Advising (BS)

Our faculty routinely advise junior/senior students regarding curriculum and career matters. This page aims to serve as an advising guide for our undergraduate students.

Note: For information about our 4 + 1 program, please visit here.

[ Program Requirements | Advising Process | LD Core | UD Core | Conventional Courses | Special Courses | Recommendations | Graduation Requirements ]

[1] Overview of Program Requirements

ˆ Any for-credit course can be used as a general elective.
° MATH 1491/1496 may also be used to satisfy the LD Core: Quantitative requirements.
°° CHEM 1450 and PHYS 1410/1441 may also be used to satisfy the LD Core: Physical Science requirements. BIOL 1440 may also be used to satisfy the LD Core: Life Science requirements. There are no additional Science requirements beyond the Physical Science and Life Science courses (each four credit hours) that must be taken to satisfy the LD Core requirements.
°°° Assumes 12 credit hours of overlap between the LD Core and Mathematics/Science Required.
¹ MATH 1496 may also be used to satisfy the LD Core: Quantitative requirements.
¹¹ PHYS 1441 may also be used to satisfy the LD Core: Physical Science requirements. BIOL 1400/1440 may also be used to satisfy the LD Core: Life Science requirements.
¹¹¹ Assumes 12 credit hours of overlap between the LD Core and Mathematics/Science Required.
² MATH 1491/1496 may also be used to satisfy the LD Core: Quantitative requirements.
²² There are no additional Science requirements beyond the Physical Science and Life Science courses (each four credit hours) that must be taken to satisfy the LD Core requirements.
²²² Assumes 12 credit hours of overlap between the LD Core and Mathematics/Science Required.
³ MATH 1496 may also be used to satisfy the LD Core: Quantitative requirements.
³³ There are no additional Science requirements beyond the Physical Science and Life Science courses (each four credit hours) that must be taken to satisfy the LD Core requirements.
³³³ 5 credit hours in the Statistics concentration and 11 credit hours in the Business and Computer Science concentrations.
³³³³ Assumes 12 credit hours of overlap between the LD Core and Mathematics/Science Required.

[2] Departmental Advising Process

Holds on Your Account: If you have a hold on your account, you may not be able to register online. You can view your holds through myUCA: Self-Service → Student → Student Records → View Student Information (video). A list of common holds can be found here. Every semester, you will have an advance registration hold automatically placed on your account. This particular hold will be cleared only after you meet with your advisor (in person or virtually).

Your Academic Advisor: You can find your advisor through myUCA: Self-Service → Student → Student Records → View Holds (video).

Making an Appointment with Your Advisor: You are required to meet with your advisor at least once a semester. You should contact your advisor by email to make an appointment before the advance registration period begins. Be sure to include your UCA ID number in every advising-related email.

Before Your Advising Appointment: You should make a list of courses that you plan to take by examining your Degree Works profile (guide, video) and the courses offered (video) in the upcoming semester. Note that your advisor can only recommend courses; it is your responsibility to find appropriate sections that fit your schedule.

Registering for Classes: After meeting with you, your advisor will get your advance registration hold cleared so that you may register for classes online (video). Note that you can register online only during the change-of-course period, which, in Fall and Spring, extends from the advance registration period to six calendar days after the first day of classes (please refer to the academic calendar for the exact dates). Once this period is over, registration can be done only by submitting the Schedule Exception form.

Registration Errors: If you receive an error while registering for a particular class, please contact the appropriate department chair by email. Be sure to include your UCA ID number and the section CRN in your email. Note that we do not have the authority to clear non-academic holds or holds related to other academic departments.

[3] Lower-Division (LD) Core

The UCA Core requires a minimum of 38 credit hours of courses at the LD (1000 or 2000 level). The LD Core requirements are divided into the following four categories:

1. Critical Inquiry

   Subcategory	# Courses	Disciplines	Levels	Lab	Hours
   Quantitative	1¹	MATH	1000	No	3, 4
   Physical Science	1²	CHEM, GEOG, PHYS	1000	Yes	4
   Life Science	1³	BIOL	1000	Yes	4
   American History and Government	1	HIST, PSCI	1000, 2000	No	3
   Social Science	1	Too many to list	1000, 2000	No	3
   Fine Arts/Humanities	1	Too many to list	1000, 2000	No	3
   Total	6				20, 21

   ¹ MATH 1491/1496 may be used to satisfy the Mathematics requirements in the Computer Science and Cybersecurity programs. MATH 1496 may be used to satisfy the Mathematics requirements in the Software Engineering and Data Science programs.
   ² CHEM 1450, PHYS 1410, or PHYS 1441 may be used to satisfy the Science requirements in the Computer Science program. PHYS 1441 may be used to satisfy the Science requirements in the Software Engineering program.
   ³ BIOL 1440 may be used to satisfy the Science requirements in the Computer Science and Software Engineering programs.

