Psychology

The mission of the B.A. programs in the Dept. of Psychology is to offer students a balanced curriculum in psychological science, including research methods, perception, cognition, neuroscience, developmental, social, personality, and clinical areas. The curriculum prepares majors for graduate education in these fields and provides a relevant background for medicine, law, business, social work, and education. The department offers an honors program for outstanding students and encourages all majors to participate in advanced seminars and supervised research.

Psychology course offerings are designed to meet the needs and interests of a wide variety of students, from those wishing to explore a few topics in psychology or to fulfill the science requirement, to those interested in majoring in psychology or in neuroscience and behavior. Our Program Goals start with the development of a solid knowledge base in psychological science. Consistent with the value psychology places on empirical evidence, courses at every level of the curriculum nurture the development of skills in research methods, quantitative literacy, and critical thinking, and foster respect for the ethical values that undergird the science of psychology.

Most of these Program Goals are introduced in The Science of Psychology (UN1001), which is the recommended first psychology course, is required for all majors, and satisfies the prerequisite for most 2000-level courses. These goals are extended and reinforced in our statistics (1600-level) and research methods (1400-level) laboratory courses, as well as in the 2000-level lecture courses and 3000- and 4000-level seminars. Each of the lecture courses at the 2000 level provides students with the opportunity to study systematically, and in greater depth, one of the content areas introduced in UN1001. These lecture courses are the principal means by which psychology majors satisfy the distribution requirements, insuring not only depth but also breadth of coverage across three central areas of psychology: (1) perception and cognition, (2) psychobiology and neuroscience, and (3) social, personality, and abnormal. To complete the major, students take one or more advanced seminars and are encouraged to participate in supervised research courses, where they have the opportunity to explore research questions in depth and further develop their written and oral communication skills.

Thirty or more points are needed to complete the major. The program must include:

For students entering Columbia in Fall 2013 or later, one seminar course, numbered in the 3000s or 4000s, must be taken for 3 or more points.

Seminars are usually taken in the senior year as a culmination of the major program. Enrollment in seminar courses requires the instructor's permission; students are advised to contact instructors at least one month prior to registration to request seminar admission. Note that Honors and Supervised individual research courses (PSYC UN3920 and UN3950) are not seminar courses and will not meet the seminar requirement. 

• The Introductory Psychology Course (UN1001 The Science of Psychology) 
• One Statistics Course chosen from among the following:
  • PSYC UN1610 Introductory statistics for behavioral scientists (recommended)
  • STAT UN1001 Introduction to statistical reasoning
  • STAT UN1101 Introduction to statistics (without calculus)
  • STAT UN1201 Introduction to statistics (with calculus)
  • PSYC UN1660 Advanced Statistical Inference
• One Laboratory Course chosen from among the following:
  • UN1420 Experimental psychology: human behavior
  • UN1450 Experimental psychology: social cognition and emotion
  • UN1455 Experimental psychology: social and personality

  Majors are strongly advised to complete the statistics and laboratory requirements, in that order, by the fall term of their junior year. Students are advised to verify the specific prerequisites for laboratory courses, most of which require prior completion of a statistics course.

• Three Courses meeting the Distribution Requirement.
  In addition to the introductory, statistics, and laboratory courses described above, one course (3 pts. or greater) must be taken from each of the following three groups. 
  • Group I - Perception and Cognition: Courses numbered in the 2200s, 3200s, or 4200s. Also UN1420.
  • Group II - Psychobiology and Neuroscience: Courses numbered in the 2400s, 3400s, or 4400s. Also UN1010.
  • Group III - Social, Personality and Abnormal: Courses numbered in the 2600s, 3600s, or 4600s. Also UN1450 or UN1455.

  If a 1400-level course is used to satisfy a distribution requirement, it cannot also be used to fulfill the laboratory requirement, and vice versa.

• One Course meeting the Seminar Requirement.

• Additional Psychology Courses ("electives") for a total of 30 points. As described below, these may include research courses, transfer courses, and Barnard psychology courses not approved for specific requirements.

No course may be counted twice in fulfillment of the above major requirements, with the following exception: a seminar course may fulfill both the seminar requirement and a group requirement if it meets the criteria for both.

