A&S Registration Guide for Incoming First-Year Students
May: Complete these tasks to prepare for academic advising
- Complete the.
- Schedule your New Student Orientation Session through Buff Portal. Please note that most sessions are in-person and they run through June and mid-July. There will be some virtual only sessions in mid-July.
- Resolve yourHolds and To-Dosin Buff Portal. Learn more byExploring Buff Portal.
- Complete recommendedplacement assessments.
- Make sure yourofficial high school and (if completed) concurrent enrollment transcripts are submitted to Ҵýƽ, as well as anyԻǰ.Learn more about how to submit official transcripts.Note: Results of AP/IB tests from the current year are typicallyavailable in July. .
- Complete anyadditionalsteps for first-year students.
- Connect with your academic advisor. See instructions below.
May 23: Start connecting with academic advising
Incoming first-year students who confirmed their enrollment should now see their academic advisor assignment.
You can connect with your academic advisor over the summer through individual appointments and email. Advising availability is primarily virtual via Zoom. When viewing your advisor's calendar, note that times are always displayed in Mountain Time.
If you have any questions about your academic advisor's availability/calendar, you can reach out to them directly using your Ҵýƽ email address.
Individual Appointments
- Individual appointments are the best way to make the initial connection with your assigned advisor. You and your advisor can start getting to know each other, you can have a discussion about your academic goals and interests, you can share what makes you excited or nervous about coming to Ҵýƽ, etc.
- To schedule an individual appointment:
- Go to Buff Portal Advising (BPA)and Log in as a Current Student. Under Student Success Team,click on your academic advisor’s picture to open up their calendar. Individual Appointments will be labeled as “[Advisor’s name] Advising Appointment" or something similar.
- Need help? Read .
- It is essential that you set up and consistently monitor your Ҵýƽ email account. If you have any issues with your account, contact the for assistance.
- It is essential that you use your Ҵýƽ email account to contact your advisor and for all university-related correspondence. Do not use a personal account.
May-June: Additional steps to prepare for registration
Step 1
Sign up for a New Student Orientation session
You can select your New Student Orientation session through.
Note: You must complete the Online Experience before attending New Student Orientation. You will not be able to register for classes if you have not completed the Online Experience. If you see a hold still to complete the Online Experience, it is not done and we recommend checking that you have completed and passed all the quizzes.
Step 2
Learn more about your major requirements and explore options to customize your degree
The College of Arts & Sciences offers many ways to customize your degree at Ҵýƽ. Before you register for classes, we recommend reviewingyour intended major's requirements and example four-year plan(s) of study, and exploring any other majors, minors, or certificates you might be interested in.
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Step 3
Learn more about the Arts & Sciences General Education (Gen Ed) requirements
General Educationrequirements covera range of subjects and skills that allow you to explore as you pursue your Ҵýƽ degree.
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Gen Ed coursescan be taken throughout the time you are working on your degree, andmany first-year studentsenroll in oneor moreGen Edsin their first semester.
Step 4
Review your degree audit
Do you have transfer and/or AP/IBcredits and want to know how they were applied? Are you wonderingif you've alreadyfulfilled the World Language requirement?Your degree audit is where you can find out(remember that your official transcripts/test scores must be received and processed by Ҵýƽ first).
Degree Audit Breakdown
After you openall sections, the degree audit may seem overwhelming at first.
Below is ageneral breakdownof the sections of the degree audit:
- Section 1-Overall credit and GPA requirementsto graduate from the College of Arts & Sciences.
- Section 2-General Education requirementsfor the College of Arts & Sciences.
- Section 3-Specific requirements for yourmajor(not applicable at this time if you are Open Option).
- Section 4-Coursework history.
- Section 5-Legendthatoutlines the symbols used to show when courses are completed, planned, in progress, or unfulfilled.
Note: The degree audit does not list the order in which major classes should be taken. For that, refer back to your majorrequirements using the link from Step 2 and connect with your Academic Advisor.
Step 5
Search for classes
After connecting with advising and reviewing your degree audit, you hopefully have a good idea of how to choose classes. Now you canstart familiarizing yourself with the! Log in using the "Login" button at the top right corner of the page. We highly recommend you practice searching for classes before you attend your New Student Orientation session.
