New Psychology Master s Trains Grads for Hot Jobs

Students accepted into McMicken College of Arts and Sciences’ new Master of Arts in Psychology (MAP) program will be poised to take advantage of the growing demand for on-the-job leadership skills that improve employee and organizational success.

The new program focuses on two primary areas: organizational and community psychology, both of which rely on a solid foundation in psychology. They also emphasize statistical and methodological skills that can be used to assess individual, group, or organization-level actions as well as ways to improve them.

The new Master’s Degree leverages the current faculty’s talents and resources in areas like applied statistics and research methods, program evaluation, human resources, organizational development, leadership and community-based, participatory research. 

The program also signals the department’s investment in subfields of psychology seeing significant growth in the job market. For instance, the U.S. Department of Labor projects that the employment of industrial and organizational psychologists is expected to grow 26 percent through 2018, prompting The Wall Street Journal online to name it one of the “Hot Jobs” of 2018.

The MAP is a full-time, cohort-based program that provides intensive, hands-on training. The program will be held to fewer than a dozen students per year for the first few years to allow the department to focus on training and placement of students pursuing jobs in industry or admissions to doctoral programs. 

Students will have placement opportunities for internships or practicum experiences, opportunities to conduct research with MAP faculty and collaborate with organizations on applied projects as part of their formal coursework. Admission will grow along with organizational and community-based partnerships.

While the MAP program is open to anyone with a bachelor’s degree in any undergraduate major or program, a new 4+1 program within Psychology provides a pathway for UC’s undergraduate students who want to get a jump-start on their graduate studies.  

Although an undergraduate degree in psychology is not required for admission to the MAP program, applicants must have completed at least 18 hours of psychology coursework as an undergraduate student, including an approved statistics and methods sequence. 

Although the application deadline for the first cohort has passed, interested students can enroll in some of the graduate courses as non-matriculated students. For more information, visit the department of psychology’s website, or contact psychology Professor Stacie Furst-Holloway, Stacie.Furst-Holloway@uc.edu.