PES Registration Guide for Incoming Students

Tasks to complete before registration

Complete the Online Experience.
Select your enrollment window (first-year students only).
Resolve your Holds and To Dos in Buff Portal. Learn more by Exploring Buff Portal.
Complete any needed placement exams. Learn more about preparing for the math readiness test.
Submit your official highschool, concurrent enrollment credit, AP and IB scores? Learn more about how to submit. Note: Results of AP/IB tests completed this year will be available in July.
Complete any additional steps for first-year students.

Step 1

Select your enrollment window

You will be prompted to choose your enrollment window after completing the "Enrolling in Classes Module" of the Online Experience. To select your enrollment window, log into Buff Portal and navigate to Register for Classes on your New Student Welcome Experience card. You can also view the dates you selected on Buff Portal's enrollment dates card.

Note: You must complete the Online Experience before you register for classes.

Step 2

Learn more about majors

All majors and programs are assigned a specific program, school or college which have their own unique transfer process. Learn more about the majors, minors and certificates available at CU Boulder.

To narrow your search, refer to the drop down menu on the upper left of the webpage where you can search by majors, minors and certificates, and by the school where the major you are considering transferring into is located.

Step 3

Review Intra University Transfer (IUT) requirements

Most schools require a set of prerequisite courses and cumulative GPA requirements that need to be achieved before submission of the IUT application. Once you’ve identified the college, school or program of your respective major(s), review the IUT requirements below.

Note: All students in the Program in Exploratory Studies (PES) will need to submit an IUT application no later than the end of their fourth semester!

School/College/Program IUT Webpages

College of Arts & Sciences (A&S)
College of Engineering & Applied Science (Engr ApSci)
College of Media, Communication and Information (CMCI)
College of Music

Business Registration Workshop Engineering Registration Workshop Exploration Registration Workshop

Step 4

Review your Degree Audit

Check what classes you may have received transfer credit for and what general education requirements you need to fulfill for a major by referring to the majors’ degree audit.

What is a degree audit?

A degree audit is a tool students use to track their major requirements and make sure they are taking classes to progress in their degree. Think of it as a checklist of the degree requirements needed in order to graduate.

As a PES student, you are not yet assigned to a specific college, school or major. To learn more about what specific majors require:

Review the class registration guide card in Buff Portal
Expand the "Plan" section, then select "View Degree Audit"
In the degree audit system, click to expand “Select a Different Program” (also know as a “what if degree audit”)

Learn more about running a degree audit for different programs.

College and degree codes

ENGR ApSci = Engineering = BS for all majors EXCEPT for BA in Computer Science
AS = Arts & Sciences = BA
Business = Business = BSBA
CMCI = CMCI BA = COMM, Media Production, Media Studies, Journalism majors or BS = Info Science, Strat Comm majors
Envr Design = ENVD = BEV
Education = Education = BA
Music = Music = BA or BM or BME

When the degree audit loads, click on “open all sections” on the left side of the screen before the start of the audit.

Open all sections

Degree Audit Breakdown

The degree audit can look confusing after opening “all sections”.

Below is a general breakdown of the sections of the degree audit - this will look different depending on major and college but, in general, these are the sections degree audits are divided into

Section 1: Overall policy to graduate from the major. This will be a few paragraphs of the audit that provide an important overview of the school and major graduation requirements.
Section 2: General education requirements for the college, school or program where the major is located
Section 3: Major Requirements outlines the core requirements of the major. To learn more specifics about major requirements, refer to the requirements tab of the course catalog for the major you are interested in.
Section 4: Legend outlines the symbols used to show when courses are completed, planned, in progress or unfulfilled.
Section 5: Coursework history

Please Note: The degree audit does not list the order in which classes should be taken - for that, refer to the requirements tab of the major course catalog page.

General Education Classes

General Education classes are requirements covering a range of subjects and skills that allow you to explore as you pursue your CU Boulder degree. Every college requires students to take general education courses to graduate from their major. General Education requirements, and what they are called, vary by college - For example, CMCI refers to their GenEds as CORE so do not confuse this with the CMCI major curriculum requirements.

General Education Categories

Foreign/World Language (this may have been completed in high school)
Quantitative Reasoning/Quantitative Thinking and Math Skills
Written Communication
Arts & Humanities
Social Science or People and Society
Natural Science or Natural World
Diversity US/Global/Historical Views (similar to social sciences and arts & humanities)

GenEds can be taken throughout the time you are working on your degree and many first year students do enroll in 1 or 2 geneds in their first semester.

