Your 1st Semester Course Schedule.

There are a variety of national, international and Purdue-specific testing opportunities through which you may receive Purdue credit. These include the College Board’s AP program, International Baccalaureate, Cambridge A-Levels/ AS levels, CAPE, and others. To evaluate these for possible Purdue credit, the official guidance says you must submit an official transcript from the Examining Board/ College that administered the course. However, in my sons case, it was coming to an extra £100+ for the UK A Level transcripts to be sent officially by the Cambridge CIE board from UK. I emailed the Purdue admissions office in July and they said they will accept an email copy of the Board results when they are released as they can independently verify the same. Thus, if you have questions about the process of transferring credit to Purdue, contact the Office of Admissions at admissions@purdue.edu, or 765-494-1776.

As an incoming international student, you should go through these lists and see what credit you may have earned from your exams and how they would transfer against your degree requirements. Note that if you see any transfer credits being listed as 1XXX it means it will be listed on your transcript but you would not be able to use it to graduate faster.

Should You Use Credit to Skip Calc 1 and/or Calc 2 at Purdue? YES! YES! YES!

Many incoming students grapple with the decision on if they should skip Calc 1 and go straight into Calc 2, or if they should skip both and go straight into Calc 3. New students are understandably worried about jumping into a harder class when they could take the safer option of repeating a class. Maths classes at Purdue are notoriously difficult, and for most students, the required 4-6 semesters of Purdue Maths are the single largest contributor to lower GPAs. Every maths class you don’t have to take is a potential major hit to your GPA avoided, and that alone should be a reason not to repeat courses you don’t need to. Maths is used as a weed-out class.. so that not everyone can claim a guaranteed seat with a min 3.2 GPA for seat-limited majors such as AAE and ME. You may hear repeating Calc 2 would make you more comfortable with Calc 3- but actually Calc 2 is commonly regarded as the hardest maths class you will be required to take at Purdue, and some consider it one of the hardest classes required by their degree. Even Neil Armstrong got a C in Calc 2 when he attended! If you can skip it, don’t hesitate. There is no lost honour in taking all the maths credit and running!

However, if you are still harbouring doubts about taking the Calc 1 and Calc 2 credits – here is a way to test yourself. Take the practice exam for the Calc I or Calc II Advanced Credit exams: http://www.math.purdue.edu/academic/undergrad/credit/sciencecalc.php. Please note I am not suggesting you need to take the official exam, just do the practice one given. If you can pretty easily get 70-80% of the answers right on the practice exams, you can probably consider yourself good to go for the course and can jump into the next one.

You may take this approach with any of the other practise exams such as Chemistry- practice Advanced Credit CHM exam is here: https://www.chem.purdue.edu/academic_programs/testout.php. Take the ones for CHM 115 and 116. Unfortunately, PHYS does not have test out exams, so I have no suggestion for that!

Note- If you are being an authentic test-taking, you won’t be using a graphing calculator. One or two line TI-30X and TI-36X calculator models are what’s allowed on Chemistry exams and no calculators are allowed on Calculus exams at Purdue.

PS – A lot of Purdue students, being the high-achieving high schoolers they likely are, start their time at Purdue with enough transfer credits (or other college credits) to technically make them a sophomore. While this may be you, do not go around stating that you’re “actually a sophomore by credits.” Putting it bluntly, this is lame and no one cares. For the sake of social standards and shared experiences, you’re a freshman. The only two times that being a “sophomore by credits” matters is parking pass eligibility and in the past, housing registration windows for returning students (i.e., signing up for second-year housing if you’re going to stay in dorms after your first year at Purdue).

You need to visit your Major’s site and understand the

• mandatory & elective requirements for the first semester.
• mandatory & elective requirements for the first year as a whole
• bar you must surpass in order to secure a Guaranteed entry to your intended major (ie T2M)- this may not be applicable to all Faculties
• Any specific requirements for your intended Major (in order to complete the degree)

I will now illustrate using the First Year Engineering Curriculum what I mean by each of the above.

1. A FYE Student must complete 29-30 credits per year of which:
   * Calculus- 8-10 credits
   * Science- 8 credits
   * Engineering-4 credits
   * Communication- 6-8 credits
   * Electives 3+ credits
   So you must plan your FYE schedule over the two semesters to meet these requirements!
2. In addition, in order to guarantee a T2M to your chosen major you must meet the following criteria:

So in order to get the guaranteed seat, you must

1. get a min 3.2 GPA (this is what most Engineering majors solely concentrate on)
2. get a min 3.2 EAI (Engineering Admissions Index– analogous to GPA but only earned grades on courses required for FYE and taken at Purdue count. Transfer courses, AP credit courses, and other courses which do not include a Purdue grade are not included in the EAI calculation.)
3. you must have 20 credit hours in science/engineering faculty over the 2 semesters of FYE.
4. you must not repeat a course/ exceed more than 2 semesters full time study and must finish in May

Any transfer credit doesn’t count towards the 20 hrs. So you have to ensure your 2 semesters you fulfil the 20 hrs required. If you have transfer credits say for CHEM and MATHS, your MyPurdue Plan will mislead you as it will show that the transfer credit has satisfied the FYE requirements (which is true) but it fails to highlight the 20 hrs rule.

