Recent grad, happy to answer your questions! (SIXTH/PSYCH)

<p>HI, I just graduated from UCSD. (Sixth College, Psychology major.) People on this site were really helpful when I was a freshman- so now I'm returning the favor! </p>

<p>Topics I CAN answer: Sixth College, Psychology, all dorms on campus, Transfer housing, Roommates, Gyms, Rec classes, Intramural sports, clubs, Student Health, Disability Services, jobs, Off-Campus living, Busses, Beaches, Parent questions, Do's and Dont's for move-in week.</p>

<p>I CANNOT answer: Math, Econ, Bio, Chem, CSE,</p>

<p>I’m a psyc minor who has taken PSYC 1 and 60 and is currently signed up for PSYC 104. Do you have any recommendations for upper div psyc classes, or maybe some you would advise against?</p>

<p>what are the do’s and dont’s for move in week?</p>

<p>hey james clark – so, did you get reinstated?</p>

<p>What did you do for your CAT practicum?</p>

<p>@jamesclark</p>

<p>This one I’ll answer myself. DO NOT hang a wet suit on a fire sprinkler, therefore setting them all off and flooding 5 floors on one side of the building. This would be a very bad thing to do on move-in day!</p>

<p>@amsstory</p>

<p>Hey, yes I was readmitted about two weeks ago. Luckily I already have everything situated so now I’m just preparing my schedule. Anything anyone else want to add? I can use all the advice at this point</p>

<p>I’m a second year, but I wanted to know what the most interesting/recommended upper div psych classes are for my area study. And do any of them not require psych 60? I took AP psych and don’t have room for another lower div psych class.</p>

<p>And, how do rec center classes work? Do we have to pay extra?</p>

<p>Do you know anything about the cognitive science program at SD? I know it’s a ways away from psych.</p>

<p>Also what are your post-grad plans? Was UCSD helpful in terms of career services if that’s the direction you’re heading in?</p>

<p>@jamesclark</p>

<p>Considering I’ll be an RA for next year and will be heavily involved with move-in, I shouldn’t be blanking on advice to give you about it. Ha ha. It’s probably because I moved in later than my move-in time so my experience was a little bit different. I think if you had some specific questions though it would be easier for me to help. :)</p>

<p>Kings: the 101-106’s are the most basic, kinda tedious. Personally I liked 106 the most— I recommend taking at least 2 of these basics before attempting the uppers like 120+. </p>

<p>Upper divs offered really vary by year- the profs decide what advanced courses they want to teach, there’s really no way to predict ahead of time what courses will be offered- so if there’s one ur interested in you have to jump on it because it may not be offered again for another 2 years. “Drugs, Addictions and Mental Disorders” was really interesting but fills up fast. Also don’t leave ucsd w/out taking a class by Ramachandran- he’s amazing he’s well known in the field and his name always pops up in text books. Sometimes there are guest lecturers who teach for a quarter but aren’t considered full-time faculty---- look them up online if you’re not sure and see what they specialize in/books they’ve published etc. I really did not have any bad upper div psyc classes but the two I mentioned were amazing.</p>

<p>Rypto- when they say don’t leave your CAT practicuum til the end of senior year- they are right! For practicum they give you a few options like : Engineering, Tutoring, or make up your own. It turns out it’s nearly impossible to get approval for your own project— Only 2 or 3 people are successful in getting their projects approved each quarter (so don’t count on this as a viable option).</p>

<p>I did the tutoring/mentoring/teaching/EDS project. It completely took over my life for an entire quarter- no question it was the hardest most time consuming course I took at UCSD. My class started with 50 students (about half were doing it for CAT, the others as an elective) by the end of the quarter it dropped to less than 20 students. You get assigned to one of the scary schools in downtown SD (about a 30 minute drive) Lincoln, Gompers, etc. You have to go in 2 or 3 mornings/week to help in a classroom- working with the kids can be fun. But the driving and the nightly writing assignments and readings about diversity were death. For anyone forced to take this course here’s a tip: tell your ucsd instructor that you don’t have a car and have no way of getting to downtown sd- that way you can tutor at the Preuss school which is a charter school next to ucsd.</p>

<p>The following quarter you have to take the CAT course which has nothing to do with your tutoring/engineering project. You write papers about your experience at ucsd practice public speaking etc. It’s tedious to sit thru— take it in the summer---- much less painful, ends up being a fun class where prof just talks about random stuff and jokes around.</p>

<p>Tayto: Cogs is actually really good at UCSD- great opportunities to be a 199 lab/research assistant- take advantage of that! All my COGS friends got great full-time jobs straight out of UCSD- but they did do lab/research while in school like I said, very important. San Diego has a lot of career opportunities in the COGS field, at least right now. </p>

