Excellent news, aspiring psychologists! If you’re hoping to major in psychology, you don’t have to sit around and wait until college to dive right into dream analysis and criminology. You might feel like senior year is forever and a half away, but college application season comes quicker than you think, and you can spend the summer after freshman year building your resume, getting ahead in your field, and setting yourself apart from your peers.
Between binging Couples Therapy and Criminal Minds, consider adding some of the activities from our guide below to start building out your psychological niche.
Read
We’ll always start by suggesting you go on a book haul because the easiest way to broaden your knowledge of a subject is to read its prominent literature. This helps you get an understanding of a field’s contemporary landscape, historical development, subtopics and specialties, and research frontiers.
Best of all, the non-fiction boom means you can introduce yourself to academic concepts by reading engaging and accessible books intended to inform and entertain the average person. Of course, as you dive deeper into certain areas of research and thought, you may turn to academic journals to assess studies and literature reviews yourself, but reading for pleasure to get the lay of the land is a wonderful way to dip your toe in the water.
If you’re not sure what to pick up first, we recommend Shrinks: The Untold Story of Psychiatry by Jeffrey A. Lieberman, Man's Search for Meaning by Viktor E. Frankl, Daring Greatly by Brené Brown, The Happiness Trap by Dr. Russ Harris, and What My Bones Know by Stephanie Foo.
A note on this last one — Bessel van der Kolk’s The Body Keeps the Score has been enjoying a renaissance, lately, and its publication certainly marks a watershed moment in the scientific and societal understanding of trauma. However, its content can be triggering and has been criticized for glossing over acts of abuse (such as soldiers committing war crimes against occupied people). What we love about Foo’s memoir is that it beautifully blends personal narrative with meticulously sourced information on complex PTSD, therapeutic models, and mindfulness (you’ll find useful footnotes and resources at the end of the book for further reading).
Enroll in Psychology Programs
You have two options here — you can take online classes in your spare time, or you could enroll in a pre-college program. The great news is there are plenty of accessible resources for you to learn about psychology in a more formal setting guided by an instructor.
If you’re interested in remote learning, you can explore courses offered through Coursera, Khan Academy, or individual universities. For example, Wake Forest has an online Human Behavior course designed for entry-level students, and Yale has made PSYC 123, “The Psychology, Biology and Politics of Food,” available to the public for free through its Open Yale Courses (a program that makes it possible for anyone online to access the lectures and class materials from a Yale course with no charge — you should go check out everything they offer).
Pre-college programs, on the other hand, give you the opportunity to have a residential experience, explore a school’s campus, and forge peer relationships with other young people in the field. There are plenty of options for you to choose from, so do some research to find which schools you’re most interested in and which have summer programs. Many of these can be quite pricey, but a lot of schools over financial aid, as well. To get you started, here are our blogs on best summer neuroscience programs and high school psychology classes.
Pick an Activity
Once you’ve acquired foundational knowledge, you can build on it by investigating the psychology-affiliated communities near you. You’ll want to do something tangible and hands-on. What does that mean, exactly? Find a way to broaden your network by connecting with other students, academics, and professionals.
Seek out a psychology club. There might be one established at your high school or in your town, and if not you could start your own. If you plan to take AP Psychology, you could talk to the instructor teaching the class and organize the other interested students.
Pursue research. If you’re struggling to find like-minded future psychologists, or if you just want to begin answering questions you have, you can work on an independent project, which shows initiative and sincere interest in the field. Alternatively, you could reach out to psychologists and academics in your community to volunteer yourself as a mentee or research assistant. Finally, there are many opportunities to participate in psychological studies, which would allow you to witness the research process firsthand and experience it as a patient.
As you can tell, there are a plethora of paths you can take as you begin your journey into psychology. Luckily, all roads to Rome (and by that, we mean greatness in the field and getting into endless heated arguments about Freud). Bon voyage, friends!
Need help developing your psychology niche or exploring another interest? We’re here to help.