FYE students have been known to get 3.2 GPA and then be denied guaranteed admission to the major of their choice like ME or AAE just because they failed to note the 20 hrs at Purdue requirement; if you don’t have the 20 hrs… you are forced to go the competitive route i.e. no longer guaranteed admission. So if your kid’s GPA is very high they might still get in (based on what others scored) but it’s no longer guaranteed!

Say you have transfer credit for Calc 1 and Calc 2, and opt to take Cal 3 for FYE; then the grades earned for Calc3 will count towards your GPA and towards your 20 hrs but NOT towards your EAI (since Calc3 in not a FYE requirement). You need to ensure that you maintain your EAI at 3.2 with the rest of the subjects that count!

Also you need to scour the T2M rules– for instance, because the Agricultural and Biological Engineering programs must also meet College of Agriculture General Education requirements, students who intend to enter ABE are strongly encouraged to take COM 11400 and ENGL 10600 as their Oral Communication and Written Communication Foundational Outcome courses while in FYE. Some students (unaware of these additional requirements) may take other courses for written or oral and may find that although they can still enter ABE, they may be required to take these preferred courses again in order to graduate in ABE; in effect lengthening their graduation time!

The University requires you to take subjects outside your Major. The core curriculum is a set of common learning outcomes required of all undergraduate students and to better prepare all Purdue students for future employment success and responsible citizenship.

You need to ensure you are aware of these requirements and split this load across the four years of your degree

You can find a complete list of courses that meet the CC requirement under each of the above headings here.

You may aiming for a Major that has specific requirements such as required research or internship,
Or you may have chosen a Learning Community with specific courses you must take to remain part of the LC.
Or you may be, like my son was, part of the Honors College which requires a student to complete 24 credits of honors coursework plus a scholarly project over the four years of their degree.

You need to be aware of these requirements and ensure you are on track to meet them within the time period required.

Students admitted to the U.S. on F-1 status must enrol in a full course of study every fall and spring semester. For undergraduates,this means registering for and completing 12 credit hours every fall and spring semester.

Restrictions on online enrolment: A maximum of three (3) online/Internet-based credits can count towards your 12 credits full-time enrolment requirement per semester. For a F-1 visa, US immigrations counts any course other than one coded as “in-person” or “hybrid” as online.

Purdue uses the following terms:

1. Face-to-Face/Hybrid: Face-to-face students will attend class at a designated location and time on campus. Students will learn from instructors and classmates in person and participate in active learning activities. Hybrid learning is the practice of using both online and in person learning experiences. In a hybrid learning course, for example, students might attend a class taught by an instructor in a traditional classroom setting, while also independently completing online components of the course outside of the classroom. In this case, in-class time may be either replaced or supplemented by online learning experiences, and students would learn about the same topics online as they do in class—i.e., the online and in-person learning experiences would parallel and complement one another.
2. Synchronous Online: The SYNC ONLINE designation refers to courses where all components of the course are in an online environment, but there are some components available at set times. This might include office hours, question sessions, or relationship-building portions of the class (e.g. group or team work). Students are required to login at a specified time to be able to interact with peers and instructors.
3. Asynchronous Online: The ASYNC ONLINE designation may appear for courses that are fully online courses. All instruction and learning occurs in an online modality with no meetings at established times. Examples might include the use of pre-recorded video lessons, email exchanges between instructors and students, online discussion boards, and the use of Brightspace learning management system to organize materials and related correspondence.
   
   Therefore:

• Undergraduate student enrolled in 12 Face-to-Face/Hybrid credits: Acceptable
• Undergraduate student enrolled in 9 Face-to-Face/Hybrid credits and 3 Sync Online/Async Online credits: Acceptable
• Undergraduate student enrolled in 9 Face-to-Face/Hybrid credits and 6 Sync Online/Async Online credits: Acceptable (sufficient in-person enrolment)
• Undergraduate student enrolled in 6 Face-to-Face/Hybrid credits and 6 Sync Online/Async Online credits: Not acceptable (insufficient in-person enrolment)
• Undergraduate student enrolled in 6 Face-to-Face/Hybrid credits and 3 Sync Online/Async Online credits: Not acceptable (insufficient total enrolment)

