An overview of my undergraduate program in Developmental Psychology (and minor in Education Studies) at the University of California, San Diego (2017-2021).

Program Information

The Psychology program at UCSD (PSYC) consists of 8 lower-division courses (course number <= 99), 12 upper-division courses (course number >= 100), and 2 research courses (lab course and/or independent research). The courses span different areas of psychology (e.g., developmental, social, and cognitive), natural sciences, quantitative skills, statistics, and computer programming.

I also minored in Education Studies (EDS), which consists of 7 upper-division courses. The courses span teaching and learning, learning environments, language and culture, and school and society.

In addition to these courses, I took general education (GE) courses as part of Eleanor Roosevelt College (ERC) requirements. The courses span a 5-quarter writing program called Making of the Modern World (MMW) that integrates the humanities and social sciences, fine arts, foreign language, and regional specialization (The Americas and Multi-Ethnic United States). The quantitative skills and natural sciences courses overlap with those in the Psychology program.

See the timeline below for the courses I took during each quarter. I hope this is helpful for prospective students interested in studying Psychology and/or Education Studies at UCSD. Feel free to reach out via email or LinkedIn if you have any questions 🙂

Program Timeline

Year 1 (Freshman Year)

I spent my entire freshman year completing GE courses and a few lower-division courses for my major. One course that stood out was Introduction to Art History (VIS 20), where I learned about artworks from different time periods and gained a deeper appreciation for art. For one of our assignments, we were asked to visit an art museum in San Diego and select an artwork to analyze. I visited the Timken Museum of Art and wrote about Luca di Tommè’s The Trinity and the Crucifixion, with Scenes from the Life of Christ. Prior to taking the course, the only times I went to art museums were for field trips in middle and high school. Now, I have visited numerous art museums and try to visit one whenever I travel.

Fall 2017	Winter 2018	Spring 2018
Chemistry I (CHEM 6A) #PSYC #ERC	Race and Ethnicity in the United States: Asian Americans (HILD 7B) #ERC	Organismic and Evolutionary Biology (BILD 3) #PSYC #ERC
Calculus I (MATH 10A) #PSYC #ERC	Calculus II (MATH 10B) #PSYC #ERC	Fluency in Information Technology (CSE 3) #PSYC
Pre-history and Ancient Foundations (MMW 11) #ERC	Classical and Medieval Traditions (MMW 12) #ERC	New Ideas and Cultural Encounters (MMW 13) #ERC
Introduction to Art History (VIS 20) #ERC	General Psychology: Developmental Foundations (PSYC 7) #PSYC	Introduction to Statistics (PSYC 60) #PSYC #ERC

Year 2 (Sophomore Year)

I started taking EDS courses and getting involved in research with the Clarke Lab during my sophomore year. For all 3 practicum courses (EDS 139), I was placed in a 6th grade classroom in a Title I elementary school in National City, CA, volunteering as a tutor and mentoring two students 4 hours/week each quarter. One highlight from the practicum courses took place toward the end of Fall 2018. As part of our final project for Introduction to Academic Mentoring of Elementary School Students (EDS 130), we were tasked with making an artifact (e.g., a book or game) for and with our mentees. Over several lunch sessions, I worked with my mentees to brainstorm ideas and create a storyboard for their books. Two Saturday’s before our final projects were due, our class hosted a workshopping event on campus and invited all our mentees to join. After the event, I gave my mentees a short tour of the campus and was able to bring them to a large lecture hall. They marveled at its size before racing down to the chalkboards and pretending they were professors. Overall, the practicum courses were incredibly rewarding and special experiences that enabled me to bond with students and watch them grow academically and personally as the school year progressed. It was after these experiences that I declared my minor in Education Studies.

