PSY&CD Student Advising
Welcome, psychology and child development students! Below, you will find:
- Peer Guide drop-in advising info
- "Quick Links" for an array of common questions
- Current curriculum updates
When in doubt, meet with a peer guide!
As you prepare to enroll in Winter Quarter 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.
*Supervision course permission numbers (senior project, internships) will be distributed toward the end of Fall quarter. If you will have trouble meeting a required minimum of units (e.g., financial aid requirement) while waiting for a permission number, please reach out to your professor to let them know you need your permission number early.
*If you are a CD major and Winter quarter will be your last or second to last quarter at Cal Poly, please reach out to Beatriz for a permission number to add CD302 (bperal01@calpoly.edu).
Meet with a PSY&CD PEER GUIDE
For most questions, your first step will be to meet with one of our Psychology & Child Development student guides. These student interns work with the department chair to get up to date information to our students quickly and identify which students need an additional meeting with a faculty advisor. They have drop-in Zoom hours 5 days/week (zoom link: https://calpoly.zoom.us/j/8853114713):
Mondays 10am-4pm
Tuesdays 9-11am & 2:15-3:30pm
Wednesdays 10am-4pm
Thursdays 9-11am & 2:15-3:30pm
Fridays 10am-12 [only 11-12 on 10/31 due to scheduling conflict]
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!
CD302
There will be enough seats in the Winter and Spring sections for all of our CD major seniors. FYI to CD majors who are not seniors yet - this course is usually not taken until your last quarter or second to last quarter at Cal Poly.
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. 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