Please see the specific instructions that pertain to your current student status on our "How to Apply" page.
The Illinois Articulation Initiative specifies which courses will transfer among Illinois Schools. This ensures that quality coursework is maintained and that courses will be accepted by other institutions who have agreed to participate in the initiative. You can find out which courses will transfer to/from EIU, including psychology courses, by accessing the MyCreditsTransfer tool. Or, you can look up your community college course substitution list on the EIU transfer website.
If you are transferring from an Illinois Community College with an Associate degree, your lower-division general education requirements are met, as is the cultural diversity requirement. However, all transfer students will still need to take a Senior Seminar course as a senior to meet the upper-division general education requirement.
If you have attended schools outside of Illinois, you can contact the Office of Transfer Relations (See "Credit Evaluation").
Students must have completed two years in a single foreign language in high school with an average grade of “C” or better for the two years’ work in order to have previously satisfied this requirement. If not, you will need to complete two courses in a single foreign language. EIU offers Spanish I and II online, but the classes are small and they fill up quickly! We advise that you sign up for these classes early, or consider completing them at your local community college and then transferring them to EIU.
When transferring psychology courses to EIU, the transferred course(s) will count toward the number of hours required for graduation and toward the psychology major requirements (usually as substitutions for the courses that EIU offers or as elective credit). However, you will not receive credit toward meeting the 40-hour upper-division credit requirement for graduation, even though EIU may offer an upper-division course by the same title. EIU does not consider courses taught at the community college level to have the same rigor and demands of upper-division courses taught at EIU. As stated in the catalog, “Courses from a community college or other two-year institution will not count in the 40 semester hours of upper-division credit.”
Yes. At EIU, you would be classified as seeking a "second bachelors" and that is administered through the Graduate School as described here. For a second bachelor's, you would need to successfully complete a minimum of 30 credit hours. Once you are admitted and designate online psychology as your major, your transcripts would be reviewed by the Records Office. After that, you will be assigned a Psychology Advisor who will help you plan out the psychology classes you would need. It might sound complicated, but the process can actually go fairly quickly. You would get credit for the psychology classes that you have taken already (see the FAQ above about transfer courses)
Yes. However, international students currently living in the US with F-1 or J-1 visas cannot take more than 3 online credits per semester. International students living abroad, do not need a visa to complete our online degree. In either case, students would need to meet the criteria for admission and be admitted as degree-seeking students. Please contact EIU’s Office of International Students and Scholars for assistance [email: international@eiu.edu, or phone: +001(217)581-2321].
After your initial advising appointment with the department assistant chair, you will be assigned a faculty member to assist with academic planning each semester. Once assigned, the name of your academic advisor will be listed at the top of your degree audit in Panther Access to Web Services (PAWS).
Students who have significant family or employment responsibilities may not have the time or resources to travel to a traditional residential campus. Courses can be completed in the convenience of the students’ own homes and schedules.
EIU is accredited by the Higher Learning Commission of the North Central Association of College and Schools (https://www.eiu.edu/about/), meaning that we ensure a quality education in both our on-campus and online courses. The American Psychological Association (APA) Commission on Accreditation only accredits programs at the doctoral level. There are no APA-accredited bachelor's or master's programs.
EIU is a regional state-supported university that offers a superior, yet accessible education. More details about EIU are available here: https://www.eiu.edu/about/facts.php
Participating in extra-curricular activities may be difficult to coordinate electronically. However, many of our faculty and advisors are willing to work with all of our students to ensure the very best learning opportunities possible.
You may be eligible for earning a degree with distinction (e.g., "Summa Cum Laude") based on the credit and GPA criteria.
The only major distinction between our online and face-to-face courses is the mode of delivery. Our online psychology classes offer the same quality and content as face-to-face classes. Your degree, and transcripts, will say Psychology as your major, not ONLINE Psychology.
