Student Opportunities
When you major in Psychology, you explore your interests inside and outside the classroom, taking a deeper dive into areas that interest you, answering questions that fascinate, and earning leadership roles in organizations that matter. Here are just some of the opportunities to build your skillset, and your résumé, at Washington College.
Find the Perfect Opportunity
Internships
- Nearly half of all psychology majors complete at least one internship.
- Serve as a wellness advocacy coach across campus to build a stronger community. Help other students with strategies for dealing with mental health struggles. Plan events for self-care across campus.
- Pursue an internship in an area that interests you. Discuss what you’d like to do with faculty who will mentor you through finding your own opportunity.
- Take advantage of established partnerships. You could work with local schools to help young people meet their potential, assist special education teachers in classrooms, work with speech-language therapists, and more; work as a summer camp counselor to address behavioral, emotional, and intellectual challenges; work at an inpatient or outpatient facility for the treatment of psychological disorders; and more.
Research
- Work one-on-one with faculty on their research.
- Get into the lab as soon as your sophomore year. Most upper-level courses have a lab component where students practice psychology, whether working on a group project, visiting schools to test children, or dissecting sheep brains.
- Completing a Senior Capstone Experience (SCE). There are two options for answer the question posed by the SCE: collect and analyze data or use critical analysis to evaluate existing literature in a theoretical review.
- Conduct graduate-level research through the rigor of our upper-level courses that prepare you for your Senior Capstone Experience.
- Present your research at professional conferences like the Eastern Psychological Association Annual Meeting. You could win a research award as part of a professor’s research team.
- Create your own research project. Support, financial or otherwise, is available across campus, including through the John S. Toll Research Program or the Cater Society for Junior Fellows.
To get started thinking about what research you might be able to do at Washington College, review our faculty’s areas of expertise.
Get Involved
Build your résumé and expand your social circle simultaneously by joining clubs, honor societies, and more that help you connect with folks with similar interests.
- John S. Toll Research Program
- The Libby and Douglass Cater Society for Junior Fellows
- Phi Beta Kappa Honor Society
- Honor Societies: Psi Chi and Sigma Xi
- Clubs: Psychology Club, Wellness Advocacy Coaches, and more.
Sara Sypolt '26
Aberdeen, Maryland
MAJOR AND PROGRAM
- Psychology Major
- Pre-Pharmacy Program
RESEARCH
- Roy Ans Fellowship in Jewish-American Studies
EXTRACURRICULAR ACTIVITIES
- Hillel
- Justice, Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion Initiative
- “You really get to know your professors. It's really easy to just ask them questions, to just halt class, to halt lecture and be like, ‘okay, I don't understand this. Can you go back over it?’ You get a much deeper understanding of stuff here. I think the professors know well how to pace coursework, so you get a lot more information, but it’s not too overwhelming.”