PSY & CD Student Advising

Welcome, Psychology and Child Development students! Have an advising question? Below, you will find:

• Peer Guide drop-in advising info
• "Quick Links" for an array of common questions
• Current curriculum updates

"When in Doubt, Seek Someone Out!" PSY & CD Peer Guides

For most of your questions, your first step will be to meet with one of our PSY & CD Peer Guides. These are experienced students who work closely with our Department Chair, Dr. Carrie Langner, to get up-to-date information for students. Our amazing peer guides host weekly drop in Zoom hours. Find the peer guide drop-in advising schedule and information here!

Planning out your future semesters

Wondering how many courses you need to take per term in order to graduate by a specific date? Thinking about how to fit study abroad into your time toward degree?

This excel template for planning when to take your remaining courses includes tips and helpful links (You may need to use your Cal Poly email address to access this form).

Careers in Psychology & Child Development

Explore careers in Psychology & Child Development with our PSY & CD Peer Guides! Interested in more information? Meet with a Peer Guide, attend faculty advisors' office hours, or visit Career Services today! 

As you prepare to enroll in courses, keep in mind:

*Our general policy for adding students to classes is to wait until close to the beginning of the term so that the waitlist can automatically enroll students in order. If you have extenuating circumstances (e.g., fulfilled the pre-req at another college and it's not showing on your DPR yet), requests for permission numbers should be sent to the course instructor.

*Please use our course substitution request form if you would like to know whether a course can be used in place of a CD or PSY major required course: PSY&CD department form. If you're wondering about a course for your minor or a GE, you will need to go to see an advisor from the minor department or a CLA advisor.

Quick Links

Questions about General Education (GE) - If you have a question about a course that does not have a CD or PSY prefix, it is likely you will need to see a college-level advisor (https://cla.calpoly.edu/advising). They advise on GE, Cal Poly Policies, and on-time graduation. Useful campus-wide academic resources can be found on Cal Poly's Enrolled Students web page, (including the Cal Poly catalog, registration information, academic records and evaluations, finals schedules, etc.)

Permission Numbers - please contact the course instructor because decisions about enrollment for PSY&CD courses are handled by the instructor. We will post here and in the Tuesday Newsday when there is an exception and the department office is handling enrollment for a particular course.

Course Substitution Requests - please submit your course substitution requests at this PSY&CD department form. If you fill out the university-wide form, you'll be redirected to our form (this is where we track all requests to make sure we respond to every student).

Semester Conversion . Please look at our current info on semesters for PSY&CD which we will continue to update. To answer the question of which courses to take this year that will meet semester curriculum requirements, see the "Major Equivalency Guides" (for Psychology and Child Development). These show you the translation of courses between the quarters catalog and the semesters catalog. You can find these sheets and other college-wide information on the CLA Semester Conversion website. 

What are Internships and Senior Projects in PSYCD? Please check out this FAQ document for more information.

Flowcharts and Curriculum Sheets for the PSY major, CD major, and minors 

Career Planning questions can be answered at the Career Center and if any of our student clubs hold a career panel, it will be advertised at the Tuesday Newsday.

For Change of Major please start HERE, and for Double Majoring please start HERE.

Curriculum Updates!

SENIOR PROJECT UPDATE

SEMESTER CONVERSION RESOURCES

Check out the major-specific information that CLA advisors have created: https://cla.calpoly.edu/navigating-semester-conversion

GENETICS SUPPORT COURSE OPTIONS

All of the following courses will count for your genetics support course whether you are a CD or PSY major and whether you are on the 22-26 catalog or if you switch to the new semesters catalog. All of these courses also fulfill an upper-division area B (for GE).

This is handled through a 'blanket course substitution' which means that you do NOT have to fill out any additional paperwork (no need to request a course substitution). You will not see this change in your DPR because it's a course substitution. These course options will be listed as part of the semesters catalog.

BIO 302 
Human Genetics (will be 3312 on semesters)

ES/WGQS 350
Gender, Race, Culture, Science & Technology 

FSN 305
Nutrition & Exercise for Health & Disease Prevention 
 
IME 320
Human Factors and Technology
 
ISLA 305
Topics in Public Engagements with STEM
 
NR 310
Global Climate Change

PSY 344
Behavioral Genetics