By Isabella Darcy
News Editor
The Office of Admissions reinstated psychology as a dual major option for prospective early childhood and elementary education students on Oct. 25, just months after it was removed as a choice on the Common App.
The School of Education and the Department of Psychology recently collaborated to revise the dual major before re-launching it amid changes in the New Jersey state education code.
The state previously required education students to have a second major. Now, it instead requires education students to complete “a sequence of courses.”
“Some colleges have said to education students, ‘You don't even need a double major,’ but we said no, we still want to have the dual major,” Tabitha Dell’Angelo, interim dean of the School of Education, told The Signal.
Keeping dual majors as a part of the School of Education has opened up the possibility of cutting down class requirements for majors.
“Some majors are 10, 11, 12 classes,” said Dell’Angelo. “We could potentially ask the majors if they can reduce it down to eight because TCNJ college policy says the dual major has at least eight classes.”
In the past, students in the School of Education have been met with limited availability in their heavily-packed schedules. Reducing how many classes are required to fulfill majors allows students to gain space in their schedules to take elective classes that they are interested in, according to Dell’Angelo.
“The idea was students could either use them just to take classes that they're interested in and feed their soul,” said Dell’Angelo. “Or they can start graduate courses while they're still in undergrad so they can get additional certifications or get a masters.”
Some dual major options in the School of Education were easier to cut down on compared to others. Psychology is one major that took more time to revise.
“What we didn't want to do was advertise it and have students choose it, and then get here and it feel like a bait and switch,” said Dell’Angelo.
Some prospective early childhood and elementary education students did not have the opportunity to choose psychology as a dual major because they had already applied to the College prior to Oct. 25, so the Office of Admissions is working with the Common App to notify applicants of the change.
“Communication is shared with prospective families about any changes at any and every stage of the process,” Grecia Montero, executive director of admissions, told The Signal.
Prospective students who have already applied to the College but would like to change their major can submit a change of major form through their Common App application portal.
Education students often choose a dual major that they believe will be most beneficial to them in their future endeavors.
Charlotte Reinhardt-Hepler, a senior elementary education and psychology dual major, told The Signal that her psychology coursework has provided her with a deeper understanding of how to best support students socially, emotionally and academically.
Reinhardt-Helper is interested in exploring different career paths, such as teaching, school psychology and guidance counseling, and said that her dual major has provided her with a wide variety of experiences and opportunities that she would not have otherwise had.
“I feel that being a dual major has provided me with a very enriching, well-rounded education and has allowed me to grow more than if I had just one major,” said Reinhardt-Helper. “Both of my majors combined provide me with a broader skill set to help me in whatever future career I choose.”
Mia Lynch, another senior elementary education and psychology dual major, chose the combination so she could gain a deeper understanding of how children behave, think and engage.
Lynch told The Signal that she has experienced some difficulty balancing content as a dual major, and she thinks that education majors should get to choose how many majors they take up.
“I believe the school should provide students the options of being solely an education major or a dual major,” said Lynch.
While Lynch had no choice but to pick a dual major, she said that it has exposed her to unexpected insight and helped her cultivate connections with professors across diverse areas of expertise. She also said that her experience as a dual major has been extremely rewarding.
“We want [the dual major] to be a really great program,” said Dell’Angelo. “We also need to make sure that whatever adjustments we make will still set students up for success.”
