Academic Opportunities

A student who has earned AP credit by scoring a four or five on an Advanced Placement exam may substitute the exam for a relevant course, according to the following list.

• Psychology: Either PSYC1110 or PSYC1111. Students making this substitution are required to take an additional Psychology course. For Psychology B.A. and B.S. majors, this course must be a Psychology course numbered 2000 or higher. For Neuroscience majors, this course must be from the Cognitive Neuroscience, Systems Neuroscience, or Electives clusters.
• Biology: BIOL2000 Molecules and Cells.
• Calculus AB: MATH1100 Calculus I
• Calculus BC: MATH1100 Calculus I and MATH1101 Calculus II
• Statistics: We generally do not give major credit for the Statistics exam. A student can petition the Director of Undergraduate Studies for credit for PSYC1120.

Students planning to spend a semester or two studying abroad need to receive approval from their major department. This approval is obtained from your academic advisor. To prepare for this appointment, you need to complete your tentative schedule for your semester(s) abroad and for your remaining time on campus at Boston College. (In general, Psychology and Neuroscience majors do not fulfill many of their major requirements while studying abroad.) You should also obtain an up-to-date copy of your DeGRE audit to verify what Psychology  and Neuroscience major requirements you have left outstanding. Review these materials on your own to see what you will need to take and when in order to accommodate your time abroad. Bring all these materials to your appointment with your academic advisor.

If you would like for one or several of the courses taken abroad to satisfy the requirements of the major, you should provide the Director of Undergraduate Studies with a course syllabus for each course, a current copy of your Boston College DeGRE audit or your social security number. The Director of Undergraduate Studies will decide if a meeting is necessary after reviewing the relevant material. You can set up an appointment by calling the Director of Undergraduate Studies directly.

Credit from study abroad must comply with the general rules about transfer credit.

The department allows students to take up to two Psychology courses outside of the department (with approval by the Director of Undergraduate Studies to meet the requirements of the major). This limit will not apply to the natural science courses associated with the Psychology B.S. and Neuroscience majors. Please remember that, in addition to courses taken at other universities, courses taken at other schools within Boston College (e.g., Lynch School of Education, College of Advancing Studies) are considered as outside of the department.

Psychology BA Major: All courses counting toward your major count for major GPA.

Psychology BS Major: Only courses with the PSYC prefix count for major GPA. This is subject to change.

Neuroscience Major: All courses counting toward your major (with or without a PSYC prefix) count for major GPA.

Note for Pre-dental students: In recent years, the AADSAS dental application system has become more restrictive with counting Neuroscience courses toward the BCPM (aka, 'STEM') GPA. In recent application cycles, the only course with a course number starting with the PSYC prefix to be counted is PSYC1120.

Take advantage of the different kinds of academic experiences the Department offers by becoming an active member of our intellectual community.

• Get to know the faculty. Our faculty is accessible to undergraduates, but you must seek them out. Doing so is worth the effort. Professors often serve as unofficial advisors and provide letters of recommendation for jobs or graduate programs.
• One of the best ways to get to know the faculty is get involved in one of our research labs early in your undergraduate career. Some labs have posted job openings on our undergraduate job board.
  
• Work with a faculty member as a research assistant, or take an independent study course.
• Get to know some of the graduate students, many of whom you will meet as Teaching Assistants or Teaching Fellows or by taking advanced courses. Graduate students can give you advice about applying to graduate school.
• Undergraduates are welcome at our colloquia; see the calendar on our home page.

Research Courses

The Department of Psychology and Neuroscience offers two courses in independent research. Both require permission of a faculty member and additional registration paperwork (see below).

PSYC2205 Undergraduate Research

Course Description: An opportunity to participate in research projects in the laboratory of a faculty member. Students are typically assigned to assist with a specific experiment contributing to the laboratory's overall goals. This is the most typical type of undergraduate research course experience in our department.

Students may work with researchers at other area universities and hospitals. The work must be relevant to psychology/neuroscience. While primary supervision of the research will be provided by the laboratory PI, a Boston College Department of Psychology and Neuroscience faculty member must agree to serve as the instructor of record for the course.

Students are encouraged to obtain permission of the instructor before they register for their other courses, so that they may keep open the time slot for the laboratory meetings associated with the laboratory.

PSYC2206 Independent Study

Course Description: This course offers students the opportunity to study a topic of personal interest, working independently under the supervision of a faculty member within the Psychology Department. A student may obtain the consent of a faculty member to serve as his or her instructor by contacting the faculty member directly. The instructor, working with the student, decides on the nature of readings and related activities involved as well as the precise form of scholarly work required.

Registration

The University requires a written, signed syllabus/contract between the instructor and student for all non-scheduled undergraduate courses.

Syllabus/Contract for Individually Arranged and Non-scheduled Courses

The form must be completed and signed by both instructor and student, and then the student should email it to the Director of Undergraduate Studies for approval. The Psychology and Neuroscience main office will register the student. The signed syllabus/contract serves as permission of the instructor for registration.

Restrictions

No Teaching Assistants

These courses cannot be used as compensation for teaching assistant duties.

Student Employees

If you are enrolled in Undergraduate Research, Independent Study, or a thesis course, you cannot be paid for the same work. Thus, you would not be hired as an employee for the same semester that you are enrolled in the course.

