Earlier this month I asked: Have any of your programs established criteria
that must be satisfied in order to major in Psych or Behavioral Sciences? I
promised to compile responses for the list and have done so in the order
they were received, which will give you a sense of how the discussion
evolved. Many thanks to all who replied! Once again I must conclude there
are no easy answers. ;-)
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Our students must have at least a 2.5 GPA in intro plus two more psych
classes to declare a psych major. I don't think our numbers of majors have
gone down appreciably since the requirements went into effect though. We
have some students who don't have the GPA so they just keep taking psych
classes (the ones you don't have to be a major to get into) hoping the GPA
goes up. Then they're seniors and still have no declared major. We're trying
to
find ways to decrease this behavior now.
Helen C. Harton
Department of Psychology
University of Northern Iowa
Cedar Falls, IA 50614-0505
Several years ago we started requiring a 2.5 average in 9 hrs of psych
courses
(intro and 2 electives) before students could declare a psych major. We did
this to try to limit the major to those students "serious" about Psych. It
hasn't exactly worked since some students continue to take Psych classes
until
they reach the required average. Only classes passed with a C- or better
count
toward fulfilling major requirements.
Linda Walsh
University of Northern Iowa
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We have been talking about it here - in fact, I posted a message a few
weeks ago about that same subject and didn't receive any replies. I do know
that there are some schools with requirements because I found a few through
an internet search (if you want the names, I can send them).
Dr. Deborah S. Briihl
Dept. of Psychology and Counseling
Valdosta State University
Valdosta, GA 31698
(229) 333-5994
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
We are also discussing this. We currently have a moratorium on internal
transfers to Psychology because our 500+ majors are really taxing us. We
just passed a rule that to transfer into psychology the students need to
have passed psych courses in two different categories with grades of C or
better. For various reasons we're not permitted to use a GPA criterion even
though education can (because of certification issues).
FWIW, I have always fought against arbitrarily high entrance criteria for
the major. The fact is that we are a liberal arts school and require that
our students major in SOMETHING. If all Depts. adopted a 2.5 GPA for new
majors it would make a mockery of the notion that a 2.0 is passing and would
represent fraud toward students who were told that they could major in
psychology and are now told they can't. Let's face it, the marginally
competent student needs a major. If you won't let them have one, then don't
admit them!
That being said, I see nothing inherently wrong with making the PSY major
more rigorous. Such a move is (to me) inherently more fair than an
arbitrary GPA requirement. It also lets students see (up front) what the
requirements are. If your fear is that the Psych major is becoming the
"last refuge of the incompetent," taken by those who can't hack it in other
majors, the solution is to make your program more rigorous. That way you
increase the quality of your program, let students know up front what's
required, and warn off those students looking for an easy way out.
Increasing the GPA requirement is, IMNSHO, just a cheap fix that unjustly
punishes those students who get off to a shaky start in their first year and
does little to improve the major. Heaven knows we've all seen students get
drunk on freedom in their first year and take an academic nose dive. But
we've also seen that many of those students sober up their second year and
become great students. Whatever method you employ to restrict the major you
need to have some way to accommodate these prodigal students.
Edward I. Pollak, Ph.D., Department of Psychology,
West Chester Univ. of PA, West Chester, PA 19383
At Ferris State University, to be a psych major you must have at least a 2.2
high school GPA and an ACT composite score of 19 or better. If you are a
transfer student, then you need 2.0 or better college GPA, and (for both
transfers and those who do not have the requirements out of high school) a
"C" or better in intro psych, successful completion of our freshman English
course, and our intermediate algebra course. If you do not qualify for being
a psych major, you can be a pre-psych student, which only prevents you from
taking our stat, methods, and capstone courses.
Jeff Nagelbush
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Recently a couple of programs have tried this here, some we have to go
along with because they come out of certification (e.g., Social Work) or
new state requirements (e.g., Education). I find this trend troubling. Our
College (and University) policy staes that a 2.0 GPA is required to be "in
good academic standing." How can we then tell students in good standing
that they cannot enroll in their major of choice because its requirement
is 2.5 or 2.75 or even 3.0? And once the dam is breeched don't we all have
to go along? I would hate to be one of the programs whose requirement
stays at 2.0 while others get raised. But is most of us raise, then "good
standing" becomes meaningless. (I haven't even linked this to the grade
inflation issue - a 2.7 requirement isn't going to be a problem if the
courses in the major have A- as the average grade.)
