We are eager to make your transition to CWU as smooth as possible and make your learning experience as a psychology major or minor both interesting and useful.  Our faculty and staff are ready to help you.  Visit the CWU Transfer Center at https://www.cwu.edu/transfer-center/prospective-transfer-students for pre-admission advising as well as questions about admission, dual admission, general education courses, and how credits transfer.

General Advice for Psychology Transfer Students

• Don’t take many courses in psychology before transferring to CWU.  We want our psychology majors to take the majority of their psychology courses at CWU.  We usually advise community college students to take only introductory psychology and maybe one elective course in psychology at a community college.  Community college courses are lower division (100 and 200 level) courses and we allow only 5 quarter credits of lower division courses to count toward the psychology major. 
• If you are transferring from an accredited four-year institution, you have the option of petitioning to have some of your psychology courses substitute for our CWU psychology courses. It’s a good idea to keep all of your syllabi from these previous courses so you can submit them as part of the substitution petition paperwork. Please be advised that the CWU psychology department will only allow students to transfer a maximum of two courses in the required core classes and the five required groupings of classes. Additional course transfers for psychology elective courses are permitted.
• Our majors or minor are just a portion of the 90 credits that most transfer students will take at CWU.

Generally PSY 101 is a direct transfer from most institutions.  It may be possible for you to use a course you took at another institution to substitute for additional CWU psychology courses.  Review the rules for course substitutions in psychology using courses taken at other institutions at https://www.cwu.edu/psychology/transfer-course-substitutions

Recommended Courses to Take Prior to Transferring to CWU

• Introductory or General Psychology (equivalent to PSY 101 at CWU).
• Algebra (equivalent to MATH 100B  or 100C at CWU).  The Psychology Major requires PSY 362 Introductory Statistics which has a prerequisite of a math placement test score resulting in placement into Math 100C or successful completion of Math 100B with a grade of C or higher.
• Introductory Biology class that deals with the structure and function of the nervous system (equivalent to BIO 101 or BIO 201 at CWU or other class in cell biology)

We want our psychology majors to take the majority of their psychology courses at CWU.  We usually advise community college students to take only introductory psychology and maybe one elective course in psychology at a community college.

Recommended Courses for Psychology Majors to Take in their First Quarter at CWU

As a transfer student, don’t worry if you can’t register for required core classes in the major in your first quarter.  Our continuing students register before transfer students and some major classes might be full. 

• PSY 200 Introduction to the Psychology Major (1 credit)
• PSY 300 Research Methods in Psychology (5 credits). If you haven’t taken PSY 101 or its equivalent, you should take that your first quarter instead and take PSY 300 your second quarter.
• PSY 362 Introductory Statistics (5 credits) is recommended in your first or second quarter at CWU. 

You can also register for one or more classes from the required course groups that do not require PSY 300 as a prerequisite. Examples of applicable courses include PSY 303 Analysis of Everyday Behavior (4 credits), PSY 313 Developmental Psychology (4 credits), PSY 346 Social Psychology (4 credits), and PSY 449 Abnormal Psychology (4 credits).