FAQ

At MSU Denver, students may oe may not be assigned to specific advisors, depending on the major. Academic advising, however, is available to all students. Advising for your first term, and perhaps beyond that, is generally provided by a general advisor. Students who have not decided on a major will work with an advisor in the Academic Advising Center until the major is declared. As you advance in your program, academic advising is provided by faculty advisors in the major departments.  Generally, once ou have selected a major, it makes sense to begin building the advising relationship with your major deparment, unless you have a question specific to General Studies. Students wanting to pursue teacher licensure or intending to major in Business or Professional Studies might want to meet with an advisor in those schools, and any student transferring in with a large number of credits (more than 40, as a rule of thumb) should seek advising in the major department as soon as possible.

Yes! Most of the time, it makes sense to make an appointment with an appropriate advisor ahead of time.

For relatively straightforward questions, advisors can also help you with Quick Questions (15 minutes or less), in our registration lab, or electronically . We do also see students on a walk-in basis but during busy registration periods (April-August and November-January) there may be a considerable wait if you are coming without an appointment. The week before the beginning of Fall or Spring terms, we do ONLY walk ins and Quick Questions, because of the volume of students seeking help, usually for schedule adjustment help.

Follow the instructions for new (first-time) students or transfer students for the steps you should take. You might also find these registration worksheets helpful. First-time freshman and some transfer students are required to meet with an academic advisor prior to registration, and all other incoming students are encouraged to meet with an appropriate advisor as soon as feasible.

Accuplacer exams are offered through the Office of Assessment and Testing. They also have collected practice materials for each of the exams, and it is a very good idea to prepare for the placement exam before taking it. You also have access to the Tutoring Center to help you prepare. Adequate preparation means that you will be taking the courses you are supposed to be in, which ends up saving you time, effort, and money.

Academic advisors can assist you with navigating ConnectU and registration techniques, and that's generally done initially through the orientation & advising process for new students and for transfer students. You can register through your ConnectU account from your home or from any computer lab on campus, so once you have learned to register, you can do so on your own. Advisors do NOT register students for courses*, but if you run into problems registering that are not addressed on this page or you aren't sure what course to register for, an advisor can help you through Quick Questions, our registration lab, or online--you generally do not need a full appointment for this.

* There is one exception where an advisor must register you for courses: First Year Succes learning communities. If you're eligible to register for these courses, fill out the request form on the learning communities information page and bring it in for Quick Questions, to the registration lab, or to the First Year Success office. You can also send an email to FYS Advising. In the email please note the learning community initials (MA, TB, etc.). Please note that if a learning community consists of more than one course, you must request registration in BOTH courses.

Students who are eligible to take First Year Success courses (First Year students with 15 or fewer credits) can register for an FYS learning community by filling out the request form on the learning community information page and bringing that to First Year Success, to a Quick Question with an academic advisor, or to the registration lab. You may also email your request to FYS Advising. In the email, please note the initials of the learning community you wish to add.

Please note that if the learning community has more than one course (most do), you must register for both courses in the learning community.

Login to ConnectU and follow the Registration links to the Registration Menu and click on "Registration Permit Date and Time" to see when you are eligible to register. Before you can register, you also must clear any holds that prevent you from registering.

When this error happens, the registration system is unable to confirm that you have completed the course(s) or the relevant test score(s) that the department has said are necessary to enroll in the course. To see what course(s) or test score(s) are being checked, click on the CRN of the course you're trying to add:

In the window that pops up, click the title of the course:

Then ook at the section called Prerequisites:

This can happen for several reasons, the most common of which is that you took or are taking the prerequisite course at another school, and the course(s) have not yet transferred. You may be given permission to add the course by submitting an unofficial copy of your transcript. Generally, you would submit that to the department offering the course. For some General Studies courses, Academic Advising can give you permission. To request this, send an email to Academic Advising and attach your unofficial transcript. You can also fill out the online contact form. On the form, for the section "My question or comment concerns the following" please note "Prerequisite/Test Score Error or See Department error."

A course with this message initially filled, and at least one person added themselves to the waitlist. Then someone dropped the course, and the first person on the waitlist has 48 hours to add it. Until that person either adds the course or the 48 hours expires, the course will look like it has a space, but it doesn't really. You may add yourself to the waitlist at this point, but you can't add the course.

This message means that the department offering the course is controlling enrollment in it. There are a number of reasons a department might do this. During the first week of class, for example, several departments add this restriction when the add/drop period is still in effect, but for all practical purposes if you haven't been attending the course up to that point, it really is too late to add it. But it's not always easy to tell why this restriction is there, and sometimes the only way to know is to contact the department offering the course. If you're not sure which department is offering it, you can fill out the online contact form (indicate that this concerns a "Prerequisite/Test Score Error or See Department error") or send and email to Academic Advising.

