Frequently Asked Questions
First and foremost, thank you for your interest in our Psychology Degree Program at NSU!
Below, you will find the answers of many questions that students have asked us about getting a degree in Psychology at NSU. These questions and answers will hopefully help you learn more about our program and help guide you through the process of becoming one of our newest Psychology majors at NSU.
If you have further questions, feel free to contact the Department of Psychology at 318-357-6594 or email us at psychology@nsula.edu. We look forward to hearing from you!
This question has been addressed (very well) by the American Psychological Association: http://www.apa.org/education/undergrad/psych-career.aspx.
If you view our application materials, you will see there is no separate category or designation identifying you as an ‘online only’ student. We are a brick and mortar university and all of the courses required for our Bachelor’s of Science Degree in Psychology are offered as traditional ‘face-to-face’ classes. However, we have also placed all those courses online and some students simply choose to complete all of their course work online.
When you register for a class, some of your fellow students will be online only and some will be taking a mixture of face to face and online courses. The diploma is the same for both and unless you choose to identify yourself as an online only student to your instructor, they won’t know if you are taking the class from overseas or from a dorm room across campus.
Yes. NSU is accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools (SACS) http://www.sacs.org/ . This accreditation means that NSU’s accreditation through SACS covers each academic program that NSU offers including the Bachelor of Science degree in Psychology. Your courses will transfer to any other accredited school in the U.S. and your degree will be accepted by graduate programs.
Go to https://www.nsula.edu/admissions/ and follow all steps to admission including:
Apply for admission at http://www.applyweb.com/aw?nsula. This form is available to be filled out and submitted online. There is a $25 application fee that can be paid electronically. Students can log into the “Activity Log” to see the date the application is actually “received” by the school. Note: Processing of this application could take up to two weeks.
File “Proof of Immunization” form with Admissions Office which is available in a downloadable PDF file that must be printed out at: https://www.nsula.edu/wp-content/uploads/Immunization-Form-1.pdf.
Online only students can request an exemption for personal reasons: will not be attending classes on campus. The form can be faxed to the Admissions Office at 318-357-5567 or mailed to:
Office of Admissions & Recruiting
Northwestern State University
Natchitoches, LA 71497
There are two toll free numbers for the Admissions Office as well:
In state: 1-800-426-3754 Out of state: 1-800-327-1903
The student must have completed a FAFSA form before financial aid eligibility can be calculated. The FAFSA can be found at www.fafsa.ed.gov.
The following financial aid forms are available on the web (https://www.nsula.edu/financialaid/forms/) in PDF format to be downloaded, printed, and mailed back to the Financial Aid Office:
- NSU Scholarship Application
- NSU Financial Aid Data Form (MUST be filled out)
- Verification Worksheets
The toll free number for Financial Aid is 1-800-823-3008. You can find more information about financial aid on the Financial Aid homepage: https://www.nsula.edu/financialaid/.
After you have completed your online application and have been accepted to NSU, please contact the Department of Psychology by emailing us at psychology@nsula.edu or calling us at 318-357-6594 so we can assign you an academic advisor. Advisor assignments are matched based on the student’s last name initial and the faculty member responsible for students in such category.
Once you have been approved for admission, you can complete a degree audit that will tell you which courses you need to complete in order to receive your degree:
٠Go to https://my.nsula.edu/ and choose “Degree Audit” under “Faculty and Advising”.
٠Online courses that are available each semester can be found by going to the eNSU website https://www.nsula.edu/ensu/course-offerings/. Next, select the semester you are interested in.
٠To view the schedule of class by semester (online and face-to-face), please go to https://my.nsula.edu/ and select “Schedule of Classes”.
In order to find out what courses will transfer and what they will count for in your degree at NSU, you will need to send your transcripts to NSU and have then evaluated by our Registrar. The Registrar will evaluate your transcripts as part of the admission process.
٠Send transcripts (high school or other college) or GED to the university registrar office.