Grades: A grade of C-, or higher, must be earned and revealed on your transcript in any Columbia or Barnard course-- including the first-- that is used to satisfy the major or concentration requirements. The grade of P will not be accepted for psychology major, psychology concentration, or neuroscience and behavior major credit. Courses taken on a Pass/D/Fail basis may not be used to satisfy the major or concentration requirements unless the grade of P is uncovered by the Registrar's deadline. Courses offered on a mandatory Pass/Fall basis may not be used to satisfy the major or concentration requirements under any circumstances.

Research credits: No more than 4 points of Supervised individual research (PSYC UN3950 and UN3920) may be taken in any one term, and no more than 8 points total of research and field work courses (PSYC UN3950, BC3466, BC3473, BC3592 and BC3599) may be applied toward the major. (See below for further restrictions on applying Barnard courses toward the psychology major.)

Barnard courses: No more than 9 points (minus any transfer credits) from Barnard psychology courses may be applied as credit toward the major. The table of approved Barnard psychology courses indicates which courses have been approved for specific requirements of the psychology major. Courses not on the approved list may only be applied toward a specific requirement with prior written approval from a program advisor. Courses not on the approved list for a specific requirement may be applied as elective credit toward the 30 points for the major.

Transfer Credits: No more than 9 transfer credits (or a combination of transfer and Barnard credits) will be accepted toward the psychology major. Approval of transfer credits on a student's Entrance Credit Report toward general requirements for the bachelor's degree does not grant approval of these credits toward the psychology major. Approval of transfer credits to fulfill psychology requirements must be obtained in writing from a psychology program advisorusing the Major Requirement Substitution Form. To be approved for the major, a course taken at another institution should be substantially similar to one offered by the department, the grade received must be a B- or better, and the course must have been taken within the past 8 years. As noted below, if two courses overlap in content, only one will be applied towards the major. With the exception of approved Barnard courses, students should consult their Program Advisor(DUS) before registering for psychology courses offered outside the department.

Students who have completed an introductory psychology course at another institution prior to declaring a psychology major should consult a Program Advisor (DUS) to verify whether or not this course meets departmental standards for major transfer credit. If transfer credit toward the major is not approved, the student must enroll in PSYC UN1001 or PSYC BC1001 to complete this major requirement. Note that College Board Advanced Placement (AP) psychology scores will not satisfy the PSYC UN1001 requirement, nor will they confer elective credit toward the major.

Overlapping Courses: Students will not receive credit for two courses--one taken at Columbia and one taken at Barnard or transferred from another institution--whose content largely overlaps For example, PSYC W1001 The Science of Psychology overlaps the content of introductory psychology courses offered at many other institutions, including Barnard; only one such course will receive credit. Similarly, PSYC W2630 Social Psychology and PSYC BC1138 Social Psychology have overlapping content; only one will receive credit. Please refer to the table of Overlapping Courses for a partial list of courses known to overlap.

Requirements

1. TOEFL (Test of English as a Foreign Language). You are urged to visit www.toefl.org as quickly as possible for more information on this examination. A minimum score of 600 (paper-based test) or 100 (Internet-based test) is necessary for admission to Columbia. Your score must be reported directly to Columbia by the testing service, using report code 2116.
2. IELTS (International English Language Testing System). You are urged to visit www.ielts.orgas quickly as possible for more information on this examination. A minimum score of 7.0 is necessary for admission to Columbia. Your score must be reported directly to Columbia Undergraduate Admissions.
3. If you have a 650 or higher on the Critical Reading or Writing sections of the SAT, or a 29 or higher on the English or Reading sections of the ACT, you are exempt from taking an English proficiency examination.
4. An official high school transcript from all high schools attended
5. One high school counselor’s recommendation and school profile
6. The completed Mid-Year Report
7. Autobiographical information
8. $85 application fee or fee waiver request
9. Lists and descriptions of a student’s achievements, activities, employment and summer activities
10. Personal essay
11. Columbia-specific questions
12. SAT or the ACT
13. The appropriate SAT code is 2116 and the appropriate ACT code is 2717
14. Two Teacher Recommendations. For engineering applicants, one must come from a math or science teacher