Yes! Please refer to the commencement website for details
Students who enroll in online courses pay the regular in-state tuition rate (regardless of where you live) as shown here
You can find more information about financial assistance here, as well as check out the Net Price Calculator
The best source for your financial aid information is the Office of Financial Aid. You may email them directly at finaid@eiu.edu (they request that you include your E# on all email messages), or by phone at (217) 581-3713, 8:00 AM - 4:30 PM M-F.
Summer financial aid is also available!
Yes! If you are a transfer student, you may already qualify for a Transfer Academic Scholarship. Other scholarships can be found using the search tool on the Scholarships home page.
View the Payment Instructions and the Payment Plans
It is expected that most students will transfer into the program with an Associate's degree and will need an additional 60 credit hours or so to reach the 120 credit hours required for graduation. If a student took 15 credit hours each semester, they could complete the degree requirements in 4 semesters. Taking summer classes could accelerate the time to graduation or at least lighten the course load during the Fall/Spring semesters.
Our recommended timeline is based on full-time enrollment (i.e., 15 credit hours per semester). However, it all depends on a student's individual time management skills, work hours, and family responsibilities.
View all degree requirements.According to the federal credit hour definition and EIU’s internal governing policy, it is expected that for each credit hour, students will engage in lectures and coursework totaling 37.5 hours during the term (see https://www.eiu.edu/auditing/igp/46.1). That comes out to an average of 2.5 hours a week for each credit hour or 7.5 hours per week for a 3-credit hour class. If you are taking a 12-credit hour load (i.e., full-time), expect to spend about 30 hours per week on reading, studying, and completing assignments. Actual times are sure to vary from week to week; with some weeks being much less and other weeks being much more. Also, know that each instructor will have their own due dates throughout the work-week and weekends for assignments and tests.
You will likely need to take additional courses besides those for your major to meet all of the graduation requirements, including the requirement of completing a minimum of 42 credit hours at EIU. Choosing a minor will help with selecting other courses outside of the major. However, a minor is not required. The online minors offered by EIU are linked from here.
BA in Psychology, just like any other psychology major at EIU.
Depending on how far you live from EIU campus, books will be available for pickup at Textbook Rental, or mailed to you (see further details here: https://www.eiu.edu/textbks/contedfaq.php)
Yes, you can take as many on-campus courses from EIU as you wish. If you take on-campus courses elsewhere you should be certain that they will transfer to EIU. You can find out which courses will transfer to/from EIU, including psychology courses, by accessing the MyCreditsTransfer tool. Also, keep in mind that 12 credit hours of the psychology major have to be completed at EIU, along with a sufficient number of Senior Institution (4-year school), upper division, and Junior/Senior credit hours (see degree requirements here: https://www.eiu.edu/onlinepsych/advising.php).
Yes, you can "stop out" for one semester without any need to inform us. However, if you sit out for more than one semester (summer doesn't count), you will have to complete the Returning Undergraduate Student Form at least 10 calendar days prior to the first class day of the term in which they intend to enroll. Returning students who have attended one or more regionally accredited colleges or universities since last attending EIU must provide official transcripts showing a GPA of at least 2.00 on a scale of 4.00 in all coursework attempted at institutions other than EIU.
Yes, faculty members hold regular office hours at the same times for on-campus and online students, and are available by email or phone as specified on the course syllabus.
The Psychology Department has an active and scholarly faculty whose educational backgrounds and research interests reflect the full spectrum of current psychological thought. All online courses are taught by full-time or part-time instructors who hold advanced degrees in the field of psychology. Meet our faculty!
Although not required, undergraduate internships provide an excellent opportunity for psychology majors to apply the knowledge and skills they've acquired in psychology courses to real-life settings in their local communities (e.g., mental health agency, school). These activities are supervised by a psychology faculty member in collaboration with an onsite supervisor. Internships can be arranged with your local community agencies. Find more information at: https://www.eiu.edu/psych/internship.php
3 or 6 hours, depending on the number of hours you want to be at the internship site. See further details here: https://www.eiu.edu/psych/internship.php
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