٠Student must request official transcripts from other institutions attended.
٠Official copies of your transcripts should be mailed to:
Office of the Registrar
Northwestern State University
Natchitoches, LA 71497
If you have completed less than 30 hours at NSU, you will have to contact your advisor for assistance in registering for courses. If you are unsure of your advisor, please see question #5 and contact the faculty member which is responsible for your last name initial (see pages 3-4 for faculty contact information).
If you have over 30 hours at NSU, you may register yourself online at https://my.nsula.edu/. Follow the directions presented on the screen.
Fees and tuition can be paid online. Visit the following websites for more information:
http://businessaffairs.nsula.edu/tuition-and-fees/ or https://www.nsula.edu/ensu/tuition-and-fees/
٠Out-of-state students who live outside the state of Louisiana and who do not take any on-campus (face-to-face) courses at NSU are not charged out-of-state fees. Let me repeat this as we get asked this question more than any other: students who live out of state and are taking online classes ONLY do not pay any out of state fees or tuition. They pay instate tuition and fees.
No. You may take courses at any local college or university if you prefer. However, your last 30 hours must be taken from NSU, and you will need to insure that any course you take outside of NSU will transfer for appropriate credit toward your degree plan. You should work with your advisor on this matter.
Some classes do require you to complete quizzes and exams online. However, some classes require you to complete paper versions of these assessments under the supervision of a proctor. You will need to carefully review your instructors’ policies for taking and submitting your assessments usually located under the Course Syllabus.
There are a couple of different means by which you can obtain your books.
- You can go to https://www.nsula.edu/ensu/course-offerings/ and click the link for the semester that you want to take courses in. You will find a list of courses and next to each will be a link labeled “Details”. If you click this link for a particular course, you will be able to find a syllabus for that course and it should include a list of the books that will be used.
- You can also view the final version of an online course’s syllabus by waiting until the first day of class when you will be able to log on to Moodle. When you log on that day, you will be able to download a copy of the syllabus.
All classes are delivered through Moodle. You can visit http://moodle.nsula.edu/ for more information about how to use this program.
NSU does require ACT or SAT scores. These scores are used to determine your placement in English and Math classes only. If you have already completed your introductory English Composition course (equivalent to our ENGL 1010) and a College Algebra course (equivalent to our MATH 1020), then you do not need an ACT or SAT score. Alternatively, if you have already completed developmental (remedial) courses in both English and Math you may not need to have an ACT or SAT score. Please contact the English department at 318-357-6272 and the Math department at 318-357-4308 for more information. In addition, to learn more about the ACT or SAT tests contact Ms. Barbara Gillis, Director of Testing Services, at 318-357-5246.
All professors have various preferences that will be indicated on the Course Syllabus. Common ways of delivery include email or submission via Moodle.
For library information, you can visit Watson library at www.nsula.edu/watson_library. The Watson Memorial Library is located on campus on University Parkway. Here you can access online databases and catalogs. These databases can also help you find the locations of online resources that offer full-text articles and books. Further information for online students is offered under the distance education section.
Each online course that is offered in the Fall and Spring corresponds to the regular 16 week semester here at NSU. These may also be available in the A-term and B-term 8-week format. Summer online courses are either 6 or 8 weeks long.
International students may be considered for admissions to undergraduate study upon submission of the following (items 3 and 4 must be certified by an accredited professional educational credentials evaluation service based in the United States):
1) A completed Application for Admissions.
2) Payment of the non-refundable application fee of $30.00 in U.S. currency.
3) Complete, certified true copies of both original and English translations of all secondary (high) school work, and certified true copies of both original and English translations of year-by-year mark sheets, examination results, certificates and diplomas.
4) Complete, certified true copies of original and English translations of all college work, and year-by-year mark sheets, examination results, certificates, diplomas, and transcripts.
Please contact the Registrar’s Office if you need assistance at 318-357-6171 and then press “0” to speak with someone in the office.
