One degree is not better than the other – how you intend to use your degree is a more important consideration. We encourage you to research the major options listed on our website and compare them to your graduate school and career goals. You should also look at classes that are of interest to you. Students may change major tracks within Psychology at any time. For more help choosing a major and classes, please see our Career Guide and the Career Center.
For Psychology BA and BS majors and Cognitive & Behavioral Neuroscience majors: All lower division courses EXCEPT PSYC- 60 (or COGS-14B or MATH-11 or the equivalent) can be taken P/NP. PSYC-60 MUST be taken for a letter grade.
For Business Psychology BS majors: All lower division courses EXCEPT PSYC-60 (or the equivalent), MGT-16, and MGT-18 can be taken P/NP. PSYC-60 (or the equivalent) and both MGT courses MUST be taken for a letter grade.
For all majors: Remember, no more than 25% of your total UC San Diego courses may be taken pass/no pass.
Students can select any 2 (BA majors) or 3 (BS majors) of any courses listed under the Natural Science area on their degree audit or the Psychology Majors pages. Cognitive and Behavioral Neuroscience majors will need to take COGS-17 and 2 additional courses listed under the Natural Science area on their degree audit.
Natural Science coursework often can overlap with your college General Education requirements; consider checking your GEs for courses that can count for both requirements.
Natural Science courses in Biology, Chemistry, and Physics that are numbered 10 or greater are intended for non-science majors; these (as well as COGS-17 or PSYC-2) are the recommended courses for most Psychology majors (unless they are pursuing a second major or minor, or a post-graduate program that would require the courses intended for science majors).
You can take a lower-division course at a community college. Use Assist.org for guidance on the specific course to take. Contact the Psychology Department via the Virtual Advising Center if you do not see your course listed.
Community college courses will only transfer for lower division credit. While the course content may be similar, community college courses will not replace upper-division electives required by the major. This is due to accreditation requirements, and no exceptions can be made.
Any course taken at another UC, CSU, or other 4-year institution offering a bachelor’s degree must be petitioned before it can be used in place of a UCSD Psychology course. The course syllabus must be submitted with the petition form. Please see our Petitions page for more information and step-by-step instructions.
PSYC-99/199 is an opportunity for students to participate in independent study related to research being carried out by Psychology faculty. Students may assist in running subjects, collecting data, and/or evaluating data under the supervision of a faculty member or graduate student.
Undergraduate research experience is highly regarded by graduate schools and provides students early insight into a future career, or helps change minds while there is still time to do so. PSYC-99 and 199 will only count towards the research experience requirement for the B.S. degree and will never count as a Psychology Electives for either the B.S. or the B.A.
Current opportunities are advertised through the REAL Portal. Students can also approach relevant faculty directly. Instructions can be found on the Research page.
The double major petition form can be picked up from your college, or found on TritonLink. Please thoroughly follow all instructions on the University's Double Major Petition Guidelines. Forms that are missing items required or contain errors will be sent back to you for edits.
You can submit your double major petition materials to the Psychology department using our Google Submission Form. If you have questions contact the Psychology Department via the Virtual Advising Center.
It is not possible to double major within the same department. As such, you may not officially earn two Psychology degrees (although it is possible to complete the requirements for both, so that you can choose to graduate with either).
Students majoring in Cognitive & Behavioral Neuroscience who wish to additionally earn a Psychology degree MAY choose to declare their CBN major through Cognitive Science so that they may earn one of our other Psychology degrees. Remember, you may only overlap a maximum of two Upper Division courses between double majors, so students choosing this route will need to choose their courses wisely.
At UCSD, Psychology can briefly be described as the study of human/animal mental functions and behavior with a scientific emphasis.
Cognitive Science may be concisely defined as the study of the nature of intelligence with an emphasis in three main areas – brain, behavior and computation.
Human Development focuses on scientific issues of growth, development, and behavioral change across the lifespan.