Fall Group Advising Sessions: Increasing Marketability through Concentrations

Fall Group Advising Sessions: Increasing Marketability through Concentrations Image

This November the psychology undergraduate advising office will be offering four group advising sessions for each class of students. In the past, psychology advisors have registered students through scheduling back-to-back advising appointments and open hours for walk-in appointments. This year, however, the department is hoping to reach a larger number of students at once, while still offering the support students are looking for during the stressful registration period.  

The main focus of these sessions is to educate students on how they can increase their marketability to graduate programs/future employers through declaring one of the six concentrations the department is offering as additions for both the bachelor of science and bachelor of arts degree programs. This fall semester, the department opened up three new concentrations to students: Educational Psychology, Forensic Psychology, and Health Psychology. Work and Organizational Psychology has been offered since 2012, while Developmental Psychology and Human Factors and Applied Cognition have been offered since 2014. “By developing these concentrations, the psychology department has responded to a clear desire among many of our students for this ability to have a recognized specialization in psychology as part of their undergraduate degree program,” says Michael Hurley, director of undergraduate advising for the department. “These concentrations also give students the opportunity to further explore a specific sub-field in psychology to determine whether they might want to pursue it at the graduate level.” While not currently established, a Clinical Psychology concentration and minor is in the works and is targeted to be ready for enrollment in the near future.

Pending the success of these newly-implemented group advising sessions, the department will establish group advising sessions for declaring psychology minors as a complement to degree programs for students outside of the psychology major. The department currently offers five minors: Developmental Psychology, Forensic Psychology, Health Psychology, Industrial/Organizational Psychology, and General Psychology.

The four advising sessions are scheduled on the first day of the spring 2017 registration period for each class. The senior advising session will be offered Thursday, November 3 from 12:00-1:30pm, the junior session will be on Monday, November 7 from 10:30-12:00pm, the sophomore session is on Wednesday, November 9 from 10:30-12:00pm, and the freshmen session is on Friday, November 11 from 10:30-12:00pm, all in David King Hall 2084.