New Student Guide: Building a Schedule
Degree Requirements
The College has a series of competency and area requirements that all students must fulfill. Refer to the degree requirements page for a complete summary of these requirements (you received of summary of these requirements in your packet from the College). You may find that you have already satisfied some of these requirements with either AP credit or dual enrollment credit or that you have placed out of some requirements by virtue of your SAT II test scores. Check your VISTAA form to determine which requirements you have completed and which you still need to take.
Course Levels
The University numbers courses from 100 through 999. This numbering system does not always indicate course difficulty. Rather, the numbering system often reflects degrees of specialization. Courses numbered on the 100 and 200 levels are usually designed for students with little previous knowledge of a subject. For this reason, first-year students often take these classes but they are also open to upper-class students. In many cases such courses must be taken before more specialized offerings in the 300 and 400 levels can be taken, but this is not always the case.
Courses numbered on the 100 and 200 level, especially those which are prerequisites for more advanced courses, often have large enrollments. Class size may range as high as 500, although 100 to 200 students is typical. To reduce size, many of these introductory courses are taught in sections that cover the same material but have different instructors and meeting times. In addition, many of the larger 100- and 200-level courses have weekly discussion sections taught by teaching assistants. The presence of teaching assistants in such courses should not deter you from getting to know the professor. Professors welcome contact from students. Always feel free to see professors and teaching assistants during their office hours.
300- and 400-level courses tend to be smaller, though here, too, large classes are possible. 500-level courses are graduate courses that are also open to upperclass under-graduates.
Be sure that you have the prerequisites for any upper-level course you select. If you are in doubt, during Fall Orientation week you may talk to the professor who teaches the course. Courses numbered beyond the 599 level are not open to undergraduates.
Selecting Courses
To find course information for planning your schedule, study the course offerings in the COD (Course Offering Directory). Also, refer to department web sites and the special listing of department programs and courses we've compiled for first-years. Carefully review departmental requirements before selecting courses.
The standard course load is 15 credits; the minimum course load is 12 credits. Select 4-5 courses depending upon the number of credits per course. As you select courses, be certain to include discussion sections and labs. Select zero-credit labs, drills, and discussions where required. You must follow the same procedure to select these as you do any other class.
Try to select both large lecture courses and smaller classes that require discussion and participation. You’ll enjoy your semester much more if your courses are not all of the same type. Also try to strike a balance between courses that require extensive reading (e.g., history, English, government), and those that demand regular, daily preparation (e.g., foreign languages, mathematics).
Be sure to select several alternates because some of the classes you want may be full. Keep in mind that Summer Orientation is only the start of the course selection process. You will have time to adjust your schedule when you arrive in the fall.
Do not take on too much in your first semester. Most students find that college work requires more time and effort than high school courses; you may need a semester or two to acclimate to this new, demanding academic environment. If you are worried you are not as well prepared as you should be, start with 15 credit hours your first semester; this will give you the freedom to drop or withdraw from a course if you find your schedule too rigorous and still complete the minimum 12 hours. (If you enroll in a demanding 4-credit course, sign up for 16 credit hours; this will leave you with 12 credits should you need to drop or withdraw from the 4-credit course.)
Lay out your schedule in a weekly calendar form. Try to avoid more than three consecutive classes. Allow time to eat lunch. And, keep in mind the location of your classes; you cannot walk from one side of Grounds to the other in the 10-minute break between classes. Use the U.Va. Online interactive map to help you gauge distances between classrom buildings. It takes about 20 minutes to walk from Brooks Hall to Gilmer Hall but you can easily get to and from Cabell, Rouss, Cocke, Wilson, Clark, Minor and Bryan Hall in ten minutes.
If you plan to transfer into one of our professional schools (Commerce, Nursing, Architecture, Engineering, Education), check to see what courses are recommended for the program you want.
Be sure not to repeat a course for which you already received AP or dual enrollment credit. If you repeat a course, you will forfeit your AP or dual enrollment credit. If you are in doubt, please check with the College Registrar or your Association Dean.
Only two credit-hours of physical education credit may be applied toward the B.A. degree. If you already have earned two credit-hours of P.E. credit but still would like to take P.E., the additional credits will not count toward your degree.
No more than 18 credit-hours of work taken in the other schools of this University (Architecture, Commerce, Education, Engineering, Nursing), or the equivalent of such courses taken at your former school, may be applied toward the B.A. degree. Physical education (PHYE) courses and courses with the mnemonic INST, LASE, ROTC, PLSK, and USEM also fall under this category. You may count only 6 credits of EDHS course work toward your degree. A few courses in the other schools of this University are considered “College equivalent” or “cross-listed.” For example, all computer science courses (C S) and all architectural history courses (AR H) are College equivalents although they do not fulfill College area requirements. For more information, please see the entry for College of Arts and Sciences under “Special School Instructions” in the current COD.