The degree audit will also show you what classes you received transfer credit including AP, IB and concurrent enrollment courses.

Step 5

Search for Classes

Now that you have explored the course catalog of your majors of interest and have done a degree audit for that major/those majors, you are prepared to put your shopping cart together and enroll in classes!

Complete Pre-registration - this is required for you to complete each time you register for classes - this will confirm your contact and address information, and that you agree to tuition payment - you must put in a local address.

Filtering class search

Log into Class Search | Upper Section of Class Search

For “any campus” choose Boulder Main Campus*
For “any Career/Course Level” choose Lower Division*

*Recommended option - see advisor for questions

Mark the “avoid schedule conflicts” once you have IUT classes/primary classes in Cart

Middle Section of Class Search: General Education/Core Courses Filter

Click on the title for menu of different schools to open

Search for GenEd categories by school: choose the school where the major you are exploring is located, click on the drop-down menu, and scroll down to the GenEd category you need to fulfill.

Search classes

Bottom Section of Class Search: Advanced Search

The advance search is helpful for a number of filters. We encourage students to use the open, waitlisted or closed filter to find classes with open seats.

Step 6

Build Your Shopping Cart

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. Ex: 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. 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 the specific college.
Open Sections Restricted to Specific Student Populations - stay on the lookout for course sections such as 214R or 300E or 880, even while open they might be limited to specific groups on campus and have no access.
Continuing Education (CE) Courses: continuing education is a separate school within CU Boulder whose primary population are non-traditional students. CU Boulder undergraduate and graduate students can enroll in classes through CE but there are a couple of things to consider: CE classes are billed separately and tuition rates are different, this is especially important to consider if you are an out of state student. 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.

Learning important information about classes

View this tutorial video to learn more about registering for classes! Note: you need to use your CU email for access to this video.

Tips and tricks for registration

Set a reminder for your enrollment window. For the best chance of getting into classes, enroll in classes immediately when your enrollment window opens in Mountain Time.

Understand course requirements for your Residential Academic Program (RAP) or Living Learning Community (LLC) (if applicable). Check your CU email daily, your RAP/LLC coordinator will send you an email with class offerings and days and times they are being taught.

Prepare your cart before your enrollment window. To be better prepared, always choose backup classes/backup lecture sections. There is a chance you will not get into your first choice. Preparing your cart does not mean this is your schedule - backup classes are key!

Enroll in required recitations or labs. Make sure to enroll in a recitation or lab if it is required for the lecture - it will not show up in your cart without choosing it.

Review your cart before your enrollment window opens. Are there still seats available in the lecture and recitation sections you chose? If not, you'll want to change around your schedule to classes and/or recitations that have open seats.

Need advising assistance?

Are you an incoming first-year student? All PES students will have access to our entire advising team through the use of a drop-in advising model. This means you do not have to wait days or weeks to meet with an advisor! There are two ways to meet with an advisor, group advising and drop-in advising:

Group Advising:

All group advising sessions are offered virtually via Zoom multiple times per day, Monday - Friday throughout the summer.
- May 20-July 5: Interest Focused Group Advising with sessions focusing on the importance of exploration, exploring at CU and the IUT process.
- July 8-Aug. 13: Enrollment Focused Group Advising
To sign-up for a group advising session and obtain the Zoom meeting ID and Zoom link for that session:
- Log into Buff Portal Advising, click on the "View All Calendars" icon, and then check the "Other Helpful Meetings" box to view available dates and times (all times listed in Mountain Daylight Time).

Drop-in Advising

June3-July 17 from 11 a.m. - 3 p.m. MT (virtual only)
July 18-Aug. 13 (virtual only)
- Mondays and Thursdays from 8 a.m. - 2 p.m.
- Tuesdays and Fridays from 10 a.m. - 2 p.m.
- No drop-ins on Wednesdays during this timeframe
To access drop-in advising:
- Log into Buff Portal Advising, click on the "View All Calendars" icon or CU Buff icon to obtain the link to our PES Drop-In Zoom waiting room (and Zoom Meeting ID if joining by telephone). An advisor will admit you from the Zoom waiting room once they are available to meet with you.

Are you an incoming transfer student? Schedule an individual advising appointment with your academic advisor by logging into Buff Portal Advising and clicking on your advisor’s picture to view their calendar and to book an appointment or join us for the drop-in advising listed above.

Search

Other ways to search:

Breadcrumb