which colleges offer the the best psychology courses?

If you are living in or planning to go to school in the San Francisco Bay Area, one of the best state universities for psychology is San Francisco State University. However, equally good programs include U.C. Berkeley and Mills College, if you have the financial means or getting scholarships.

There are always top schools for every subject, but what are your priorities? If your main priority is to get a first-class education at an ivy league school, or to go on to earn a doctorate, then definitely follow Ms. Silva's advice. If your priority is to live in a certain area or to avoid college debt, there are many inexpensive psychology programs at various state schools. I went to California State University, Chico, which is not a very highly ranked university, but they have a great psychology program and it opened many doors for me. My priority was to stay in-state and pay cheap tuition so I could graduate without too much debt. Definitely consider your grades, chances of getting into a top school, and look into all scholarship opportunities. I would keep your options open and talk to a guidance counselor about your main career goals. Psychology is a very versatile major, and just about every university has a program in it! Point being, you'll probably need to narrow your question down to get a more relevant answer. :-)

Hello Bailey!

Here it is the list of Top 5 Colleges courses in psychology :

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  Stanford University: Stanford University is a private institution internationally recognized for its innovation, research projects, and extremely competitive undergraduate and graduate programs. Stanford offers a top-rated psychology program and is internationally renowned as a hub of psychological research, and offers psychology majors a wealth of unique opportunities. The main department areas of the program are: Affective science, neuroscience, and cognitive, social, and developmental psychology.

  
  


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  Yale University: Yale is both a small college and a large research university that is often cited as one of the top schools in the United States. Specifically, the psychology department is linked to countless research projects, facilities, and other universities, thus creating immense possibility for internships and research opportunities. In the past five years, 100% of students who pursued doctoral degrees passed their license exam. The primary research areas of Yale are clinical psychology, neuroscience, developmental psychology, cognitive psychology, and social psychology.

  
  


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  Harvard and Radcliffe Colleges: Harvard is one of the oldest private universities in the country, and houses a library with the oldest and largest private collection in the world. Harvard also has the largest endowment of any school in the world, and is consistently rated as the 1st or 2nd best university in the country by various rankings. Currently, the faculty categorizes the department’s research concentrations as follows: cognition, brain, and behavior, developmental, and social psychology, and clinical science. While Harvard is one of, if not the most, competitive schools in the country, those who make it in are sure to be in one the greatest psychology programs in the world.

  
  


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  University of Pennsylvania: Adhering to a long tradition of educational excellence, the University of Pennsylvania consistently makes the top 10 of many private college rankings. The psychology program make the University an international force in psychology science and a prime candidate for undergraduate study of psychology. The faculty divide their research interests into two broad categories: brain, cognitive, and decision science, and clinical, positive, and social psychology.

  
  


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  University of Michigan: The University of Michigan, Ann Arbor is a high ranking public institution that claims to have the best college town in America. While this claim is disputable, the University of Michigan does offer phenomenal education at a noticeably lower tuition that of many comparable universities. The psychology department has an above average number of faculty members, coming in at 103 members, and has been nationally recognized for decades as one of the most innovative and productive programs in the country. The size of the faculty also grants students the opportunity to pursue almost any research interest.

  
  

All the list with the 50 best colleges in psychology career you can read in:
http://www.bestpsychologydegrees.com/top-50-universities-to-earn-a-psychology-degree/

Good Studies and all the best!

Hi, Bailey! I'm glad to hear of your interest in Psychology. It's a very diverse field, so you need to have some idea of what your goals are (although they can change as you get exposure to new possibilities). Research, teaching, clinical work? Children, adolescents, adults?

Choose a few schools, then go online & look at their course selection & requirements for a Psych major. Better yet, contact them to request a catalog. This will give you a more realistic picture of what's out there for you.

I wish you the very best of luck!

The answer to what college offers the best psychology courses depends because there are a variety of decisions that you must make beforehand:
What psychological perspective are you interested in studying (i.e., psychodynamic, behavioral, cognitive, humanistic/existential, sociocultural, biopsychological, etc.)?
Do you wish to study counseling or psychology? In other words, would you rather work with clients that are mentally healthy overall or with those with severe mental illnesses. Both fields focus on mental health and require licensure, but they are distinct in their methods of practice, training, and testing requirements (e.g., in the latter case determining whether you will eventually need to take the National Counselor Exam (NCE) or the Examination for Professional Practice in Psychology (EPPP)). Counselors have a master's level education and follow curriculum standards set by CACREP (Council for Accreditation of Counseling and Related Educational Programs), whereas most psychologists have training at the doctoral level and follow standards set by the APA (American Psychological Association).
Will the courses you take need to be offered by an APA or CACREP accredited program?
Are you interested in obtaining a bachelors or in post-graduate courses?

After you decide on which field and sub-specialty interests you the most, the next step would be to choose the college. For example, I live in Georgia so my options are:

Biopsychological: Georgia Tech, Emory University, Life University, Ogelthorpe University
Behavioral: Georgia State University, University of Georgia, Savannah State University
Cognitive: Emory University, Georgia State University
Counseling: Most of the programs listed in these categories also have degrees in counseling
Humanistic/Existential: University of West Georgia
Psychodynamic: Most if not all of the colleges in Georgia offer courses on the various psychodynamic perspectives
School Counseling: Valdosta State University
Sociocultural: Wesleyan College

These are only a few of the options. A full listing of the programs offered in Georgia can be found at http://www.collegeatlas.org/georgia-psychology-programs.html. I'm sure they also list programs for your state as well.