSYC1021, PSYC1029, PSYC1032, PSYC1072, PSYC1110, or PSYC1111).
Students receiving a four or a five on the Psychology A.P. exam are considered to have fulfilled half the Social Science Core requirement and may take any Psychology core course to fulfill the second required semester of Social Science Core.
Psychology majors take PSYC1110 and PSYC1111 as major requirements, thereby fulfilling the Social Science Core requirement.
If you are already a BC student and plan to take courses anywhere outside of the regular day school of BC's College of Arts and Sciences (perhaps in the Lynch School of Education, in the Woods College of Advancing Studies, during the summer session, or at an entirely different institution), you must have your course credits approved by the Psychology Department as counting towards your Psychology Major.
For approval of courses taken elsewhere, you should provide the Director of Undergraduate Studies with information about each course, including the course syllabus. You should also provide a current copy of your BC degree audit.
If you anticipate taking courses somewhere other than the regular day school of the College of Arts and Sciences, then you should make every effort to obtain prior approval from the Director of Undergraduate Studies. Doing so will help insure you receive credit for the courses and, thus, will help avoid having your schedule disrupted at some later time.
If you are a transfer student new to BC, you probably have taken courses at your previous institution that were accepted by Boston College, and that appear similar to our major requirements. If you would like these courses to be considered as fulfilling the requirements of the major, you should set up an appointment with the Director of Undergraduate Studies as soon as possible after your arrival at BC.
The Director of Undergraduate Studies will indicate which of your previous courses can count towards your Psychology Major here at BC and which specific requirements they fulfill. You should bring to your meeting: a BC degree audit; a transcript from your former institution; and course information (syllabus, title and author of text, course description).
Please remember that:
- Most schools have only one Introduction to Psychology course, while here at BC we have two. The Director of Undergraduate Studies will determine how a course taken at another institution compares to BC's two introductory courses and may make other adjustments to the requirements in light of a student's previous coursework.
- Most psychology courses that list Introduction to Psychology as a prerequisite can be counted as psychology electives, as long as Boston College has granted you transfer credit for them. It is sometimes difficult to ascertain, however, whether courses taken at other institutions satisfy other, more specific requirements of our Psychology Major.
Number of courses allowed
The department allows students to take up to three Psychology courses outside of the department (with approval by the Director of Undergraduate Studies to meet the requirements of the major). This limit will not apply to the natural science courses associated with the Psychology B.S. major. Please remember that, in addition to courses taken at other universities, courses taken at other schools within Boston College (e.g., Lynch School of Education, College of Advancing Studies) are considered as outside of the department.
COURSE REQUIREMENTS
The University Catalog contains the requirements for the Psychology B.A. and B.S. majors.