Planning Your Program

Making Courses Count (double)

The minimum number of units required for graduation is 120. Since General Education totals 48 units, the Cultural Diversity requirement is six units, and the American Institution and Ideals requirement is six units, the 60 units required under the old (pre July 1, 2005) Social Science Credential Option produces a total of 120 units, while the 64 unit current Social Science Credential Option yields a total of 124 units. With careful planning, however, the total number of required courses can be reduced: courses in the old program may be double-counted to meet up to 18 units of General Education plus the six Cultural Diversity units; under the new program up to 15 units of General Education plus six Cultural Diversity units may be double-counted for the major. Taking advantage of opportunities to double-count courses will enable you not only to fulfill all graduation requirements, but also to complete the CSU, Chico Credential Program prerequisites (PDF), take CSU Chico Credential Program "floater" courses (PDF), or work on a Specific Subject Matter Authorization in another subject without having to take on excess units.

General Education

Nine units of the 39 unit Core and Breadth portion of General Education are met by courses that are required in either version of the Social Science Credential Option (D1 - ECON 103, D2 - ECON 102 or HIST 103, D3 - HIST 110). An additional three units may be met by taking HIST 261 for General Education Area C3 and counting it as the Non-Western History elective in either version of the Social Science Credential Option. The old (pre July 2005) version of the program offers the opportunity to double-count three more units by taking PSY 101, a behavioral science elective in the program, and applying it to General Education Area E. Finally, there are also eight upper division themes in which one history-social science elective course may be taken and double-counted (themes A, C, D, F, G, I, N, U).

Cultural Diversity

The University's six unit Cultural Diversity requirement is easily met within the context of the History Department 's Social Science Credential Option. In fact, both of the geography electives between which you must choose (GEOG 301 and 303) satisfy the Non-Western Studies portion of the requirement. The Ethnic Studies portion of the requirement may be met by making HIST 206, 230, 231, 234, 332, or 341 one of your American history electives.

Planning A Schedule

You should meet with the History Department 's social science credential advisor at least once a semester to review your status and plan your schedule for the upcoming semester. If you are a first-time freshman, you should take a look at the Four Year Graduation Plan (xlsx) (XLS) to see a model schedule you can follow to insure graduation within four years. Since there are 60 units in the History-Social Science Credential Program, you should begin to take courses in it right away, even though during your first two years much of your focus will be on completing the General Education Program.