{"id":6918,"date":"2011-07-21T14:44:08","date_gmt":"2011-07-21T18:44:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/carleton.ca\/psychology\/?page_id=6918"},"modified":"2026-02-24T16:08:40","modified_gmt":"2026-02-24T21:08:40","slug":"planning-your-first-year","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/psychology\/planning-your-first-year\/","title":{"rendered":"Planning Your First Year"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<section class=\"w-screen px-6 cu-section cu-section--white ml-offset-center md:px-8 lg:px-14\">\n    <div class=\"space-y-6 cu-max-w-child-5xl  md:space-y-10 cu-prose-first-last\">\n\n            <div class=\"cu-textmedia flex flex-col lg:flex-row mx-auto gap-6 md:gap-10 my-6 md:my-12 first:mt-0 max-w-5xl\">\n        <div class=\"justify-start cu-textmedia-content cu-prose-first-last\" style=\"flex: 0 0 100%;\">\n            <header class=\"font-light prose-xl cu-pageheader md:prose-2xl cu-component-updated cu-prose-first-last\">\n                                    <h1 class=\"cu-prose-first-last font-semibold !mt-2 mb-4 md:mb-6 relative after:absolute after:h-px after:bottom-0 after:bg-cu-red after:left-px text-3xl md:text-4xl lg:text-5xl lg:leading-[3.5rem] pb-5 after:w-10 text-cu-black-700 not-prose\">\n                        Planning Your First Year\n                    <\/h1>\n                \n                                \n                            <\/header>\n\n                    <\/div>\n\n            <\/div>\n\n    <\/div>\n<\/section>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Select your courses to meet your degree requirements.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Review suggested program layouts for all 3 or 4 years of your degree tailored for the B.A., B.A. Honours, and B.Sc Honours programs.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Keep in mind that if you want to apply to graduate school you need to be in an Honours program.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>It is possible to change programs once you have started but there are certain requirements.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>When choosing your elective courses don\u2019t forget to include credits to satisfy the Breadth Requirement.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Consider taking courses in business or organizational society to learn more about the workplace.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Consider taking a minor to broaden your degree.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Whether you are or are not planning on graduate school, <strong>grades are important. <\/strong>Employers use grades as a screening tool too.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Familiarize yourself with <\/strong><a href=\"https:\/\/central.carleton.ca\/\" target=\"_blank\">Carleton Central<\/a><strong>, <a href=\"https:\/\/brightspace.carleton.ca\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Brightspace<\/a>, and your <\/strong><a href=\"https:\/\/portal.carleton.ca\/\" target=\"_blank\">MyCarleton Portal<\/a><strong> email account<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Carleton Central: You have probably already used Carleton Central to register for your courses but if you haven\u2019t already, take a look at the other things that you can do within Carleton Central like request a degree audit to see your GPA and how you are doing in meeting the requirements of your program, request copies of transcript and access myCareer for career and job searching assistance.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>WebCT: Most of your professors will use WebCT and\/or your connect email to communicate with you about important course information and provide course materials like lecture slides and course syllabi.&nbsp;Discussion sections on WebCT, if enabled for your class, are a great way to get advice or connect with your peers regarding classroom material.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>MyCarleton \/ Connect Email: Your Connect account is the only email account that you should be using to communicate with professors, TA and other university staff and the only email address that they will use to communicate with you.&nbsp; If you find that you are not checking your connect account often or it is simply more convenient for you, you can <em><strong>forward your connect account<\/strong><\/em> to another email address of your choice, but remember that if your email client allows it, you should set it up so that you can reply to emails from your account of choice BUT change the settings so you can send as your email&nbsp; ___@connect.carleton.ca.&nbsp; Otherwise you will have to log in to your connect account to send and reply to emails.&nbsp;To forward your connect account to another email address, log in to MyCarleton Portal, click \u201cEmail\u201d, click \u201cOptions\u201d, then click \u201cAuto Forward\u201d and enter the address you would like to forward your mail to.<strong> <\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Participate in experiments\/studies to earn extra marks<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>To participate, you need to be registered in PSYC 1001, 1002, 2001 or 2002.&nbsp;Click on&nbsp;<a href=\"http:\/\/carleton.ca\/psychology\/undergraduate\/sona\/\">Participation in Research Studies<\/a> to find out how.<strong> <\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Get involved with student groups on campus<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Psychology Society (<a href=\"mailto:pscarletonu@gmail.com\">pscarletonu@gmail.com<\/a>)<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Check out the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.cusaonline.com\/\" target=\"_blank\">CUSA<\/a> webpage for more information on campus groups.<strong> <\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Visit and Ask Questions<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/carleton.ca\/sasc\/\" target=\"_blank\">Student Academic Success Centre<\/a><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/carleton.ca\/career\/\" target=\"_blank\">Career Center<\/a><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.library.carleton.ca\/\" target=\"_blank\">Library<\/a><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Office Hours: Don\u2019t be afraid to ask for help if there is something you do not understand.&nbsp;Your professors and TAs hold office hours for just that purpose.<strong> <\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Volunteer<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Volunteering is a good thing to give back to the community and it gives you great experience to add to your resume.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>It helps you to meet people and can potentially lead to practicum opportunities to earn credits.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>If you volunteer in a field you might be interested in working in, it will help you learn more about the field and get connections.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>For more information go to myCareer (through Carleton Central), the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.volunteerottawa.ca\/vo-clean\/\" target=\"_blank\">Volunteer Ottawa<\/a> website, and the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.charityvillage.com\/cv\/main.asp\" target=\"_blank\">Charity Village<\/a> website.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>You may also want to try to volunteer in one of the research labs at Carleton.&nbsp;You can visit the <a href=\"http:\/\/carleton.ca\/psychology\/research\/\" target=\"_blank\">research section<\/a> of the psychology webpage to find out what kind of research is being conducted and contact faculty members doing research you are interested in to see if they are looking for volunteers in their lab.<strong> <\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Use your summers<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Look for summer employment to boost your resume or learn more about a field you are interested in.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Select your courses to meet your degree requirements. Familiarize yourself with Carleton Central, Brightspace, and your MyCarleton Portal email account. Participate in experiments\/studies to earn extra marks Get involved with student groups on campus Visit and Ask Questions Volunteer Use your summers<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":1,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_cu_dining_location_slug":"","footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"cu_page_type":[97],"class_list":["post-6918","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry","cu_page_type-current-undergrad-students"],"acf":{"cu_post_thumbnail":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/psychology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/6918","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/psychology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/psychology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/psychology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/psychology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6918"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/psychology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/6918\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":44949,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/psychology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/6918\/revisions\/44949"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/psychology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6918"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"cu_page_type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/psychology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/cu_page_type?post=6918"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}