<p>COGS and PSYC are sort of related so I understand the job market for it. For these majors UCSD is a great school for theoretical knowledge and getting into grad school. But offers no hands on experience and real world applications- whereas sdsu for example sends their psyc majors out to hospitals, non-profits etc for some real world experience. </p>

<p>I’ve been aiming for a career in Social Work, Counseling, Mental Health, but most of these require a Master’s degree for a fulltime career- UCSD did not prepare me for this field at all. Right now i’m working at a homeless shelter where I’m getting hands on experience in mental health, possibly applying to grad school next year. </p>

<p>UCSD does not offer much in the way of extra-curriculars/community service/career advice in the fields of COGS/PSYC. I had to scour SD on my own to get experience for my resume. Here are the BEST things I found that have looked good on my job apps; 1. “UCSD’s <em>A</em> Program, a Multidisciplinary Approach to…” go to the student legal affairs office for info. 2. UCSD Extension Courses- expensive courses but they offer free vouchers to the first like 50 ucsd students who run to their office the first week of school- they have amazing professional certificates (I took courses in Play Therapy) I wish I had taken more of these courses. 3. “Regional Taskforce on the Homeless, Point in time count” they send volunteers out to survey thousands of homeless people then they need volunteers to enter all the info into their computer database- I just went in on a few saturdays, got to read thru the funny surveys and now I can say on my job apps that I have experience with comp databases and data entry. (For various reasons SD the past few years has verrrry limited opportunities for volunteering/interning, ex) there was a waiting list to volunteer at the Red Cross last time I checked.) 4. UCSD Rec Classes- reasonably priced for students- best course I took was self defense training for Women- I put this on a resume for applying to a Domestic Violence Shelter. 5. San Diego City College courses- I took classes in drug and alcohol counseling, social work, child development— these classes are more applicable to the real world, cost about $75, are small only 30 students. Class met just 1 night/week- I did not need to study for anything. My Social Work instructor was actually one of the head Social Workers of SD County Services- he had connections to lots of orgs and has written me awesome recommendations. 6. City College/SDSU partnership agreement, while enrolled in a course at sdccd you can take 1 course at sdsu for free!- good opportunity to explore different fields- I did not find out about this til too late, they keep it kind of a secret. 7. Guest speaker presentations at ucsd career services center- aimed at seniors exploring career fields, but anyone can go- you have to look up the schedule- I went to one with people who work in county services- real legal, prison, medical etc. You can ask them for advice on how they got into their jobs, what they majored in etc. 8. NAMI/DBSA guest speakers, trainings, special presentations— San Diego is known for having some of the top researchers in brain/neuro stuff- (COGS/PSYCH) professionals from all over the country go to conferences at ucsd med center to learn about new discoveries in brain stuff---- some of these presentations are open to the public— great way to get a feel for what it’s like to work in COGS. These are harder to track down- you have to do your online research to find them. 9. Don’t bother with those undergrad honor societies big waste of time and you don’t learn anything from them. 10. There are no clubs on campus related to anything COGS or PSYC so you really have to look elsewhere like I said. </p>

<p>Alot of the activities I listed above won’t be interesting to you until you get into more advanced stuff junior/senior year. Just copy some of this down and then look at it again in a few years. The ucsd Extension courses are something you can/should def start as a frosh/soph.</p>

<p>UCSD career services is not helpful- only the presentations were good. the advisors gave me incorrect information all the time and just want to get you out of their office as quick as possible.</p>

<p>ngstar: yes rec classes cost money, students get a discount. they can be anywhere from $25-$100 a quarter. But they are totally worth every penny. You won’t ever have a chance in your life to do these activities for so cheap. Great way to meet people. Or sign up with a roomate who you want to get to know better. Honestly some of the best money I spent.</p>

<p>Psyc 60 really isn’t terribly hard, if you took the ap test it should count- ask your college advisor. Also you can take it during summer at a community college. Once you have Junior Standing I believe you can take any upper div psyc classes without the psyc 60 pre-req.</p>

<p>Best classes: Drugs Addiction and Mental Disorders, Brain Damage and Mental Functioning, Anything with Ramachandran.</p>

<p>james: Move- In</p>

<p>more specific questions would help but here’s some basic advice:</p>

<p>Show up during the last half hour of your designated move-in time, way less crowded, no lines, besides everyone who comes in the morning is just awkwardly sitting around in a crowded dorm with their families for the rest of the day. People bring their grandparents cousins, everyone it’s ridiculous and you end up with all these old people spread out on the porch, common room for the entire day.</p>

