Welcome to Mines and CASA!

You don’t have to do anything to create your first semester schedule – the Registrar’s Office will take care of it for you!  To help the Registrar’s Office in that process, please submit the Registration Survey when you receive it from your Admissions portal.

Your schedule will be based on your major and any applicable AP/IB/transfer credits and will include the classes you need to make progress to graduation.

You’ll have access to your schedule around mid-August. At that point, you’ll be able to make changes to your schedule, yet classes are often quite full, so we recommend keeping your schedule as-is whenever possible, and only making changes when necessary. CASA will provide training materials and hold advising drop-in hours for students who need support with schedule changes and questions.

Every incoming student is assigned a CASA advisor by major and last name. You’ll start working one-on-one with your CASA advisor after your first semester schedule has been created by the Registrar’s Office, so you don’t need to do anything except wait for your schedule to come out (sometime around mid-August).

If you have concerns about your schedule after it’s made, there will be opportunities to connect with an advisor one-on-one at advising drop-in sessions. CASA will also host webinars and online content to provide helpful registration information and answer our most frequently asked question. Please stay tuned to your Mines email for details on drop-in hours, webinars, and our Canvas site for incoming students. We know students are eager to connect and we appreciate your patience in waiting until schedules are available mid August to meet 1-1 with your advisor. This ensures we have the full information on your schedule and transfer/AP/IB credits to best assist you.

The Mines curriculum is structured in a way that allows for a common core curriculum experience and a specific set of courses for majors and minors. We want everyone to make progress in their first semester at Mines and the Registrar’s Office uses their expertise to ensure you’re progressing towards graduation in a timely manner by registering you for your first semester. They are also able to take your AP/IB/TR/Dual Enrollment credit into consideration when creating your schedules, so you’re not having issues with prerequisites. Additionally, the Registrar is able optimize how seats are filled across sections so that all students receive a full schedule.

You will register yourself each semester after this first semester.

Your schedule was designed by the Registrar to fulfill your academic program needs. We will provide training materials in August to teach you how to review your schedule. If you are questioning an aspect of your schedule, you’ll have the opportunity to connect with an advisor during our drop-in hours. Information on drop-ins will be sent closer to the start of the semester.

Please note that classes are very full. Making schedule adjustments due to time preferences (e.g. swapping an 8am class for a 10am class) is unlikely for your first-semester schedule.

Once schedules are created by the Registrar’s Office and available to you in Trailhead (around mid-August), you’ll have the ability to change it. You will receive an email from the Registrar’s Office notifying you that your schedule is ready. You may see courses appear in your account before that time, but schedules are subject to change until the official release, so please wait until hearing from the Registrar’s office to review and attempt to make changes. Registration pins will be set on student accounts to prevent registration changes before the schedules are officially released. The pins will be lifted once your schedule is ready for you. 

We highly encourage you to engage with CASA programming before changing your schedule, as classes will likely be very full. We want to ensure students do not accidentally drop a class that they are unable to get back into. We’ll walk you through how to make changes to your schedule if it is something that needs to happen. More information will be provided via online content and drop-in advising sessions closer to the start of the term.

That is a great question. The goal with your first semester schedule is to make sure you are set up to advance in your intended major and make progress towards graduation. Depending on what that class is, you might already be in it, or you might be able to add it when your schedule comes out (around mid-August). It all depends on what the class is, when it’s offered in comparison to your other classes, if you have appropriate prerequisites to take the class, and if there are available seats.

If you can’t get in that class your first semester, you can include it in your class wishlist for the spring or other semesters. You’ll have the ability to control your schedule every semester after your first!

The last add/drop deadline for full semester classes occurs during the week after classes start. This is the last opportunity to add classes, change sections, or to drop classes for a full refund.

If you no longer wish to complete a class after the last add/drop deadline, you can withdraw. You will receive a W on your transcript when you withdraw from a class and will not a receive a refund for any tuition paid. W’s do not impact GPA.

Make sure you are aware of last add/drop and withdrawal deadlines each semester by visiting the Academic Calendar for specific dates.

For this first semester, you are not able to provide such course preferences as a specific section, time, or instructor. Our goal is to make sure all new students get the best schedule for them, and it is not possible accommodate such requests.

You will register yourself for every semester after this, however, so you’ll be able to include those preferences when registering yourself for your next semester.

A few classes at Mines offer the opportunity to receive credit by exam. The process is called a Challenge Exam and is by invitation only for some of the exams. Important information about the Challenge Exams and eligibility can be found by visiting the Challenge Exam website on the Registrar’s Office website. If a class is not listed, there is no challenge exam option. 

The Applied Math and Statistics Department (AMS) offers honors versions of some of their foundational MATH classes. Students with AP Calc credit may receive an invitation from AMS to join in one of these sections.  After this first semester, you can enroll in an honors version of math if you are interested in it. 

The honors versions cover the same core content as the non-honors classes, but instructors have considerable opportunity to enrich the class through additional applications, the use of technology, and different modes of instruction. The honors classes are an excellent option for students who are curious about mathematical ideas, and who are intrinsically motivated to learn the “how and why” of mathematics.