Fall 2018	Winter 2019	Spring 2019
Introduction to Academic Mentoring of Elementary School Students (EDS 130) #EDS link to project	Introduction to Action Research in P-12 Education (EDS 140) #EDS	Action Research in P–12 Education: Advanced Practicum in P–12 Schools and Communities (EDS 141) #EDS
Practicum in Teaching and Learning (EDS 139) #EDS	Practicum in Teaching and Learning (EDS 139) #EDS	Practicum in Teaching and Learning (EDS 139) #EDS
Research Methods in Psychology (PSYC 70) #PSYC link to project	Revolution, Industry, and Empire (MMW 14) #ERC	Twentieth Century and Beyond (MMW 15) #ERC
Developmental Psychology (PSYC 101) #PSYC #EDS	Social Psychology (PSYC 104) #PSYC	Behavioral Neuroscience (PSYC 106) #PSYC
	Cognitive Psychology (PSYC 105) #PSYC	Psychological Disorders of Childhood (PSYC 168) #PSYC
	Independent Study [Research Assistant @ Clarke Lab] (PSYC 199) #PSYC	Independent Study [Research Assistantship @ Clarke Lab] (PSYC 199) #PSYC

Year 3 (Junior Year)

I spent my junior year taking upper-division courses for my major and minor and completing my last GE. In addition to coursework, I began to work at the Early Learning and Cognition Lab as a research assistant and continued working as a research assistant in the Clarke Lab. Balancing academics and research was not an easy feat by any means, and I had to quickly learn how to effectively manage my time and energy. A course that stood out was Language, Culture, and Society (EDS 117) because of its four investigative assignments. These assignments required us to informally interview three people about a particular course topic (e.g., educational success and culture, identity, and bilingual education) and summarize and analyze their responses. During class, we were put into small groups and shared our interview responses with our peers. A few weeks before the end of the Winter 2020 quarter, the COVID-19 virus emerged and all finals were moved online. Soon after the pandemic hit full force, and the remainder of my undergraduate career took place online.

Fall 2019	Winter 2020	Spring 2020
Second-Year Chinese for Dialect Speakers I (CHIN 20AD) #ERC	Language, Culture, and Society (EDS 117) #EDS	Social Organization of Education (EDS 126) #EDS
Clinical Assessment and Treatment (PSYC 124) #PSYC	Behavior Modification (PSYC 154) #PSYC	Psychology of Sleep (PSYC 191) #PSYC
Criminology (PSYC 164) #PSYC	Adolescence (PSYC 180) #PSYC	Topics in Psychology: Educational Psychology (PSYC 193) #PSYC
Industrial/Organizational Psychology (PSYC 178) #PSYC	Development of Social Cognition (PSYC 187) #PSYC	Instruction in Psychology [Undergraduate Instructional Assistant for Developmental Psychology (PSYC 101)] (PSYC 195) #PSYC

Year 4 (Senior Year)

My senior year was much more relaxed compared to my sophomore and junior years because I had completed nearly all my major and minor requirements for graduation. I spent this year working on my thesis and taking some elective courses. As someone who was interested in learning to code, I thought that this was the perfect time to learn and took two Computational Social Science (CSS) courses, where I learned Python. CSS 1 taught the fundamentals of Python (e..g, lists, dictionaries, and functions) and introduced several libraries (e.g., Pandas, NumPy, and Matplotlib). Building on this foundation, CSS 2 focused on machine learning and covered topics such as feature engineering, linear and polynomial regression, binary classification, and cross-validation. Through these courses, I developed skills in thinking programmatically and coding, which were useful later on when I learned JavaScript on my own.

Fall 2020	Winter 2021	Spring 2021
Cognitive Development and Education (EDS 115) #EDS	Introductory Programming for Computational Social Science (CSS 1) #PSYC #ERC	Data and Model Programming for Computational Social Science (CSS 2) #PSYC #ERC
Psychology Laboratory Topics: Cognition Lab (PSYC 193L) #PSYC link to project	Personal Financial Management (MGT 12)	Research Thesis III [@ Early Learning and Cognition Lab] (PSYC 196C) #PSYC
Research Thesis I [@ Early Learning and Cognition Lab] (PSYC 196A) #PSYC	Research Thesis II [@ Early Learning and Cognition Lab] (PSYC 196B) #PSYC

Course Structure

UCSD follows the quarter system, which comprises 10 weeks. Courses typically have 2 midterms, one during Week 3 or 4 and the second during Week 7 or 8, and a final during the last week of the quarter. Depending on the course, exams included multiple-choice questions, short answer responses, essays, and/or presentations. Course assignments involved problem sets, readings, discussion posts, quizzes, essays, etc.