HOW I'VE TURNED MY  UNDERGRADUATE PSYCH PROGRAM INTO
A FORENSIC PSYCHOLOGY PROGRAM
(OR WHAT COURSES TO TAKE TO PREPARE YOURSELF FOR FORENSICS)
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By: Michael W. F. Decaire, HBSc (candidate)
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UPDATED 01-17-99
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    For prospective forensic graduate students, the possibility of leaving an undergraduate psychology program with virtually no knowledge of relevance to their future endeavors is far to realistic.  With so many courses offered at a typical university, and with very few actually offering a forensic psychology course, one must be very intuitive to pick the proper courses that will ideally shape their knowledge base.  As I enter my 4th year of the HBSc psychology program I do realize that I have made some wrong choices.  I've written this section in a hope to catch those mistakes for you, before it is to late for you to obtain the ideal forensics background.

    First of all, any student planning to enter a graduate school should take the following:

All three of these classes are usually mandatory for graduate schools and if you don't take them now you'll be taking them with the undergraduates when your in grad school.

    As for psychology courses that are particularly relevant to forensic psychology one should consider the following (be aware of the comments regarding which disciplines they would be especially relevant too)

One should however not let their forensics education end with psychology courses.  Many schools have numerous other departments that offer related courses that may be extremely relevant.     One of the most important suggestions I can make is that if students are able to take a psychology-science degree instead of a arts one, do it!  Your first year marks may not be as high (there is not as many science 'BIRD' courses you can take) but nothing prepares you more for future research and work in a mental health discipline then a strong scientific background.  Psychology needs more scientists.  Arrogance regarding the need for scientific rigor is what allows "Pop psychology" and ineffective "new age" disciplines to flourish and take psychology a step back towards the dark ages.
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