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Providing career preparation for our students continues to be a focus for faculty, departments, and institutions. Professional development is most effective when accessible to students in a number of ways. This article presents how career preparation can be incorporated in advising, through programming and assessment in a career center, and in the curriculum. We discuss the importance of career discussions in advising, the types of resources available in a career center, and finally, we review a number of courses in which faculty can incorporate discussions and assignments focused on careers in psychology. Through this multifaceted approach, students are more likely to obtain important career information, as they consider what path to take after their undergraduate education.

Challenges abound in providing accurate and useful information to prospective and declared psychology majors about their career options and how to make decisions that will lead to satisfying and rewarding postgraduate lives. One component of this challenge is that by majoring in psychology, career affordances (i.e., the opportunities and limitations inherent to psychology) lead to generalized opportunities that are available to many different disciplinary majors. Another component of this challenge is the alignment between students’ self-reflection and understanding about career goals being aligned with accurate and available information about the desired careers. Understanding how affordances and alignments affect psychology major advising may provide a fruitful framework in moving forward to provide the best professional development resources possible.

Career planning for psychology majors has broadened to include a diverse array of opportunities (e.g., medicine, law, education, government, and military). The Internet has made it possible for students to learn about and quickly obtain information regarding these new career options. This article describes various career resources on the Internet and highlights which websites might be best for students with a clear career direction, as well as those for students who are unclear about what the future holds. The websites described include large sites not affiliated with a college, university, or professional organization. Other websites described are affiliated with a(n) (a) psychology department, (b) department of the federal government, (c) for-profit company or nonprofit organization, (d) professional organization, and (e) online career management site.

Undergraduate psychology programs have not always provided the same level of support for their job-seeking students than they have for those preparing to become psychologists. This is a particularly unfortunate situation because, according to the American Psychological Association's Center for Workforce Studies (American Psychological Association, 2017), only 13% of the 3.4 million people in the United States who have earned a bachelor's degree in psychology have gone on to earn a higher psychology degree. The first part of this article uses quotations from seven national reports on the psychology curriculum to identify the genesis and gradual amelioration of this unfortunate situation. The remainder of this article focuses on strategies that psychology faculty can use to help their job-seeking students successfully accomplish Goal 5: Professional Development of the APA Guidelines for the Undergraduate Psychology Major. These strategies include referring advisees to professionally trained advisors and becoming aware of careers in which baccalaureate-level psychology majors have entered or can prepare to enter and the sets of knowledge, skills, and characteristics important for success in these careers.

Many psychology departments do not have industrial–organizational (IO) or human factors (HF) faculty members. As such, potential IO and HF graduate students may miss career opportunities because faculty advisors are unfamiliar with the disciplines and their graduate programs. To assist advisors, this article highlights the content of IO and HF disciplines, presents tips on how to advise undergraduates for admission to IO and HF graduate programs, provides sources of IO and HF information, suggests employability options in IO and HF, and offers an advising brochure that is available upon request. A wide variety of career options exist in both IO and HF. Advisors assisting students in evaluating potential careers and identifying graduate programs should find this information useful.

Information about the undergraduate psychology courses preferred by graduate programs is useful for a number of purposes, including (a) advising psychology majors who are interested in graduate school, (b) undergraduate curriculum planning, and (c) examining whether graduate programs’ preferences reflect national guidelines for the undergraduate psychology curriculum. The authors examined the undergraduate course preferences of U.S. psychology graduate programs ( N = 548). Among Clinical/Counseling (C/C) programs, PsyD programs’ course preferences were more likely than those of master’s and PhD programs to reflect national undergraduate curriculum guidelines. Differences also emerged among various types of training (e.g., C/C vs. Educational/School), and these are important for advisors and students to understand.

Comprehension of statistics and research methods is crucial to understanding psychology as a science ( APA, 2007 ). However, psychology majors sometimes approach methodology courses with derision or anxiety ( Onwuegbuzie & Wilson, 2003 ; Rajecki, Appleby, Williams, Johnson, & Jeschke, 2005 ); consequently, students may postpone enrollment ( Onwuegbuzie, 2004 ). We examined the importance of methodology course performance (i.e., grade) and timing of enrollment in these courses for the academic success of psychology majors. After controlling for number of courses taken, relevant American College Test (ACT) scores, and prior Grade Point Average (GPA), we found that methodology course grade and timing of enrollment predicted upper-division psychology GPA. In addition, methodology course grade predicted performance on an assessment of knowledge in psychology. We discuss implications of these results for teaching and advising.