2. Effective Communication

   Subcategory	# Courses	Disciplines	Levels	Hours
   Writing Foundation	1	HONC, WRTG	1000	3
   Research and Writing	1	ENGL, HONC, WRTG	1000	3
   Oral Communication	1	COMM, MGMT, MKTG	1000, 2000	3
   Total	3			9

    

3. Diversity

   Subcategory	# Courses	Discipline	Level	Hours
   Diversity in Creative Works	1	Too many to list	1000, 2000	3
   Diversity in World Cultures	1	Too many to list	1000, 2000	3
   Total	2			6

    

4. Responsible Living

   Subcategory	# Courses	Disciplines	Levels	Hours
   Total	1	Too many to list	1000, 2000	3

All students must satisfy the LD Core requirements by completing at least one course in each of the 12 subcategories given above. A list of the LD Core courses can be found here.

[4] Upper-Division (UD) Core

Courses in the UD Core are designated as Critical Inquiry (I), Effective Communication (C), Diversity (D), Responsible Living (R), or Capstone (Z). A UD (3000 or 4000 level) course may satisfy the requirements in at most two categories (except Capstone courses, which satisfy only the Capstone requirement). A list of the UD Core courses can be found here.

All students must satisfy the UD Core requirements. All four of our BS programs are designed so that majors automatically satisfy these requirements. In other words, our students do not need to take additional UD Core classes.

[5] Conventional Major Courses

Conventional major courses that are regularly offered and the terms in which they are typically offered are given below. Descriptions of these and other undergraduate-level courses can be found in the Undergraduate Bulletin.

§ Offered upon demand

[6] Special Major Courses

The following major courses are special in the sense that they do not involve lectures and that they are offered on-demand:

• CSCI 3V75 (Internship): A maximum of three credit hours of internship will count towards the program requirements. For details, please visit here.
• CSCI 4V95 (Independent Study): A maximum of six credit hours of independent study will count towards the program requirements. For details, please visit here.

CSCI 4360 (Special Topics) is special in the sense that it may be repeated for credit with a change of topic.

[7] Recommendations for Degree Planning

In order to graduate on time, students are strongly advised to,

• Meet with their advisors at least once a semester.
• Understand their degree requirements. Official requirements for each program can be found in the Undergraduate Bulletin (Computer Science, Software Engineering, Cybersecurity, and Data Science). A concise summary of the technical degree requirements for each program can be found near the bottom of the program webpage (Computer Science, Software Engineering, Cybersecurity, and Data Science).
• Take key courses, that is, those that are prerequisites for subsequent courses, as early as possible. Tabular as well as graphical representations of the prerequisite courses in each program can be found near the bottom of the program webpage (Computer Science, Software Engineering, Cybersecurity, and Data Science)
• Check their Degree Works profiles (guide, video) at least once a semester.
• Plan at least a semester, ideally a year, ahead.

While planning their courses of study, students should keep in mind that

• Each program has an eight-semester Academic Map (AMAP), also known as a program completion plan, that helps students plan their studies (Computer Science, Software Engineering, Cybersecurity: Cyberphysical Security, Cybersecurity: Management of Cybersecurity, Cybersecurity: Strategic Policy, Data Science: Computer Science, Data Science: Statistics, and Data Science: Business).
• Nearly all required CSCI courses are offered every semester, whereas elective CSCI courses are typically offered once a year.
• Required CSEC courses are offered at least once a year.

[8] Graduation Requirements

Graduation requirements include:

• No X (incomplete) or NR (not reported) grades
• Successful completion of a minimum of 120 credit hours
• A minimum of a 2.0 major grade point average
• A minimum of a 2.0 minor grade point average (if applicable)
• A minimum of a 2.0 cumulative grade point average
• Satisfying the major requirements
• Satisfying the minor requirements (if applicable)
• Satisfying the LD Core requirements
• Satisfying the UD Core requirements
• Successful completion of a minimum of 40 credit hours of UD courses

All four of our BS programs are designed so that majors automatically satisfy the “minimum 40 credit hours of UD courses” requirement. In other words, our students do not need to take additional UD classes.

Eligible students may apply for graduation by following the instructions given here (video) and paying the application fee. The deadline for graduation applications can be found in the academic calendar.