Using Class Search Filters
Upper Section: Basic Filters
When searching for classes:
Set the “Any Campus” filter toBoulder Main Campus.
Set the“Any Career/Course Level” filter to Undergrad Lower Division.
Check the "Avoid Schedule Conflicts" box (this willbe more relevantonce youhave priorityclasses in your cart).
If you have a job, family obligations, etc., you can also use the "Avoid Certain Time Periods" feature.
Middle Section: General Education / Core Courses Search
To search by Arts & Sciences Gen Ed categories:
Click on "Gen Educ / Core / Hum & Soc Sci Search" to expand the menu.
Click on "Any A&S GenEd Attributes" to expand that menu, and then select the category you want.
Tip: Keep your major in mind when exploring.An Astronomymajor, for example, will complete theNatural Sciences Distribution through their required major coursework. So, they may want to spend more time exploring classes in the Arts & Humanities and Social Sciences Distributions.
Lower Section: Advanced Search Filters
There are a number of potentially helpful advanced filters, but we want to call outthe "Open, Waitlisted, or Closed" filter in particular. Setting this filter to Open Onlyis especially useful when you are in your orientation session and looking to round out your schedule. You do not want to waste time looking at classes that are already full!
Note: You are not able to waitlist for classes during your orientation session.
Step 6
Complete Preregistration
Why it’s important:
Preregistration verifies your most current contact information, and that you understand tuition and fees. Preregistration is required before enrolling in classes.
When to do this:
You’ll want to complete this step before you begin planning.
Here’s how:
- .
- Follow the “preregistration” prompt card under the “prepare” section of the .
Note: You can learn more about preregistration on the Registrar's website.
Step 7
Build your shopping cart
Again, we highly recommend you practice searching for classes and adding them to your shopping cart before attending your New Student Orientation session. This will greatly help during your registration. The Registrar's website has a great guide of the different actions to use when creating and editing your cart. Be sure to review the adding, dropping and swapping class tiles.
Registration glossary and key terms
Recitation: This is a required component of some larger lecture-style classes. This is a smaller meeting (typically once a week) in addition to the lecture.
Lab: Interactive workshop component of a class usually held in a laboratory. The laboratory meeting time is separate from the lecture, although it is often associated with the lecture.
Lower Division: Any 1000 or 2000 level course. These are most appropriate for first-year students.
Prerequisite: A prerequisite is a specific course that you must complete before you can take another course at the next level. For example, successful completion of MATH 1150 (Precalculus) is a prerequisite for enrollment in MATH 1300 (Calculus 1), meaning you need to complete MATH 1150 with a certain grade before you can take MATH 1300.
Corequisite: Sometimes classes are corequisites, meaning you can either take it before the other class OR at the same time as the other class. For example, enrollment in CHEM 1114 (Laboratory for General Chemistry 1) is a corequisite for enrollment in CHEM 1113 (General Chemistry 1), meaning you need to take them together.
Registration Restrictions for a specific class will let you know if it’s restricted to majors or students in aspecific college.
Open Sections Restricted to Specific Student Populations: Keep an eye out for odd-lookingcourse sectionssuch as 214R or 300E or 880. Such sections may appearto have open seats but are limited to specific groups on campus and unavailable to others.
Continuing Education (CE) Courses: Continuing Education is a division of Ҵýƽ with apopulation primarily consisting ofnon-traditional students. Ҵýƽ undergraduate and graduate students can enroll in classes through CE but there are a couple of things to consider. First,CE classes are billed separately and tuition rates are different. This is especially important to consider if you are an out of state student. Second, CE classes are mostly taught online and are often delivered asynchronously. If you are considering a class through CE, please discuss it first with your academic advisor.
June or July: Orientation Session and time to register!
If you have followed this guide over the summer, you should be ready for registration during your New Student Orientation session in June or July. If you have not done so already, make sure youcompletepreregistration-this is required for you to complete each time you register for classes. We have some additionalreminders for registration below.
Reminder: Prepare your cart before your orientation session, but also keep in mind that adding classes to your cart does not guarantee you will get into them. Tobe as prepared as possible, make sure you have a backup plan!
Reminder: Enroll in required recitations or labs. If you want to register for a class that has a required recitation or lab section, makesure you have added both a lecture section and a corresponding recitation/lab section to your cart. Missing one element or the other will delay the submission of your cart!