These courses need to be taken in order however already now the 100A offered during the 1st summer session is full as is the 100B summer offered summer sessoin 2. So that ship too has sailed. You see the 150 seat defecit per quarter adds up so that each year there are roughly 450 students who need those 128 seats offered in the first and second summer session.
Considering these courses are required for several impacted majors, and the powers that be surely understand how to project demand, one would think they would offer more sections of it.
So to ensure one is able to get into the Psychology major the student must complete all 7 pre major courses by the fall of Jr. year (keeping in mind others are just as difficult to gain entry) and must have a 2.9 which may be more difficult that it sounds (see next paragraph). Then too, there are other disqualifiers to be aware of such as repeating more than two diff courses or repeating one course more than one results in an automatic denial of major. Though realistically repeating just one course one time would likely keep you out of the major anyway because of lost time and gpa hit.
So if your heart is set on an impacted major like psychology, and are unable to walk on water, you will find youself in fierce competition for the few spots left for those who for whatever reason werent able to meet the deadline with a gpa above 2.9.
Of course most of our kids are used to 4.0+ gpas in HS, but UCLA is a whole new ball game. Getting a 2.9 at UCLA may be more difficult than it sounds since the reviews of several of the profs are pretty fierce and some profs set up their grading policy such that getting that A or B depends not only on your work, but on your ability to outshine your fellow students (by assigning the average score grade a C). May the odds be in your favor.
So if mental health is a priority, then I feel one is better off at a school like Cal Poly where once admitted into your major you won’t have to compete against your classmates to remain there, which I believe makes for a more collaborative, less stressful, and hopefully more enjoyable experience.
For those who are flexible on which major they graduate with, or those set on an impacted major and thrive on competition, UCLA will not dissapoint.
However, I hear the food is excellent at UCLA though. So, UCLA has that going for ya!
Anecdotally, my D21 at SLO has had this “more collaborative, less stressful” experience thus far in her almost 2 years there. But she’s also not switching majors, which does eliminate one potential stressor at Cal Poly.
However, enough students do not, so it should be expected that some of the later psychology major prerequisites need less class space than the earlier ones, as some students know that their GPA will be below the 2.9 needed for the major, so they do something else. However, the department should know what that number approximately is, so there should not be extreme shortages in PSYCH 100B if it has enough instructional resources.
I understand that you are encouraging your daughter to attend SLO. SLO is a great option and I’m not arguing with you.
I have been through this process with Psychology at UCLA and can tell you that enrolling in those particular classes is not as difficult as you are making it out to be. A student may not get those courses in consecutive quarters but the content is not sequential. 100A is Psychological Statistics. 100B is Research Methods in Psychology. They want you to have the stats knowledge before taking the research course. If summer were an option, a student might take 100A during the school year and 100 B over the summer. Again, they don’t need to be taken back to back.
In my opinion, the biggest problem is that grades must be posted in order to apply to get into a major. Most (not all) upper division courses for a psychology major are restricted to majors only. Since you need to wait for grades to post and then apply for a major, it leaves a gap quarter before one can take their major courses.
With a 4 or 5 on the AP psych test they walk in with credit in hand for Psych-10. Since thats the easiset ap test and one kids often just self study for. Therefore the material can’t be too hard and mconsidering the caliber of students who gets accepted into UCLA I imagine most get A’s.
since gpa is so critical to be allowed to declare a psych major, It would be a good strategy to take that class even if you have AP credit.
I know of a few international students who take similar classes over the summer before officially taking it at UCLA in order to ensure a better performance and get an edge on the competition (esp if the prof grades on the curve). So
Some students think that they can game the system by applying for admission to a less popular and less selective major and then change to the actual desired major later. However, this can backfire, because at colleges where some majors are more selective, that is because those majors are “full”, so it will be hard to change into after enrolling (e.g. may require a high college GPA or competitive admission; CPSLO does a look-back to the student’s admission score and allows the major change only if the student would have originally been admitted to the new major).
The “gaming the system” comment was with regards to premed majors, and looking back on my comment it’s not very clear that was what I was referring to. There are many medical school aspirants at UCLA and my understanding, through a little exposure by ways of my student’s room mates, is that some guard their GPA very carefully and are always on the look out for ways to improve access to classes, professors, labs etc. that are beneficial to them. So they might switch (declare) to Biochemistry one year and then back to Biology the next in order to optimize their path through the system. I hope this clarifies my comment for you.
