Major in Psychology focuses on Psychology
PSY 111 Introduction to Psychology is now reserved for freshman psychology majors. The classes are limited to only 30 students. This class size is comparable to virtually any course at a private college, which makes Illinois State's undergraduate psychology program unique in the state of Illinois. Even though Illinois State is a large university, PSY 111 gives students a greater opportunity to get to know each other and meet many of the psychology professors.

PSY 111 is four hours of credit rather than the standard three hours. In the fourth hour, all freshmen psychology majors meet as a group for special demonstrations, presentations by the PSY 111 faculty and by other faculty in the department, and group discussions. PSY 111 is also taught by full-time tenure-track faculty, not graduate students. Many public universities assign graduate students to teach some of its courses, especially introductory or 100-level courses. In the Department of Psychology, psychology courses required for the Major are taught by full-time faculty.

Opportunities for outofclass Experiences
The Major in Psychology requires a capstone experience, which provides students with challenging opportunities to apply their knowledge of psychology to research, teaching, and practice endeavors. Students can work with faculty in the classroom or their research labs, or study specific topics of the student's area of interest. The department has also established an extensive internship program that gives students opportunities to apply their knowledge in a work setting. The Research Apprenticeship Program, the Undergraduate Teaching Assistantship Program, and the Internship Program are designed to give students real-world experiences beyond the classroom.

Department Faculty Teach and Conduct Research
Illinois State's undergraduate psychology program gives students the opportunity to learn from full-time faculty who frequently publish in top-rated journals in diverse areas of psychology. In our upper division 300-level content courses, students study with psychologists who are experts in the specific area covered in the course. Thus, a course in Psycholinguistics (PSY 369) is taught by a faculty member whose area is psycholinguistics. Clinical Applications of Psychology (PSY 351) is taught by faculty members with experience in a variety of clinical settings. Our faculty supervise over 200 students working on research projects each year. To get an idea of the diversity of faculty interests, see Out-of-Class Experiences with Faculty. Faculty have also developed their own Web sites (see People) that illustrate the individual areas of interest and the depth of their research projects.