Value

Our alumni refer to the current M.A. program as “cutting-edge” and “essential” to the various roles one can take with a Social-Organizational Psychology degree. You will engage in intensive learning regarding emerging concepts and practices facing businesses, governments, schools, and other organizations. Learning methods include experiential, in-vivo instruction, numerous practicum courses involving hands-on skill building often with real clients, didactic instruction from leading experts, and an immersion in a rigorous, but supportive learning community. Course content reflects the pressing issues facing individuals, organizations and society today including assessment, coaching, leadership, team dynamics, organization change, culture, performance and effectiveness, conflict resolution, statistics and research methods, always toward honing your knowledge and skills to be a leader in organizational psychology and its related disciplines. 

Your courses will be taught by nationally- and internationally-recognized scholars who are also practitioners. You will participate in a collegial environment that stresses networking with our faculty, alumni, your student colleagues, and a community of leaders. Our learning community is collaborative and we build synergies across all our programs, across psychology at TC, within the larger Columbia University system in New York and around the world. We believe in the importance of lifelong learning as a critical aspect of a successful career and a meaningful life and we seek to create a love of learning together throughout our Social-Organizational Psychology community.

Our faculty are experts in the field who publish in top-tier journals and engage in frequent applied consulting work in organizations all over the world. We have a core group of adjunct professors who bring rich, robust experience to the classroom and who mentor our students by providing practical career advice and access to extensive professional networks.

Faculty advising is always available as needed by each individual student. Dr. Sarah Brazaitis, M.A. Program Director and Dr. Gina Buontempo, M.A. Program Adviser are dedicated to administering the M.A. program and to advising its students as they complete the degree. Both Drs. Brazaitis and Buontempo are easily accessible to current students via email, phone and in-person meetings as needed for advising throughout the academic year. All program faculty are available to advise our graduate students according to students’ needs and interests.

We prepare and nurture successful individuals who have gone on to become partners at consulting firms, executives at leading multinational corporations, managers of human resource divisions, organization change agents, community leaders with active agendas, and professors at prestigious universities.

Our alumni are located around the world with a significant presence in the fields of organization development and change, human resource management, training and learning, and mediation/conflict resolution. Graduate students are prepared for the job market through the breadth and depth of their coursework, their levels of preparation with true life examples and applications, as well as their ability to link theory to practice with ease.

New York City’s multicultural, urban environment informs almost everything that Teachers College and the Social-Organizational Psychology M.A. program does.

The City is an extension of the classroom. We, like the city, are continuously changing and improving, and we support a global community to prepare you for the global economy. Your surroundings will foster your graduate study, research, and professional development. There are myriad networking opportunities for organizational psychologists, in particular, and young professionals, in general. This vibrant city also provides unique venues for our students to network through cultural, intellectual, and athletic and recreational activities.

Our students frequently interact at theaters, museums, concerts, lectures, and discussion groups. Moreover, New York City is the headquarters to some of the largest firms and the base for many industries. These elements enhance your educational experience, employment opportunities, and improve your opportunities to explore new concepts, lessons, and strategies.

Besides boasting one of the world’s most impressive library and scholarly electronic resource collections, Teachers College and Columbia University offer colloquia and debates from noted academics and international dignitaries, as well as from other well-known writers and speakers.

Our facilities support learning with digital and technological infrastructure, a graduate writing center, health and psychological services centers, a student union, a fitness center, a housing and residence life office, an electronic job search database, several theatres, and much more.