Our AP/IB and transfer credit guidelines are decided by Mines faculty and our standpoint is that students should generally accept the credit and move forward into the next course. We often see students who choose to retake courses for which they had earned credit regret the decision because they already knew the information. This can potentially lead to feeling unmotivated or bored and not doing so well in the class. Earning a score high enough to receive credit is an achievement; accept it as long as you feel comfortable with the material and are ready for a new challenge.

Ultimately, you know yourself best and it is your decision to make. If you are not confident in the material you learned and believe retaking a course at Mines is in your best interest, you can decline your credit by communicating your decision to the Registrar’s Office. Note that this decision is final and cannot be retracted once made. If you are feeling uncertain, we strongly encourage you to reach out to the Department that teaches the course to discuss curriculum specifics and assess if your knowledge base is a good match.

Full-time enrollment for undergraduate students starts at 12 credits. Students opt to take varying loads each term usually ranging from 12-18 credits depending on their degree requirements and graduation goals. The Catalog provides sample four-year course plans with the recommended credits listed for each semester and are a great place to start, but note that these plans do not take into account unique student variables such as transfer credits. 

Ultimately, you are in control of how many credits you take each semester. To start, we encourage you to make a semester-by-semester course plan customized for yourself based on your graduation goals and the information available in your Degree Works degree evaluation and the academic catalog. Connect with your CASA advisor to review your plan and discuss appropriate credit load.

To get an idea of the common first-year classes for your major, visit the Academic catalog, find your major department, and click on the “Majors” tab. You will find a sample 4-year semester-by-semester graduation plan that lists out all the required for courses for the major. You most likely will be registered into a comination of courses from the first and second semester, and maybe even classes from further in the curriculum especially if you are coming in with transfer, AP, or IB credit.

Classes at Mines start at 8:00am and run into the evening hours Monday through Friday. Your class start and stop times will vary within this range. It’s rare for a student to have a schedule where their classes are all completely back-to-back and for your schedule to look the same on all five weekdays. Many first-year students are going to have an early start, at least some days, and/or end their class day later than they might have in high school. Students use the breaks in their class schedule to study and complete homework, visit office hours or tutoring, work a job, attend student organization meetings or campus events, eat and socialize, and more.

Some courses, especially those in the core curriculum, will work across multiple majors while other courses may be more major-specific. The core curriulum is the set of classes that all Mines students will make, regardless of major. Usually first-year students are enrolled in primarily core courses, but this can vary depending on major and transfer credits. If you are considering multiple different majors, you can connect with a CASA advisor during our drop-in sessions to better understanding how your enrolled credits will apply across all your majors of interest and make adjustments to your schedule if necessary. 

Many students have back to back classes. Whether you have 10 or 15 minutes in between classes, you’ll most likely be able to make it across campus in time for your next class. Some classrooms are on the outer edge of campus, yet the majority of our classrooms are within the middle academic portion of campus. 

That’s great; we’re here to help you explore all of your academic possibilities! 

A minor requires 18 to 21 additional credits to your degree program, 9 of which you can overlap with your major, if applicable. Please visit the academic catalog for additional information on minor requirements and curriculum. A minor does not need to be declared immediately; you will have some time to explore.

A double major requires at least 30 unique credits beyond the first major and can often be many more credits depending on the combination of majors. The courses are decided with a department representative of the second major. Some major combinations are not allowed. Students who double major will work closely with the CASA advisor(s) assigned to both majors.

The combined degree program (aka 4+1 program) allows students to begin graduate coursework while still enrolled in their undergraduate degree. Depending on the program, up to 6 credits may be double counted between the undergraduate and graduate degree, allowing students to expedite their graduate degree progress. A separate admissions application is required, usually submitted in the junior year. More information on combined degrees can be found on the admissions website and in the academic catalog.

Your CASA advisor is a great resource for long-term planning on minors, dual degrees, and the combined degree program. We will be focusing on ensuring that students’ immediate and urgent fall scheduling questions are addressed in August, so we ask that you please save your long-term planning questions for September and beyond.

You’ll need to send in your official scores or transcripts from College Board/IB and/or the institution affiliated with your dual enrollment credit. Send them to Admissions for processing and evaluation.

Please note – your high school transcript may contain this information, yet it is not considered official. We will need your official scores/transcripts from the original source.

For additional information, visit the following links:

• AP Credit Information
• IB Credit Information
• Transfer Credit Information 

You’ll need to contact Admissions to discuss deferring your enrollment to another semester. 

Every class at Mines is graded on an A-F scale. Mines does not offer pass/fail or pass/no pass. 

Mines does provide Satisfactory/Unsatisfactory grading at midterm for core courses, yet these are not included on transcripts.

Please use the registration survey provided by the Admissions office. If you need to change your major after your schedule has been built, please come to CASA drop-ins in August so that we can work with you to ensure your courses work well for your new major. 

If you are still exploring majors, please check out the Career Center programming on June 17 if you are able. More details are provided in the “Major Exploration” tab above the FAQ section of this page. You can also discuss majors with your CASA advisor.