Psychology & Counseling at Oregon State University
There are six degree options in psychology and counseling at Oregon State University, and each degree program offers a wealth of benefits to its students. Available degrees include the Bachelor of Arts in Psychology, the Bachelor of Science in Psychology, the Master of Science in Psychology, and the Ph.D. in Psychology. The university also offers a Master of Science in Counseling and a Ph.D. in Counseling.
Further, students may enroll in an honors program to earn a slightly different bachelor’s degree in psychology with the Honors Bachelor of Arts in Psychology or the Honors Bachelor of Science in Psychology. The university also offers graduate and undergraduate minors in psychology, as well as a graduate minor in counseling.
Some of the classes students may take in the psychology program include Research Methods in Psychology, Introduction to Statistical Methods, Personality, and Social Psychology. Other classes include Principles of Statistics, Human Lifespan Development, Abnormal Psychology, and Psychopharmacology. Students must earn at least 180 credits to receive their bachelor’s degrees in psychology.
For the Master of Science in Psychology program, applicants may choose to study one of three concentrations in health psychology, applied cognition, or engineering psychology. Students must have an undergraduate GPA of at least 3.2 on a 4.0 scale to qualify for entry into the graduate program.
Classes required in the graduate psychology degree and the Ph.D. program include Motivation, Learning & Memory, Perception, and Psychology of Gender. The Ph.D. program requires that students complete at least 111 credits, with 36 of those credits being earned during the dissertation process. While in the Ph.D. program, students will also earn a Master of Science in Psychology on their way to earning a doctorate.
The university’s counseling degrees are offered at the graduate and doctoral levels, and students must take classes online through the Oregon State University e-campus or at the Cascades campus. Within the graduate programs, students may pursue one of three concentrations in counseling that include clinical mental health counseling, school counseling, and counselor education.
Students who enter the Master of Science in Counseling degree program must pass the Counselor Preparation Comprehensive Examination or another nationally administered exam. Classes that students will take include Group Counseling Procedures, Family Counseling, Cross-Cultural Counseling, and Applied Psychopathology and Psycho-diagnostics. The graduate degree in counseling requires that students complete at least 49 credits.
About Oregon State University
Oregon State University was founded in 1858 and is a land-grant and flagship institution of the state system. The university also has status as a sun-grant, sea-grant, and space-grant school, and it spends more than $440 million on research funding each year. The university’s official colors are paddle tail black, beaver orange, and bucktooth white, and students are nicknamed the Beavers. Sports teams at the university are part of the Pac-12 Conference.
Over the course of its history, the school’s name has changed nearly a dozen times. It began as a local community school in 1856 that offered primary education. The first college classes were offered in 1865, and the administration was originally handled by the Methodist Episcopal Church. A branch campus for the university was recently completed in Bend, Oregon. The school also offers online classes through its electronic campus.
Oregon State University Accreditation Details
Institutional accreditation for Oregon State University has been given by the Northwest Commission on Colleges and Universities, and the university is also a member of the Association of Public and Land-grant Universities. Other agencies have granted programmatic and specialized approvals to various Oregon State University programs. Approvals have been given by the Accreditation Council for Pharmacy Education and the Commission on English Language Program Accreditation.
Other specialized approvals have been given by the American Veterinary Medical Association Council on Education, the Council on Education for Public Health, and the National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education. The American Psychological Association and the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics have also approved programs at Oregon State University.
Oregon State University Application Requirements
First-year students who want to attend Oregon State University will need to submit a completed admission application, official high school transcripts, a non-refundable application fee of $65.00, and official standardized test scores from the ACT or SAT I. Students who have earned Advanced Placement credits should also have those grades forwarded to the university.
In addition to the basic application materials required by the university, students are also graded on the strength of their high school curriculum, their overall academic performance, and the details shared in a resume. Students must also make sure they complete the required college preparatory classes in English, science, and math. Freshmen should also make sure they take a few years of a foreign language while in high school.
Tuition and Financial Aid
Tuition and fees for students who are from Oregon come to $11,715 for three terms. Oregon State University runs on a quarter system. Non-residents will pay $31,215 for their out-of-state tuition rate. Room and board are estimated at $12,306, books and supplies should come to around $1,200 each year, and students should also budget for transportation, personal, and miscellaneous costs.
For graduate students who are Oregon residents, the rate for tuition and fees for nine credits per quarter is $14,598 for three terms. The tuition and fees for non-residents come to $26,712. Room and board charges are the same as they are for undergraduate students, and students should also expect to pay similar amounts for books, supplies, and personal costs.
Students attending Oregon State University should fill out the Free Application for Federal Student Aid, which helps the university determine the amount and type of aid to offer each student. Students may qualify for need-based and non-need based financial aid that may include scholarships, grants, loans, or some combination of the three. Financial aid may come from federal, state, institutional, or private sources.
There are some limits on how much financial aid a student can receive from the federal government, and some students may need to apply for private loans or seek out alternative options for funding. Applicants may also qualify for the Student Child Care Grant, the Oregon Opportunity Grant, or one of the university’s Administered Scholarships. Oregon State University offers more than $118 million in grants and scholarships each year to its students.