<p>Bring as little stuff as possible!! Everyone brings way too much. In my suite there were so many tvs, fridges, rice-cookers, toasters that we just put them all in the common room and shared. So don’t let your Mom’s convince you that you need all that crap. </p>

<p>During move in week the UCSD bookstore sells everything you could possibly need (shower caddies, soap, shoe racks, hangers): much better stuff than I found at bed bath beyond, target etc. Cheaper, better colors, etc. Decide what you need once you get there and just head over to the bookstore with $50 and you’re set. Plus it’s more fun to go shopping thru there with your new roommates and everyone’s hanging around during Zero week anyway.</p>

<p>DO bring swim suit, boogie boards, frisbees with you right away. The first week everyone spends out at the beach, the weathers still amazing all thru the month.</p>

<p>also, during welcome week/zero week the RA’s and activity leaders keep making you eat pizza. Everyone felt sick because they had to eat pizza every day. From home I brought a few boxes of cereal, cereal bowl, and a box of Granola bars- best thing I decided to bring. And while ur still getting used to the dining halls it’s nice to have a few of these things on hand. Lots of my roommates got sick over the first week because they were drinking and only had greasy pizza in their stomachs.</p>

<p>Oh and everyone stopped going to Tijuana in 2008. So you don’t have to worry about that. And honestly don’t attempt to go! I went as a freshman and it was fun but now it is so dangerous. All my friends used to go but I don’t know one single person who has stepped foot near the border in 3 years.</p>

<p>could you share anything about cogsci as far as going towards a career in research? i know you werent a cogsci major, but i was wondering if you had any insight.
becuase, i dont quite know what i want to do with it. i just know i really enjoy reading about cogsci/neurosci
im just thinking research because i dont really know anything about what i could do with it.
i also plan to go for masters if that makes any difference
and possibly minoring in biochem</p>

<p>ucsdlee: I have friends who majored in COGS and now work in Research. Like I mentioned in my reply above to the other COGS questions, the 199 positions at UCSD are a great way to get research experience and a foot in the door. They require a good GPA either 3.0 or 3.5 you can check online about the requirements. I believe you also have to be at least junior standing. </p>

<p>UCSD Experimetrix website is used by grad students doing research projects in Psyc/Cogs. Throughout the quarter they post their experiments and undergrads can sign up to be research subjects/ guinea pigs to get extra credit for some of their courses. Anyone can be a research subject even freshman. You sign up for a test appointment and usually spend 1 or 2 hours. A lot of them are actually really fun to participate in, and you get to meet the grad students running them. This would be a good easy way to explore your interest in the field. </p>

<p>If you think there’s a chance you might go for a Master’s— make sure you keep your GPA up! Especially in your major classes. Grad schools look at your grades from your GE’s and then your Grades in your COGS classes separately. Obviously the GOGS gpa is much more important. </p>

<p>Make use of office hours! Each of your big COGS lectures (like 300 students) will have like 4 TA’s— these TA’s are COGS grad students at UCSD. On the first day of lecture the prof will introduce each of the TA’s and they’ll stand up and wave- listen carefully as the prof will quick give a blurb about each TA’s specialty in the COGS field. Prof will say “this is Joe, he has recently been doing some research studies with children with neurological disorders.” If you think children with Neurological Disorders sounds interesting---- go to Joe’s office Hours. Yes, you can ask him for help with your homework, but even better is to just chat with Joe and ask about where he went for undergrad- how he likes ucsd’s grad program, etc… Office hours can seem intimidating at first but once you’ve done it a few times it gets easier, it’s just the TA sitting in a tiny office somewhere in the COGS building, each TA has office hours once/week and they often don’t have any students show up, so they are usually just sitting in their office reading. There are only like 10 COGS grad students at UCSD so you will notice after you’ve taken a few cogs classes that the same grads TA lots of your classes. </p>

<p>If you want to peak at real world jobs for after college, requirements, pay etc… look on Port Triton at some of the Research positions-- this is how my friend found his job. </p>

<p>Just a warning: a minor in bio-chem is going to be rough, so be prepared. UCSD pre-med classes are cut-throat! So don’t freak out if they are hard at first. There are just a lot of straight A geniuses in those classes and the prof can’t give everyone A’s. So missing just 1 problem on an exam can pull you down a whole letter grade sometimes.</p>

<p>Kind of a more general question, but: what exactly do you do or talk about with professors in office hours? I’m a soph and I’ve yet to go to a prof’s office hours because I found it so intimidating xD but my RA last year highly encouraged me to start because they’re great for career exploration, rec letters, connections and general advice…or so he says >__<</p>

<p>Can you recommend any psych hands-on/service/experience jobs or volunteer positions that are close to campus? I don’t have a car so I’m very limited to the general campus area :&lt;/p>