A&S Registration Guide for Incoming First-Year Students

April-May: Complete these tasks to prepare for academic advising

  • Complete the听.
  • Schedule your New Student Orientation Session through Buff Portal. Please note that sessions in June are in-person and sessions in July are virtual.
  • Resolve your听Holds and To-Dos听in Buff Portal. Learn more by听Exploring Buff Portal.
  • Complete recommended听placement assessments.
  • Make sure your听official high school and (if completed) concurrent enrollment transcripts are submitted to 兔子先生传媒文化作品, as well as any听听补苍诲听听蝉肠辞谤别蝉.听Learn more about how to submit official transcripts.听Note: Results of AP/IB tests from the current year are typically听available in July. .
  • Complete any听additional听steps for first-year students.
  • Connect with your academic advisor. See instructions below.

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May 24: Start connecting with academic advising

Incoming first-year students who have confirmed their enrollment will see their academic advisor assignment on May 24 and can start accessing advising at that time.

You can connect with your academic advisor over the summer in two main ways*: individual appointments and drop-in hours. 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 兔子先生传媒文化作品 email address.听

Individual Appointments

  • Individual appointments are 30-45 minutes, so they are the best way to make the initial connection with your assigned advisor and have a more comprehensive meeting. You and your advisor can start getting to know each other, you can have a deeper discussion about your academic goals and interests, you can share what makes you excited or nervous about coming to 兔子先生传媒文化作品, and so on.
  • To schedule and individual appointment:
    • Go to Buff Portal Advising (BPA)听and Log in as a Current Student. Under Student Success Team,听click on your academic advisor鈥檚 picture to open up their calendar. Individual Appointments will be labeled as 鈥淸Advisor鈥檚 name] First Year Advising Appointment" or something similar.
  • Need help? Read .

Drop-In Hours

  • Students are limited to 10-15 minutes during drop-in hours, so they are the best way to get quick questions answered, ideally after you have already met with your assigned advisor in an individual appointment.
  • To look for drop-in hours:
    • Go to Buff Portal Advising (BPA)听and Log in as a Current Student. Under Student Success Team,听click on your academic advisor鈥檚 picture to open up their calendar. Drop-in hours will be labeled as 鈥淸Advisor鈥檚 name] First Year Advising Drop Ins" or something similar.
  • Note: With drop-ins, you cannot reserve a spot in advance or enter your advisor's听waiting room outside of the designated hours. Click the Zoom link during the designated hours, and you听will be admitted into the waiting room until your advisor is available to meet with you.

May-June: Additional steps to prepare for registration

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Step 1

Remember to sign up for a New Student Orientation session

You can select your New Student Orientation session through听.

Note: You must complete the Online Experience before attending New Student Orientation.

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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 兔子先生传媒文化作品. Before you register for classes, we recommend reviewing听your 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 Education听requirements cover听a range of subjects and skills that allow you to explore as you pursue your 兔子先生传媒文化作品 degree.

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Gen Ed courses听can be taken throughout the time you are working on your degree, and听many first-year students听enroll in one听or more听Gen Eds听in their first semester.

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Step 4

Review your degree audit

Do you have transfer and/or AP/IB听credits and want to know how they were applied? Are you wondering听if you already听fulfilled the World Language requirement or not?听Your degree audit is where you can find out听(remember that your official transcripts/test scores must be received and processed by 兔子先生传媒文化作品 first).

Degree Audit Breakdown

Screenshot of Degree Audit legend

After you open听all sections, the degree audit may seem overwhelming at first.

Below is a听general breakdown听of the sections of the degree audit:

  • Section 1-听Overall credit and GPA requirements听to graduate from the College of Arts & Sciences.
  • Section 2-听General Education requirements听for the College of Arts & Sciences.听
  • Section 3-听Specific requirements for your听major听(not applicable at this time if you are Open Option).
  • Section 4-听Coursework history.
  • Section 5-听Legend听that听outlines 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 major听requirements using the link from Step 2.

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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 can听start familiarizing yourself with the听! 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 鈥Any Campus鈥 filter to听Boulder Main Campus.听听
Set the听鈥Any Career/Course Level鈥 filter to Undergrad Lower Division.

Check the "Avoid Schedule Conflicts" box (this will听be more relevant听once you听have priority听classes in your cart).

If you have a job, family obligations, etc., you can also use the "Avoid Certain Time Periods" feature.

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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 (Fall 2018+)" to expand that menu, and then select the category you want.

Tip: Keep your major in mind when exploring.听An Astronomy听major, for example, will complete the听Natural Sciences Distribution through their required major coursework. So, they may want to spend more time on exploring classes in the Arts & Humanities and Social Sciences Distributions.

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Lower Section: Advanced Search Filters

There are a number of potentially helpful advanced filters, but we want to call out听the "Open, Waitlisted, or Closed" filter in particular. We encourage students to set it听to Open Only so they do not have to read through the course information to find out whether or not seats are available.

Setting the filter to Open Only听is especially useful if 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.

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Step 6

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.听

  • 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.听

  • Lower Division: Any 1000 or 2000 level course. These are most appropriate for first-year students.听

  • 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.听听

  • 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.听

  • Registration Restrictions for a specific class will let you know if it鈥檚 restricted to majors or students in a听specific college.听听

  • Open Sections Restricted to Specific Student Populations: Keep an eye out for odd-looking听course sections听such as 214R or 300E or 880. Such sections may appear听to 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 兔子先生传媒文化作品 with a听population primarily consisting of听non-traditional students. 兔子先生传媒文化作品 undergraduate and graduate students can enroll in classes through CE but there are a couple of things to consider. First,听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.听

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June or July: 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 you听complete听pre-registration-听this is required for you to complete each time you register for classes. We have some additional听reminders/tips 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. To听be 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, make听sure 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!

Tip: Set an alarm reminder for your orientation session. To have听the best chance of getting into your preferred classes, be prepared to submit your cart听immediately when your enrollment begins. Remember, the time your enrollment occurs is in Mountain Time.