Vincent Prohaska, Ph.D.
Associate Professor and Chair
Department of Psychology
Lehman College, City University of New York
Bronx, NY 10468-1589
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
In order to move from "pre-major" to "major" status, our students must
have
earned at least a C in college algebra and at least a C in Psy. 100. Those
requirements may sound really minimal, but to be honest, they seem to have
had
an effect. College algebra is a pre-req for our Statistics in Psychology,
and
prior to our instituting the requirement of at least a C in it before the
student could be a psychology major, we had students who tried to put
algebra
off as long as possible. They would go on and take all the psychology
courses
they could that didn't have statistics as a pre-req, and then when they
couldn't
put off algebra any longer, they would take it. Many would struggle to
pass,
and some didn't. If they didn't pass algebra, some were understandably
distressed to have so many hours in psychology but no major. Those who
barely
passed algebra then sometimes had to take statistics more than once, and
this
meant they had to delay the two required courses for which statistics is a
pre-req.
So it seems that we have at least partially solved the problem by not
allowing them to be psychology majors until they have earned at least a C in
algebra. The other requirement, earning at least a C in Psy. 100, seemed
reasonable to us. Occasionally we had gotten a few majors who had earned a
D,
but who were sure that they could do better. It was seldom true.
I would caution you, however, to be prepared for the consequences of
raising
the entrance requirements. One consequence may be that number of student
credit
hours and number of majors will decrease; administrators get suspicious
about
what might be going on in a program in which those two things happen.
You'll
have to be prepared to show that you were anticipating that you would have
fewer, though higher quality, students. Will this outcome be acceptable to
your
administration?
Another issue is whether you really do want to restrict your major to a
select group. Some would argue that psychology has a lot of offer, that we
should strive to "give psychology away" to as many people as we can,
including
(maybe especially!) lower ability students. Some faculty in our department
were
opposed to our instituting entrance requirements for this very reason.
Retta E. Poe, Ph.D.
Professor of Psychology
Western Kentucky University
1 Big Red Way
Bowling Green, Ky. 42101
(270) 745-4409 FAX: (270) 745-6934
e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
At UCLA (where I went for grad school) your first had to become a
pre-psychology major. To become a psychology major you had to pass general
psychology, statistics and methods. Maybe also a physiology class. I'm sure
the issues at research universities are different than small liberal arts
schools. Nevertheless, the point is that many schools (with an influx of
psych
majors) have made passing certain classes a prerequisite.
Marie Helweg-Larsen [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Vincent Prohaska wrote:
><snip> How can we then tell students in good standing
>that they cannot enroll in their major of choice because its requirement
>is 2.5 or 2.75 or even 3.0? And once the dam is breeched don't we all have
>to go along? I would hate to be one of the programs whose requirement
>stays at 2.0 while others get raised. But is most of us raise, then "good
>standing" becomes meaningless. (I haven't even linked this to the grade
>inflation issue - a 2.7 requirement isn't going to be a problem if the
>courses in the major have A- as the average grade.)
I agree,
Several of the majors at Penn State have instituted admissions caps based
on GPA , residency requirements or both. I think it's a bad trend and
encourages grade inflation and cheating. It also tells the students that
some programs are more valuable that others. IMHO either raise the
admissions standards or the coursework needed to get into a major. In our
case requiring students to have completed both a rigorous math and english
course before entering the major would ensure better students.
Dawn
Dawn G. Blasko Ph.D.
Associate Professor of Experimental Psychology
Penn State Erie, The Behrend College
Station Road, Erie, PA 16563-1501
Office phone: 814-898-6081
http://www.pserie.psu.edu/hss/psych/blasko.htm
We have a 2.0 minimum in both the major and overall for graduation. I
think that that is sufficient. A higher gpa requirement for a major
results, in my view, in nothing more grade inflation. A C grade (2.0)
should represent perfectly acceptable work. (In our college catalog, C is
noted as "GOOD," B "VERY GOOD" and A "EXCELLENT.")
