The Core
All students entering the college, whether as freshmen, external transfer, or intrauniversity transfer students, initially enter the college’s core as environmental design students and are enrolled in the bachelor of environmental design degree program. All students admitted into the college’s undergraduate degree program graduate with the bachelor of environmental design degree with an emphasis major. The emphasis majors are those in architecture, in environmental design, landscape design, planning, and design studies.
In the core, entering ENVD students take a coordinated sequence of interdisciplinary courses that emphasize the knowledge, methods, and practices common to the fields of architecture, planning, urban design, landscape design, and design studies. As the established design professions are increasingly collaborating on complex design issues related to the designed environment, the mix of core courses responds to and reflects these interdisciplinary and integrative trends. The interdisciplinary core sequence is delivered in the first five semesters of the program.
Moving into the Emphasis Majors +
Completion of the lower-division core leads to entry into one of five specialized upper-division emphasis majors: architecture, environmental design, landscape design, planning/urban design, or design studies. All students in the lower division initially indicate their choice of disciplinary emphasis by the particular classes they elect to complete in the sixth semester of the program.
There are 30 required and elective credits in each emphasis major. Each emphasis has been carefully designed to prepare students for graduate studies, for entry into the workplace, or for both. The emphases in architecture, landscape design, and planning/urban design are specifically designed to lead to accelerated programs of study in the college’s graduate professional programs on the Denver Campus. This is also true in the case of the environmental design and design studies majors and their options. Students who elect the architecture emphasis must complete 36 credits of elective courses in the arts, humanities, or sciences, in order to ensure a normal transition into a graduate program in architecture. Completing an environmental design or design studies major can also, depending on the particular requirements of graduate professional programs at other institutions, lead to advanced standing in those programs that can shorten the number of credits required to complete those programs. Students continuing in the upper-division ENVD emphases are subject to the academic standards defined in this catalog.
Moving into the Core +
Students entering the college as freshmen are admitted through the University of Colorado at Boulder’s admission process for entering students and are admitted directly into the ENVD degree program.
Transfer students from other universities who enter CU-Boulder with freshman standing (29.9 credit hours or fewer completed) and who want to pursue a particular emphasis or major are initially admitted into the ENVD degree program and need to complete the core before choosing their emphasis and major.
Intrauniversity transfer students (IUTs) from other schools and colleges on the Boulder campus who are in their freshman year can IUT into the ENVD degree program provided that they meet the IUT requirements for entry to the college. One of these requirements is completion of the ENVD 1004 class before applying for entry into the ENVD program. IUTs with sophomore standing or above have a maximum of 30 credit hours after admission to the ENVD degree program to complete the core before choosing an emphasis major.
Transfer students from other universities offering pre-professional or accredited professional degree programs in one of the college’s areas of emphasis who enter CU-Boulder with sophomore standing or above (30 hours or more of transfer credit) may be admitted to the ENVD degree program with advanced standing. They have a maximum of 30 credit hours after transferring into the college to complete the core before choosing their emphasis major. The college may in certain cases and in consultation with its departments approve direct admission to an emphasis for transfer students from these other institutions if those students have junior or senior standing in those programs.
