Best Summer Courses for New Transfer Students

You may wish to begin your studies at UCSD this Summer. The following courses are highly recommended for new transfer students. All Summer offerings are designed to be useful for completing your degree. You may wish to consider the full list of classes available on the schedule of classes. Summer enrollment information for incoming transfer students can be found here.

Incoming transfer students who are interested in taking upper-division courses must use the EASy tool to make your course pre-authorization request. Be sure to list any relevant information in the "Justification" section that will be helpful for our office to know (i.e. why you are making the request, why are you not able to enroll on your own) and upload your community college unofficial transcript in the "Supporting Docs" section. For more information, please visit our Undergraduate Courses site.

Summer Session 1

PSYC 60. Introduction to Statistics
This course provides an introduction to both descriptive and inferential statistics, core tools in the process of scientific discovery and the interpretation of research.

PSYC 70 - Research Methods - (Formal Skills)
This course provides an overview of how to choose appropriate research methods for experimental and non-experimental studies. Topics may include classic experimental design and counterbalancing, statistical power, and causal inference in experimental and non-experimental settings. Additional discussion required. Prerequisites: PSYC 60 (Statistics)

PSYC 101. Developmental Psychology (Core)
This course provides a comprehensive overview of the field of developmental psychology, including topics in cognitive, language, and social development. Prerequisites: upper-division standing.

PSYC 105. Cognitive Psychology (Core)
This course provides a comprehensive overview of cognitive psychology, the scientific study of mental processes: how people acquire, store, transform, use, and communicate information. Topics may include perception, attention, language, memory, reasoning, problem solving, decision-making, and creativity. Prerequisites: upper-division standing.

PSYC 106. Behavioral Neuroscience (Core)
This course provides a comprehensive overview of human and animal behavior from a neuroscience perspective. Topics include the functions and mechanisms of perception, motivation (sex, sleep, hunger, emotions), learning and memory, and motor control and movement. Prerequisites: upper-division standing.

PSYC 137. Social Cognition (Elective)
This course provides an overview of social cognition, which blends cognitive and social psychology to understand how people make sense of the social world. Topics may include social perception, inference, memory, motivation, affect, understanding the self, stereotypes, and cultural cognition. Prerequisites: upper-division standing.

PSYC 178. Industrial Organizational Psychology (Elective)
This course provides an examination of human behavior in industrial, business, and organizational settings. Topics include psychological principles applied to selection, placement, management, and training; the effectiveness of individuals and groups within organizations, including leadership and control; conflict and cooperation; motivation; and organizational structure and design. Prerequisites: upper-division standing.

Summer Session 2

PSYC 70 - Research Methods - (Formal Skills)
This course provides an overview of how to choose appropriate research methods for experimental and non-experimental studies. Topics may include classic experimental design and counterbalancing, statistical power, and causal inference in experimental and non-experimental settings. Additional discussion required. Prerequisites: PSYC 60 (Statistics)

PSYC 102. Sensory Neuroscience (Core)
This course provides a comprehensive overview of the neural mechanisms that support vision, audition, touch, olfaction, and taste. Prerequisites: upper-division standing.

PSYC 106. Behavioral Neuroscience (Core)
This course provides a comprehensive overview of human and animal behavior from a neuroscience perspective. Topics include the functions and mechanisms of perception, motivation (sex, sleep, hunger, emotions), learning and memory, and motor control and movement. Prerequisites: upper-division standing.

PSYC 172. Psychology of Human Sexuality (Elective)
This course provides an overview of human sexuality research including diversity of sexual behavior and identities, sex and gender development, intimate relationships, and sexual dysfunction. Recommended preparation: completion of PSYC 1, 2, or 106. Prerequisites: upper-division standing.