You can access the NSU Academic Calendar at https://www.nsula.edu/registrar/ and click on the interested semester link which will show you all of the drop dates for classes, depending on the year and semester.
This question has been addressed (very well) by the American Psychological Association: http://www.apa.org/education/undergrad/psych-career.aspx.
I’m afraid you can’t. All colleges and universities in the U.S. are prohibited from releasing certain information, including grades, to parents without the written permission of the student. The Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA, also known as the Buckley Amendment), states that students over the age of 18 are considered responsible adults and are allowed to determine who will receive information about them. And yes, we know that you may be footing the bill for your child’s education, but the law doesn’t take that into consideration. Under FERPA, your student’s professors can’t even acknowledge that he/she attends NSU, much less speak with you about grades or attendance. You will need to ask your legally adult student to share this information with you.
Not at all. However, many students choose to take summer classes in order to accelerate their program–taking summer classes can shorten the time to graduation by as much as a year. In recent years we’ve seen a trend towards our students returning home in the summers to save money, which is why the Psychology Department now provides an extensive schedule of online courses during the summer.
Professors are required to take attendance and provide those attendance records to the University Registrar. NSU’s attendance policy can be found on page 28 of the current catalog http://registrar.nsula.edu/course-catalogs/. Parents should be aware that the reason most freshmen fail is because they don’t attend class regularly. Taking attendance helps us to identify these ‘at-risk’ students.
The Psychology Department has a serious commitment to retaining our majors and seeing them graduate. To this end, we are active in identifying at-risk students and providing services for them:
– Starting the first week, each instructor submits attendance records for every class meeting. Additionally, four weeks into the semester, instructors for every freshman and sophomore course submit grades to the Registrar. These grades and attendance records are used to identify at risk students.
– These at risk students are contacted and provided with tutoring. They may also be required to take an academic study skills course.
– If a student’s first semester GPA comes in below 2.50, they are required to meet with an academic advisor and create a plan for raising that GPA the next semester.
In addition, a tutor is available for each course from 8:00 to 4:30 in the Psychology Department Computer Lab, and at other times by appointment. These tutors are provided, at no cost to the student, by the Department.
Catherine C. Faucheaux, LCSW, Director of Disability Support & Tutoring, Student Union, Rm. 240A 318-357-4460 faucheauxc@nsula.edu
When a student is accepted into the Psychology Department, they are assigned an advisor. This advisor will meet with them and work out a schedule of classes. When students are registered, their advisor will provide them with a detailed copy of their schedule showing the days and times of their courses as well as the buildings and classrooms they meet in. This information is also available for the student on their MyNSU web page.
As part of our academic support of incoming freshmen, we require every student with less than 30 hours completed at NSU to register through an advisor. This ensures that they do not sign up for courses that they don’t need or for which they may not be prepared.
A student must take at least 12 hours to be considered full time. Most classes meet for three hours a week, but some meet for one, two, four, or five hours. Any combination that totals 12 or more semester hours is considered full time. We encourage most students to take 15 hours per semester in order to finish in a timely manner.
Yes. The Psychology Department’s full-time faculty members have offices in the classroom buildings, and they are available at least 10 hours a week for student interaction. Their office hours and contact information are posted on their office doors and they are available at other times by appointment. In addition, the faculty members check e-mail regularly. Between office hours, advising, mentoring and tutoring programs, and our PSI CHI and Psychology Club functions, it is practically impossible for a Psychology major to avoid interacting with the Department faculty.
We have an exceptionally active Psychology Club, which we strongly encourage our students to join. The Psychology Club sponsors speakers, participates in various campus functions and has social programs. As your student completes more classes, they may qualify for PSI CHI, the national honor society for psychology majors. Our PSI CHI group at NSU is also quite active and co-sponsors a number of events with the Psychology Club. We have found that participation in these organizations creates a supportive peer group of people with similar vocational interests, which leads to increased grade point averages and higher graduation rates. We encourage you to support your student’s participation in these organizations.