This study used a national sample of PhD students in clinical psychology ( N = 1,034) to explore when students decided to pursue their graduate degree, reasons for their decisions, and associated satisfaction. Results indicated that immediately after completing their undergraduate degree, 57% of current graduate students reported postponing graduate studies, 10% went directly to a terminal master’s program, and 33% went directly to a clinical psychology PhD program. A variety of reasons for these decisions were documented. Individuals who postponed graduate school were significantly more satisfied with their decision than individuals who went directly to a terminal master’s program and reported less frequent thoughts of withdrawal from their program than individuals who went directly to a clinical psychology PhD program. Implications for undergraduate advisors are discussed.

This article identifies student (N = 102) and faculty (N = 84) attitudes regarding desired content for a faculty Web page. The majority of students and faculty agreed that faculty should include the following on a Web page: an e-mail address, office hours, telephone number, course syllabi, courses offered, research interests, educational background, links both within and outside of the institution, professional experience, publications, academic advising information, professional memberships, and a picture of the faculty member. A random sample of faculty Web pages (N = 149) showed that most faculty sites, although containing valued information, fell short of faculty and student expectations. Psychology faculty can use these findings to develop more effective Web pages.

Senior psychology majors completed the Major Field Test in Psychology (MFT) produced by the Educational Testing Service as a component of program assessment at James Madison University. We related MFT performance to student characteristics including academic success indicators and specific psychology courses completed. MFT performance strongly correlated with other measures of academic success such as Scholastic Assessment Test scores and grade point average. There was a weak but significant positive correlation between number of psychology courses completed and MFT score. Only 4 content courses appeared to improve MFT subtest scores: Abnormal Psychology, Social Psychology, Biopsychology, and Counseling Psychology. We discuss the use and interpretation of MFT scores for program assessment and the implications of these findings for curriculum design, academic advising, and preparation of students for the Graduate Record Examination Advanced Psychology Test.

Brewer et al. (1993) recommended the collection of curricular information to support evaluation of undergraduate psychology programs. We gathered basic information on the psychology minor, including national patterns of requirements and recommendations, chairperson opinions about the psychology minor as an academic program, and the minor areas of study that students with psychology majors are advised to select. Surveys were sent to 400 psychology departments; 275 (69%) returned surveys were usable. Discussion focuses on the structure of the minor, the need for advising minors, assessing the minor, and the type of attention psychology departments could give the academic minor, including the minors they recommend for their majors.

The 539 American graduate programs listed in Graduate Study in Psychology 1983–1984 were surveyed in order to provide more information for advising psychology majors, particularly beginning majors. Undergraduate course preferences and ratings of five nonobjective criteria were tabulated in relation to the program's training specialty and type of degree offered. Programs were classified as offering one of four types of training—clinical/counseling, experimental, both clinical/counseling and experimental, or educational. The type of training was significantly related to preferred courses and ratings of nonobjective criteria, whereas type of degree was relatively unimportant. Results indicated a high preference for a course in statistics, a high rating for letters of recommendation, and a low rating for extracurricular activity. The data are discussed for each of the four program types, because each requires different advising.

Three models for advising undergraduates resulted from a nationwide survey of psychology departments. The All Faculty model, which includes faculty from students' first to last year of college, was perceived as superior in meeting student needs. Next most effective was the No Faculty model, adopted by only 13% of departments, which consists of a departmental advising office with minimal faculty involvement. Private institutions were superior to public institutions in advising effectiveness, and departments with small numbers of students were perceived as superior to departments with many students. Although our respondents gave their advising systems high marks in general, problems with advising included lack of recognition and reward for advisers and unsatisfactory treatment of minority students' needs.

This article describes a microcomputer application that facilitates the academic advising process by making students more responsible for their academic futures. It also has beneficial effects on computer literacy, student recruitment, career and graduate school planning, early mentoring, and the quality of letters of recommendation and resumes.

(1985). Would You Major in Psychology Again? Teaching of Psychology: Vol. 12, No. 1, pp. 17-20.

This article is written for advisers of undergraduates who aspire to be clinicians. It describes alternatives to traditional clinical psychology programs, including counseling psychology programs, professional schools of psychology, school psychology programs, medical school, and schools of social work. Strategies for increasing the likelihood of applicants being admitted to highly competitive programs in clinical psychology are also presented.

(1985). Job Satisfactions in Different Occupational Areas Among Psychology Baccalaureates. Teaching of Psychology: Vol. 12, No. 1, pp. 21-22.