I am going to be an a freshman at ucsb this fall. I got in as a psychology major but I am really confused on what classes I should take. I know that at orientation some people are supposed help you pick your classes but I don’t want to create my schedule cold. I want to know what classes I need to take beforehand so when I go to orientation I know what to pick. And plus I want to pick good teachers through ratemyprofessor as to picking a teacher blind at orientation, so I really want to know what classes I should take freshman year being a psychology major.
I know that the jump from high school to college is pretty big so i am planning on taking easy freshman year. For the most part I want to take 1-2 medium challenging classes and the rest easy ones. Can you help me create a schedule? And please give your advice on picking classes and teachers, it is greatly appreciated.
Also, my orientation is the first week of august, I just want to know if that is a bad thing in terms of the availability of classes, teachers, and time slots. I know that my friends who are going to CSU’s told me that was a horrible idea because over there everyone rushes the first week to get classes. Will going to an orientation in august limit my choice on classes and teachers? A ucsb representative told me that it shouldn’t but I just want to know for sure. I don’t want to be stuck in an irrelevant class in an early time slot with a teacher that makes everything confusing
So an actual UCSB representative isn’t reliable but an anonymous person on the internet can tell you “for sure”?
As for what you need to take, there are a handful of classes you will need to be accepted into the psych major. Other than that, you spend your 1st 2 years satisfying the GE requirements. They will explain the rules for that at orientation. You can go online and look up the GE stuff now if you want, but literally hundreds of classes work.
Reading thru the lines here, though, the big issue I see is your worry about it all. Relax! 5,000 kids are going thru the same thing, it works out just fine. You’re not premed or engineering, so you’re not in a particularly demanding major. You’ll have to struggle to find “medium challenging classes”, most simply require putting in enough time to learn the material and leave plenty of time to explore IV/SB and hang out with new friends.
The ironic thing is the stuff you should worry about probably hasn’t ocurred to you. What you will do when you graduate is the biggie. Liberal-arts majors with nothing special to bring to the table are a dime-a-dozen, and its not surprising to see campus big-shots like the student body president working as waiters downtown while they try to figure things out (true story, BTW). Unless you have a trust fund waiting for you, planning for your future is something that should start frosh year. That’s the real scary stuff, not agonizing over what classes to take or whether you’re in the wrong orientation session.
My daughter (undeclared major) and I went to the second orientation, late June. She had a half-dozen courses in mind and got none of them, but, she is delighted about the three that she did get. Every one of them seems interesting, satisfies a requirement, and the language course has only 20 students. You will probably have a similar experience when you register. Most degrees will take 12 quarters to complete, compared to semester schools that take 8 semesters. One or two quarters just “sampling” courses is perfectly fine. She can spend the first quarter getting used to the transition, maybe lean toward a major, get the scoop on which professors to try to get. UCSB will be a great place for her, and you as well. Enjoy the orientation and your time at UCSB!
Suggest your first year coursework include any required math class(es) and any continuation of foreign language. The adage “use it or lose it” is true; it’s harder to get back to those subjects after some time away.
Look at your psych major requirements and be sure you get a couple of prerequisites out of the way so you can move on to upper-level classes without difficulty, but don’t fill your entire schedule with psych classes. Take something just for fun/something you’ve always wanted to take but haven’t yet had the chance.
