Click here to go to the NEW College Discussion Forum

Hi I was searching through colleges and I was wondering if Clark University was prestigous enough in the psychology department because the admissions standards aren't quite as competitive as other colleges that are known for psychology. I was also wondering about its graduate school placement. Thanks!

By Carolyn (Carolyn) on Wednesday, July 14, 2004 - 09:31 pm: Edit

Clark has a very good psychology department with lots of opportunities for undergrads to do research and internships. It's probably not one of the top-ranked undergrad psychology programs but it is a solid program none the less. You might email the department to ask about grad school placement rates.

By Fredo (Fredo) on Thursday, July 15, 2004 - 03:53 pm: Edit

My daughter looked very carefully at Clark specifically because of their excellent psych programs. I don't think, Carolyn, that they rank undergrad psych but everything we researched pointed to the fact that Clark has one of the better undergrad programs around. (Sort of like if you're interested in creative writing, a lot of signs point you to Kenyon).

We visited the school last summer. Did not like Worcester at all. Plus, it was a lot further from Boston than we thought. But, overall my daughter liked the school. One of it's biggest pluses is the diversity of the student body - for a small LAC it's extremely diverse. (An east coast version of Occidental). The campus was fairly compact and because it's not a big sports minded school (I don't even think there's a football team) there isn't even the spread out feeling that comes with athletic fields/venues.

Overall, academically it's not on a par with a Kenyon or Oxy. But it has its' place for a student who's very interested in psychology, with a solid B/B+ average. In the end, it proved to be too far away for my daughter (we live in the midwest) but I think if it had been closer she would have really thought hard about going there. When she was struggling to come up with the perfect school she created this composite: Clark's academics/student body with Boston College's campus in Wittenberg's location (2 hours from home).

By Carolyn (Carolyn) on Thursday, July 15, 2004 - 09:15 pm: Edit

Fredo - thanks for the information. I did notice that Psychology is the LARGEST undergrad major at Clark - 17% of undergrads are psychology majors. That's usually a good sign that a school is strong in a particular subject.

By Monkeyqueen (Monkeyqueen) on Sunday, July 18, 2004 - 02:03 pm: Edit

thanks!

By Alexandre (Alexandre) on Sunday, July 18, 2004 - 02:29 pm: Edit

In the last decade, 150 Clark U Alums went on to earn PhDs in Psychology. That is amazing for such a small university. Only Barnard and Oberlin have done better among LACs, and that's because both are bigger. Needless to say, Clark is awesome in Psychology.