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Description of the Psychology major and requirements:
Visit the College Catalog for the full description.
Transfer Courses:
All transfer credits accepted as credits towards your graduation (124 required) by
the registrar are not automatically classified as counting towards the major. Each
major defines its policy for accepting transfer credits as fulfilling major requirements.
In psychology, there are 3 procedures: automatic fulfillment, transfer course approval request, and petition.
Automatic fulfillment:
Courses in this category do not require any action on the part of the student once they declare psychology as a major.
- AP credit in Psychology automatically fulfills the PSY 113 requirement, but the credits earned do not apply to the 32 credits required to complete a psychology major.
- A course considered equivalent to PSY 113 automatically fulfills the PSY 113 requirement; these credits do count toward the major.
- AP credit in Statistics automatically fulfills the requirement of MAT 115/209.
Transfer Course Approval Request:
Courses similar in title, content, level, and prerequisites to those we offer at Grinnell may be applied toward the satisfaction of psychology major credits and requirements before (pending successful completion of the course) or after these courses have been taken.
Simply complete the Transfer Course Approval form (at the Office of the Registrar's page) and obtain your adviser's and the psychology department chair's signatures. Also submit the catalog course description when obtaining the chair's signature.
Petition:
Petitions are used when the course title and content differ from courses offered at Grinnell. A petition is a written request and a supporting argument for why the department should grant the request. Because the department values writing, we expect to see well-written petitions. However, this does not mean the petition needs to be lengthy and exhaustive.
Most petitions are in the format of a memo. Click here to see a sample petition.
Most petitions these days are submitted electronically, but if your supporting materials are only in paper, it is perfectly acceptable to submit the petition in paper. In either case, the petition goes to the chair.
- Petitions should begin with a clear statement of your request (e.g., that credits earned in course x be applied to your major and satisfy a core B requirement).
- For each course, provide title, course number, course description, and grade you received. Provide a syllabus if you have it, and if not, describe the topics, book, assignments, activities, etc. to help us have an idea of the topics and learning activities you engaged in.
- If the course is very different from the typical Grinnell course, provide enough detail so we know what you learned in the course.
Procedure of petitions:
- Do not petition until you are a psychology major.
- Meet with your major adviser to be clear about your request.
- Write the petition, include supporting documentation (usually a syllabus) and let your adviser proof it for completeness and acceptability.
- Submit the petition to the chair of psychology.
- The chair circulates it among members and collect votes.
- If the petition passes, the chair notifies the student and registrar of the petition's approval. If the petition fails, the chair notifies the student of the cause, and the student may consider re-petitioning if the failure was due to confusion, lack of persuasion, or something under his or her control. There is no policy in place to limit the number of petitions a student may submit. Common reasons for a petition's failure are that the course was not considered a psychology course (such as educational psychology, nursing psychology, or sport psychology), it was taught at the 100 level and can't replace a 200 level core, or it was too specific in topic to replace a core (e.g., a course in attention deemed unable to replace cognitive psychology).
Important Facts:
- Students may not petition to have less than 32 credits satisfy the major. This is a college rule that no petition can change.
- Students should petition transfer courses to satisfy the major as early in their major as possible to avoid problems in being unable to complete the major in the senior year.
- The registrar never accepts more credits than the course was offered at the off-campus institution. Sometimes the registrar accepts fewer than what was offered. This means that if you completed the equivalent of one of our 4 credit courses but only received 3 credits by the registrar, then you must compensate by taking additional 2 or 4 credits of psychology to reach the 32 required of the major.
- Petitions occur only after the course has been completed and the credit has been transferred.
- Most petitions are processed within 1 week (from time you submit to time you hear back).
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