Put another way, if you are an employee in a lab and also enrolled in Undergraduate Research, Independent Study, or a thesis course in that lab, the work you are doing for pay must be entirely separate and unrelated to the work you are doing for credit.

If the two kinds of work are indeed separate, your advisor needs to email us to explain the differences between the work.

Students may choose to write a thesis during the senior year. In most cases, the thesis will involve original, empirical research, although theoretical papers will also be permitted. Students must obtain the consent of a faculty member to serve as their thesis advisor.

Junior Year

Those who are interested in writing a thesis are encouraged to participate in independent research with a prospective thesis advisor during the junior year to develop a thesis proposal. Before their senior year, students who plan to write a thesis are advised to complete PSYC1120 Introduction to Behavioral Statistics and Research I and either PSYC1121 Introduction to Behavioral Statistics and Research II or a Research Practicum.

Senior Year

Seniors who are engaged in writing a thesis may enroll in PSYC4490 Senior Thesis I in the fall and/or PSYC4491 Senior Thesis II in the spring. A maximum of one semester of the thesis course may count toward your major requirements. (It counts differently depending on whether your major is Psychology B.A., Psychology B.S., or Neuroscience.) The thesis due date is determined by your advisor.

Distinction

Students whose theses are judged to be of exceptional merit will receive a letter that their Senior Thesis “approved with distinction.” This is recorded in the Psychology Department but not noted on transcripts. Download the Senior Thesis Approval Form for a thesis approved with distinction. The form is due to the Director of Undergraduate Studies by May 1.

Library Thesis Submission

The BC Library encourages each student writing a thesis to submit it online. Instructions can be found on their website.

Registration

The University requires a written, signed syllabus/contract between the instructor and student for all non-scheduled undergraduate courses.

Syllabus/Contract for Individually Arranged and Non-scheduled Courses

The form should be completed and signed by both instructor and student, and then the student should bring it to the Director of Undergraduate Studies for approval. Because the thesis courses require the instructor’s permission, students must register through the department main office (psychoffice@bc.edu) with a fully signed syllabus/contract. 

During registration for the fall, submit a syllabus/contract form for both parts of the thesis course. You do not need to submit a second contract during registration for the spring; however, you will need to contact psychoffice@bc.edu and request to be registered for the second course once your spring registration opens.

In cooperation with the School of Social Work, the Psychology Department offers a joint five-year Master's Degree program for those students who have decided upon a career in social work. This program is open only to Psychology B.A. majors.

Students in this program complete their undergraduate requirements including those for the Psychology Major during their first four years. In addition, during their junior year students begin to take Social Work courses. Upon successful completion of all undergraduate requirements during their senior year, students receive the B.A., at which time they are formally enrolled in the Graduate School of Social Work. Upon successful completion of all graduate requirements at the end of the fifth year students are awarded the M.S.W. (Students' applications will be re-evaluated for acceptance into the MSW Program after their senior year.)

Students apply for admission to the five-year program during their sophomore year. For further information about this program, contact the School of Social Work.

Program Requirements

Psychology majors fulfill all requirements for the major. The School of Social Work lists additional requirements and a recommended schedule of courses.

If you are already a BC student and plan to take courses anywhere outside of the regular day school of BC's College of Arts and Sciences (perhaps in the Lynch School of Education, in the Woods College of Advancing Studies, during the summer session, or at an entirely different institution), you must have your course credits approved by the Psychology Department as counting towards your major.

For approval of courses taken elsewhere, you should provide the Director of Undergraduate Studies with information about each course, including the course syllabus. You should also provide a current copy of your BC degree audit.

If you anticipate taking courses somewhere other than the regular day school of the College of Arts and Sciences, then you should make every effort to obtain prior approval from the Director of Undergraduate Studies. Doing so will help insure you receive credit for the courses and, thus, will help avoid having your schedule disrupted at some later time.

If you are a transfer student new to BC, you probably have taken courses at your previous institution that were accepted by Boston College, and that appear similar to our major requirements. If you would like these courses to be considered as fulfilling the requirements of the major, you should set up an appointment with the Director of Undergraduate Studies as soon as possible after your arrival at BC.

The Director of Undergraduate Studies will indicate which of your previous courses can count towards your major here at BC and which specific requirements they fulfill. You should bring to your meeting: a BC degree audit; a transcript from your former institution; and course information (syllabus, title and author of text, course description).

Please remember that:

• Most schools have only one Introduction to Psychology course, while here at BC we have two. The Director of Undergraduate Studies will determine how a course taken at another institution compares to BC's two introductory courses and may make other adjustments to the requirements in light of a student's previous coursework.
• Most psychology courses that list Introduction to Psychology as a prerequisite can be counted as psychology electives, as long as Boston College has granted you transfer credit for them. It is sometimes difficult to ascertain, however, whether courses taken at other institutions satisfy other, more specific requirements of our major.

Number of courses allowed

The department allows students to take up to three Psychology courses outside of the department (with approval by the Director of Undergraduate Studies to meet the requirements of the major). This limit will not apply to the natural science courses associated with the Psychology B.S. and Neuroscience majors. Please remember that, in addition to courses taken at other universities, courses taken at other schools within Boston College (e.g., Lynch School of Education, College of Advancing Studies) are considered as outside of the department.