The course you are trying to add requires that you add another course at the same time. If you try to add either without the other (or if you're unable to add one of them for some reason), you'll get this error. To add the courses, make sure you're either checking both boxes on the Class Schedule screen or are entering both CRNs.

This comes up most often for courses that have both a lecture and a required lab.

In Fall Semester or Spring Semester there is a Late Registration Deadline 10 business days before classes begin. If you don't have any registration activity by the deadline, you would have a late registration fee. 

The last day to add a course in general is also the same day to drop a class and have it deleted from your record, 12 business days into the term. In practical terms, however, adding a course that late if you haven't attended it generally doesn't work. Some departments may block registration after the first or first two class meetings, but in other situations, you may be able to register for the class, only to have the instructor or department let you know that it's in fact too late to add the course.

If you're adding a course after it's already met, it's a good idea to check with the instructor or department to make sure it's not too late to add.

For the last day to drop a class, check the Academic Calendar for the current semester. For the last day to withdraw from a class (NC), look at your Student Detail Schedule in ConnectU. Dropping a class means you're are removing it from your schedule before the point it becomes a permament part of your academic record. If you drop before the drop deadline, your academic transcript will have no record of that course. If dropping the course results in a different amount of tuition owed, you may also receive a refund for that course--the amount depends on how close to the deadline you drop the course. The Academic Calendar has the 100% and 50% refund schedules.

After the drop deadline, if you remove yourself from the course, it's called an NC or withdrawal. The course remains on your academic transcript, and you would not get a refund for any tuition owed. Before withdrawing/taking an NC in a course, you may wish to look over Should I NC/Withdraw from my class? ( 132 KB)

During Fall and Spring semesters, students can take up to 18 credit hours without departmental approval. During the Summer, the maximum is 12 credit hours.

A hold is placed on your account because there is something the University was expecting you to do, but we don't have record that you've done it. Holds typically prevent a student from registering for classes (but not generally from dropping or withdrawing from/taking an NC) a class. But holds can also prevent transcripts from being sent, processing a change of major request, and other important tasks, so it is in your best interest to find out what is required and take care of it as soon as you can.

You can find instructions on determining which holds you have and who to contact about them through the Office of the Registrar.

All new students are required to complete an orientation process. Depending on the student, that may be an online process, or you may be required to or choose to participate in an on-campus orientation. See New Student Orientation for details and to sign up. As part of the new student requirements, you may also be required to meet with an advisor before you can register. Whether it's a requirement or not, meeting with an appropriate academic advisor is a good idea. Finally, check out our recommendations for New Students and for Transfer Students.

Having one or more of these holds means you haven't completed a requirement in the timeframe that academic policy has defined as making good progress toward your degree requirements. Removal of the hold(s) is generally done through a Blackboard tutorial, but certainly if you have questions or concerns about which courses are appropriate for you or how to complete any of these requirements, you can speak with an advisor.

The most comprehensive list of courses that apply to General Studies is the online catalog. It is very important, though, that you look at the catalog for your catalog year. Depending on when you were admitted or readmitted, you can have quite different General Studies requirements.

Once you know what catalog requirements you have, you can search for classes in the class schedule by using an attribute search. See instructions for an attribute search if your catalog year is

• Before Fall 2012:  How to Find General Studies Courses for catalog years BEFORE 2012-13 ( 92 KB)
• Fall 2012 or later: How to Find General Studies Courses for catalog years beginning with 2012-13 ( 151 KB)

Yes! The rules vary a bit depending on when you were admitted or readmitted to the University, and there are some requirements that need to be completed earlier than others. If your catalog years is prior to Fall 2012, you can find the rules in the catalog that has your degree requirements, like this section for students who were admitted or readmitted in 2010-2011. For students who were admitted in 2012-2013 and later, the rules are a bit different.

But the general idea is that you will be more successful if you complete Math/Quantitative Literacy, English/Written Communication, and Communications/Oral Communication in your first 30 hours. So among all the other options and considerations when choosing your schedule, you need to make completing these requirements a priority.

To declare or change a major, concentration, or minor, fill out the Declaration of Major and Minor Form ( 149 KB), , have it signed in the academic departmentt, and return it to Academic Advising, Student Success Building (SSB) 170.It generally takes 2-3 business days to process the change, and processing may be delayed or not possible if you have holds on your account.

The online catalog has a list of degrees and programs offered. You can also view a list of majors and minors with links to the departmental sites.We also have degree plans for each major.

Students entering in Fall 2012 or later must declare their major no later than 45 hours. Transfer students who already have more than 45 hours need to declare prior to their second term at MSU Denver. Although other students are not required to declare a major by a deadline, certainly delaying in choosing your academic path tends to add time and cost to your degree. Academic advisors, career counselors, and others can help you find the right path.

Bring $10 and your Student Detail class schedule (from ConnectU) to the ID Center in Tivoli 269.