Overview of the Psychology Major
The St. Olaf Department of Psychology, in accord with the American Psychological Association’s curricular guidelines, encourages students to experience the breadth of the discipline, learning about a range of areas in psychology. The Department’s faculty reflects this breadth; faculty areas include clinical, cognitive, cultural, developmental, neuroscience, personality, and social psychology. At the same time, our major provides flexibility so that students may pursue their interests in more depth and craft a major to fit their specific goals. Students often do research with faculty, and many complete internships.
Psychology Major Information
Psychology Coursework Completed Elsewhere
Students complete psychology courses elsewhere through a variety of mechanisms (e.g., off-campus study, transfer courses, AP/IB psychology). Regardless of the mechanism, we have policies guiding how psychology study completed elsewhere can be applied toward the psychology major. Here are some of the rules and procedures. Please reach out to the Department Chair or your advisor to discuss the specifics of your situation. Please note: the Registrar makes a determination about whether or not a course completed elsewhere can be accepted by the College. The Psychology Department may only consider courses accepted by the College for application to completion of the major. Here is the Registrar’s webpage outlining the policies for transferring credits to St. Olaf.
The 3-Course Rule
By department policy, all majors must complete at least six PSYCH courses through St. Olaf. Thus, a maximum of three psychology courses may be taken elsewhere through any other mechanism (e.g., off-campus study, PSEO courses, AP courses, transfer credits) and applied toward completion of the major. Statistics does not count for the purposes of this policy because it is not a PSYCH course despite being required for the major.
Courses that MUST be Completed through St. Olaf
By department policy, majors must complete PSYCH 230 – Research Methods and both of the required 300-level courses through St. Olaf. Thus, we do not accept any courses completed elsewhere as meeting these requirements regardless of their course number, title, or content. However, these courses may be considered for fulfilling the two additional psychology courses (i.e., electives) required for the major. Please note: because by college policy you can not complete the same course twice for two different purposes, we can NOT count a Research Methods course completed elsewhere toward any element of the psychology major.
Procedure for Counting AP/IB Courses Toward the Major
You must submit your AP/IB exams to the Registrar’s Office. They will review the scores and apply them as appropriate to the major. Here is the Registrar’s webpage describing the process along with the exam equivalency guides.
Procedure for Counting a Graded Course Completed Elsewhere
You can petition to have courses completed elsewhere count toward the major. The petition involves sharing the course title, description, and syllabus with the chair of the department of psychology. The chair reviews those materials, consults with other psychology faculty as needed, and makes a determination. The types of things the chair often considers in this review is who teaches the course (i.e., does that person hold an advanced degree in psychology), what topics are covered in the course (are they primarily topics that clearly fall within the discipline of psychology), and what kinds of readings are assigned (are they primarily empirical or theoretical psychology readings).
It is easiest to have a course you take elsewhere count as one of the “elective” courses for the psychology major. The elective course category has the most flexibility and therefore, we don’t need to ensure that the course you took elsewhere is mostly equivalent to one we offer here. If you wish for a course to count as the equivalent of a course we offer here (e.g., PSY 101 – General Psychology from your hometown’s college or university in place of our PSYCH 125 – Principles of Psychology), then one of the faculty members who regularly teaches that course will be asked to review the syllabus and determine if that course is functionally equivalent to our course.
Preliminary Advance Opinion for Counting a Course Toward the Psychology Major
If you have not yet completed a course elsewhere but are planning to do so, then you may contact the Department Chair before you take the course to obtain a preliminary opinion on whether or not a course is likely to be applied toward the psychology major. This determination is usually based on a course description and/or an old syllabus. However, the final determination of whether or not it counts is based on (a) review of the syllabus from the course you actually completed and (b) the Registrar’s receipt of your grade indicating that you passed the course. Until those criteria are met, any guidance you receive from the Department Chair is considered a preliminary determination.