APPLICANT Course Plan Instructions

The General Catalogue

The General Catalogue is your best friend. It lists all the requirements you need to fulfill to graduate and gives a description of all the classes. Some courses indicate (with a F, W, S, Summer designation) when they are usually offered. Also, always use the catalogue for the year you were admitted because the university can only hold you to those specific requirements.

Requirements

There are several levels of requirements for graduation.

1 – UCI General Education requirements
2 – Your school requirements
3 – Your major requirements

**In addition, there are requirements for the completion of Campuswide Honors, which can be found under EITHER Admission Requirements for Current UCI Students OR Admission Requirements for Incoming Transfer Students.

Starting your Course Plan

Here are some helpful hints on how to create your course plan:

1 – Access your General Catalogue for the year you were admitted at http://www.reg.uci.edu/catalogue/; look up and make a list of all General Education (GE) requirements.

2 – Add all school and major requirements that pertain to the degree(s) you have chosen to complete.

3 – Add all honors courses that you plan to take to the list.

All Honors students admitted by application are required to complete 3-6 Honors classes at UCI in addition to 2 quarters of research, culminating in an honors thesis. Students should plan to start their honors courses the quarter they are admitted to the Collegium and take one honors course per quarter until they are finished with their required honors classes. NOTE: school/departmental honors classes/requirements DO NOT replace CHC core courses and curriculum requirements. This course plan is tentative. Your Honors curriculum requirements will be determined by the admissions committee. Most Honors students complete honors research during their final year at UCI.

Applications that are missing Honors classes and research will not be considered by the admissions committee.

4 – Make sure you look at the Advanced Placement chart in the General Catalogue for course credits and make adjustments for requirements you might have already met (i.e., a score of 4 or 5 on the Advanced Placement Spanish Language exam satisfies category VI of the UCI breadth requirement). Also, adjust your list by including any completed college credits from other colleges/universities.

HINT – Some schools have developed Degree Checklists for their individual majors that should prove useful when drawing up your plan. Also, look to see if there is a suggested plan in the General Catalogue for your major. This is often a good starting point.

5 – Begin to outline/layout your academic plan, using the suggested format that follows:
Name:  _________________________
Major(s):  _________________________
Minor(s), Concentration(s), Specialization(s), etc.:  _________________________
Anticipated Date of Graduation:  _________________________

And so on, until you have your plan laid out through to graduation. Be sure to include all of the classes you’ve already completed at UCI!

Click here to download the Applicant Course Plan Worksheet.

REMEMBER – Some majors (Biological Sciences or Engineering, for instance) are very structured, and this process of creating an academic plan should be relatively easy. For some others (such as Political Science), there is less structure, more choices, and some uncertainty as to when the courses you would like to take will be offered. In this case, try to keep an even course load, and distribute your requirements over the quarters and years, using titles like “upper-division Political Science” when you are not sure. As you progress, you can start filling in the details and making adjustments. Also, some majors can tell you in Spring (such as Political Science) what classes they will be offering the following year.

6 – Make sure you think about your goals and the other things you would like to accomplish (such as complete a second major, a minor/specialization, an internship, or study abroad) while an undergraduate student at UCI. Remember to keep in mind those special interests you want to continue developing and any others you want to begin to pursue (playing the flute, singing in the University Chorus, learning to sail, becoming computer literate, or learning another language, to name just a few).

7 – Fill in the outline/grid with a plan that makes sense to you. Remember to check for and include any course prerequisites.

1. Students who entered UCI Post-High School: Campuswide Honors Applicant Information video
2. Students who entered UCI Post- Community College: Campuswide Honors Applicant Information video