Arts Academic Plans

The Four-Year General BA in Psychology will be of particular interest to those who require a Four-Year degree in order to pursue further studies that do not require an Honours degree for admission.

Please refer to the Applying for a Psychology Major section.

Continuation in this academic plan requires a cumulative overall average of 60% and a cumulative Psychology average of 70%. Conditional standing may be granted for one academic term to students whose averages fall below these criteria.

Eligibility for graduation in the Four-Year General Psychology academic plan includes successful fulfilment of the following requirements:

1. Appropriate Program-level requirements. See "Bachelor of Arts."
2. Psychology Plan-level requirements:
   • at least seven academic course units (14 courses) in Psychology with a minimum cumulative Psychology average of 70%, including:
     • PSYCH 101
     • PSYCH 291, 292 (must be completed in year two)
     • four of the following Discipline Core: PSYCH 207, 211, 253, 257, 261 (Normally, these courses are completed by the end of year two.)
     • four PSYCH courses from the following: PSYCH 304 through 380 (excluding PSYCH 323R), 438, 439, 481, 482 
     • three additional PSYCH courses at any level 

Notes: 

1. Please refer to the Psychology Undergraduate website (http://www.psychology.uwaterloo.ca/ugradprog/current/index.html) for course sequence information and class enrolment instructions.
2. Students who have not successfully completed an OAC Math course, 4U Math, Grade 12 Math in a province other than Ontario, or an approved equivalent will be required to take MATH 103 as a corequisite to PSYCH 291. Those required to take MATH 103 will take one (i.e., 0.5 academic course unit) fewer unspecified electives.
3. Regarding the "Social Science" courses for the Faculty of Arts Breadth requirements, Psychology Majors only require 1.0 academic course unit from this area in a discipline(s) other than Psychology.
4. Residency Requirements:
   Students enrolled in academic plans in Psychology must successfully complete at least half of the total number of academic course units required in Psychology for their academic plan from UW with numerical grades. Please refer to the Residency Requirement section for the Faculty of Arts as well as the Psychology Undergraduate Student Handbook (www.psychology.uwaterloo.ca/ugradprog/UG_Handbook.html#residencyrequirements) for further details regarding the residency requirements.
5. Double Counting Rules: No more than three of the PSYCH courses for the Psychology Major can be used to satisfy course requirements in another individual academic plan (i.e., Major, Minor, or Option). Under no circumstances can an individual PSYCH course satisfy course requirements in more than two academic plans.