David E. Anderson, Ph.D.
Department of Psychology
Allegheny College
Meadville, PA 16335
email: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Actually, here is the plan that I have been thinking about. We believe that
the student should have at least a 2.0 GPA to get into Psychology (they
need 2.0 to graduate). We have students that have less that a 2.0 trying to
get into our major (the lowest was someone with a 1.2 - we get at least 4-5
EACH TERM with way lower than a 2.0). Our feeling is, if you can't make a
2.0 in your core and electives (they need to have completed 45 hours before
becoming a psych major), then you will struggle - with a high likelihood of
having to take each class twice. I have also thought about contracts. If a
student is falls below the 2.0 in the psych major, then the advisor and the
student create a written contract, so that way all parties know what is
expected of them. I haven't hammered out all of the details yet, but this
is designed to help the student that does have a bad semester.
Dr. Deborah S. Briihl
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
I'm surprised to see a GPA requirement for education - here there's almost
a perception that it's a route to take if you can't declare somewhere else
due to GPA requirements...
For Psychology at SUNY New Paltz, we require students to (a) have 45
credits under their belt, (b) have taken (and passed) General Psychology,
and (c) have a 2.5 GPA.
I have no problem with the GPA requirement, it's the credit requirement
that I think should be revised, perhaps down to 30. The reason is that
students then don't declare until their 4th or 5th semester, and most don't
take the methodology course until their senior year, which makes it more
difficult for me to require reading of journal articles in my upper-level
courses, and limits students' ability to get research experience for more
than a semester.
Douglas C. Maynard, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor
Department of Psychology
SUNY New Paltz
I tend to agree with your (David's) position on using grades as a
"gatekeeping" mechanism. Our department's policy is that majors must get
at least a C in courses counting toward the major, which is a LITTLE more
stringent than requiring a 2.0 GPA. What this means is that students can't
compensate for a D in statistics, for example, with a B in some other
psychology course.
William E. Addison
Psychology Department
Eastern Illinois University
Charleston, IL 61920
This fall, our department instituted a policy requiring students to
complete Introductory Psychology, College Algebra (a prerequisite for
our
statistics course), and two other psychology courses, all with a minimum
grade of C before they could officially become psych majors. Now we're
considering backing off on the "two other psych courses" because it
really
sets some students back, particularly transfer students.
William E. Addison
Psychology Department
Eastern Illinois University
Charleston, IL 61920
Are students with less than a 2.5 still considered to be in good standing
in the university? So a student who has a 2.4 can not major in Education
although the student is still in good standing in the university.
Are other faculty worried that the low GPA students will be funneled into
their departments, thus creating an incentive for every department to
require a 2.5.
I wonder how others feel about this. It seems to be wrong to restrict
access to the major in this way. We would all like to have the best
students, but don't we have an obligation to offer the major to any
student that is in good standing in the university.
Paul W. Jeffries
Department of Psychology
SUNY--Stony Brook
Stony Brook NY 11794-2500
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Our Education students have been required to have at least a 2.5, soon to
go to a 3.0. We require a 2.0 in the major to graduate and have fought any
efforts to raise this, fearing pressures for grade inflation. While we get
"failed" biology students and accept them happily, we don't generally get
"failed" education students. They usually find our major harder than
Education -- despite the difference in grades. Jeanne
>Are students with less than a 2.5 still considered to be in good standing
>in the university? So a student who has a 2.4 can not major in Education
>although the student is still in good standing in the university.
Jeanne M. Slattery, Ph.D. 814.393.2254 or 2295
Department of Psychology 814.393.2438 (fax)
Clarion University
Clarion, PA 16214 http://psy1.clarion.edu/jms/index.html
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Bev Ayers-Nachamkin
Wilson College
1015 Philadelphia Ave.
Chambersburg, PA 17201-1285
717-264-4141, Ext. 3285
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
