Getting Involved
Students who are involved in their undergraduate educations are more likely to perceive their academic department as a close-knit community and less likely to experience burnout and/or drop out of college. One of the advantages of IUPUI is its large size, which means there are many more academic, research, social, and professional opportunities for involvement available to psychology majors at IUPUI than at smaller colleges and universities.
A three-part strategy to take advantage of these opportunities is to:
- become aware of them,
- decide which of them will be most valuable for you, and
- become actively involved in those opportunities that will help you develop the knowledge, skills, and characteristics (KSCs) you will need to enter the graduate program or career of your choice.
YOUR Strategy for Success
This section of the website will help you accomplish the first stage of this strategy (i.e., to become aware of these opportunities). It will then be your responsibility to accomplish the second and third stages. One very important way to increase your awareness of what is going on in the department is to become a member of the department's listserv, which is an electronic emailing system that allows the department to send messages to all psychology majors who have become members. These messages are about important topics such as department events, internships, jobs, scholarships, new courses, or academic policy changes. To learn about the listserv, read FAQs About the Psychology Department Listserv.
Research Opportunities
Psychology is defined as the scientific study of behavior and mental processes, and this means that scientific research is at the core of our discipline. The IUPUI Psychology Department is one of only 5% of all the psychology departments in the United States that exists within a school of science with biology, chemistry, physics, earth science, forensic science, mathematics, and computer science. This emphasis on science means that our faculty are actively involved in research and that there are many opportunities for psychology majors to learn how to perform research and to collaborate with faculty on meaningful research projects. To learn about how IUPUI psychology majors can take advantage of this opportunity, read Undergraduate Research Opportunities. To learn how to obtain funding to perform an undergraduate research project, read Funding Opportunities for Undergraduate Research. If graduate school is part of your plans, it will be imperative for you to develop research skills and to have your letter of recommendation writers provide evidence that you possess these skills. Neither of these will be possible unless you engage in research during your undergraduate career. You will also want to present the results of your research to your peers when you have completed it. Read the document titled Undergraduate Research Conferences to discover three opportunities to do so.
Become a Teachers Assistant (TA)
Another way to get involved is by becoming a teaching assistant or TA. Like performing research, becoming a TA provides you with the opportunity to work closely with a faculty member, develop valuable career- and graduate school-related skills, help your fellow students, and strengthen your knowledge in a particular area of psychology. The document titled FAQs About the Role of a Teaching Assistant will answer the three following questions: How can I become a TA? What will I do if I become a TA? What are the benefits of being a TA?
Become a Peer Advisor
The department has an Advising Office staffed with peer advisors (PAs). To learning how the training program for these PAs was recognized by the National Academic Advising Association as a "Best Practice," read the Description of IUPUI's Peer Advisor Training Program.
Psychology Club and Psi Chi
Still another type of involvement can be achieved by becoming an active member of Psychology Club or Psi Chi (the national honor society in psychology). Read FAQs About Psi Chi and Psychology Club to become familiar with these organizations. Also read Career-Related Skills That Can Be Developed by Psi Chi Officers to learn how the skills that club officers develop while they are performing their duties are exactly the same skills they will need to successfully enter today's competitivejob market.