• If possible, don’t try to jam a bunch of difficult courses into one semester. Balance them across multiple semesters.
• Take a distance-learning/online course as these are sometimes considered to be easier than in-person courses.
• Research the Purdue Reddit community with any course number you want to find out more about- Is the course hard? Which professor is best? Is it an easy A? Check out the course and professor on boilergrades.com– this site lets you view the average GPA of professors and courses at Purdue based on historical data- giving you a fair indication of how hard the course is and how good the professor is.
• Find out what Professors are teaching your chosen course and see how they are reviewed on Rate My Professors. For example, you would want to jump at the chance of Prof Chen for any maths class! However, don’t rely on these ratings totally, just like Tripadvisor there are anomalies- Prof Glubokov has a 4/5 on Ratemyprof which Purdue Redditors can’t fathom!
• Take one or two Core curriculum courses every semester/year.
• Remember that as you progress into your later years, you will be required to take higher level (300 or 400 series) Gen Ed courses from outside your major. Many of these higher level courses will have a prerequisite for you to have done a 100 or 200 level course in the same discipline. So try and ensure your lower level choices are in line with what you may require later.
• Try to choose courses smartly! Those that double or triple-dip into your requirements! By that, I mean try choosing a course that counts against more than one requirement. For example, if you are a Honors College Student in FYE, you would be smart to choose HONR 19903 as this is a course that fulfils the Written Communication requirement of the Core Curriculum in addition to counting towards your minimum Honor course credits per year! Using this ninja technique, my son finished 20 (of the 24 required Honors College credits over the four years) in the first year of his degree! In the later years, you can use one course to count towards an elective of a major, and also for a minor/certificate and triple dip it against Honors College etc. For example, you may consider doing the Cornerstone Certificate-which fulfils up to 60% of Core Curriculum requirements. A complete list of Certificates to consider is here- see which of these can be earned together with your major with just one or two extra classes.
• Keep in mind certain courses are available in one semester (either Fall or Spring only) so if you are keen on a course that is available only in Fall, you should take it!
• If, due to transfer credit, you are in a position to take courses which normally sophomores would take, then choose wisely. For e.g., my son was in this situation in FYE. Knowing that transition to a Major was not guaranteed (for e.g. Mech Eng and AAE are in heavy demand) I advised him to take courses that were not specific to any one engineering major. Instead he chose courses which were counted against the requirements of many majors (such as ECE, ME, AAE etc). This way, if you don’t get into a specific Major, your credits from an advanced course don’t go to waste.

After carefully balancing all the above you should ideally draft a list of courses you want to take over the whole first year! and from that what you would want to do over the first semester.

From Professor Melloch (who runs this course and which is rated very highly on Ratemyprofessor):

“Most students, and instructors, do not know how to learn. Over a greater than 10-year period I researched what is known about learning and how best to prepare yourself for learning. I developed this into a book and general audience course that discusses the human brain; neuroplasticity; what is learning; best practices for learning; the important psychological aspects to learning of mindset, self-control, and grit; and the importance of sleep, exercise, relationships, nutrition, and meditation for learning.

It is a one-credit hour course, ENGR 10301, that has two sections this Fall 2024 semester, CRN 21736 (section 023), Mondays 1:30 – 2:20 or CRN 14930 (section 020) Mondays 2:30 – 3:20. I am using ENGR as a vehicle for offering this course, but any Purdue student could take it. There is no engineering in the course. I know this course may not fill any requirements towards a degree for some students, but it is an easy A (125 out of 127 students taking this course Fall 2023 received an A) and it might be the most important course you ever take. 

What you learn will not only be important for the rest of your career at Purdue, but for the rest of your life. I am 71 and I use what is in this course all the time. So even if this is your last semester at Purdue this course will be beneficial.”

Meeting with your advisor is an important step in your Boilermaker journey. One of the things you will do in this appointment is talk through course options and how to register for your first semester of classes. Your Purdue 101 module will help prepare you for this meeting. Your academic advisor will provide more information to you about completing your Course Request Form (CRF), which is the next step you will take to register for your courses. Discuss the courses that you have come up. Most Academic advisors appreciate you having done the in-depth research and demonstrating you understand the nuances of your degree. They may give you more time and higher priority in any course overrides than other students who are blindly following the standard boiler plate first year plan from the Purdue website.

Note that generally you can’t exceed 18 credits in a semester without your advisor’s approval. Your advisor can technically increase your maximum credits above 18, but there typically needs to be a good reason for taking so many classes and evidence that you’ll be able to succeed with a very high workload. For instance, my son wanted to participate in a Fall FYE Honors retreat over a weekend (worth 1 credit) but he already had 18 credits worth of classes- his advisor was okay with increasing credits to 19 since it isn’t really a traditional class. They may also increase a student’s max credits in the following semesters when the student has demonstrated the ability to succeed despite a heavy workload. (Indeed, some students thrive when they stay really busy and struggle when they have too much free time.) And of course, not all 18 credits are the same, since some classes are more challenging than others. You’ll need to have a substantive conversation with your advisor on why you want to do this, and how you plan on being successful with an extremely demanding course load. As far as I know, even with your Academic Advisor’s approvals, there is an absolute limit of 21 credits beyond which you need to pay extra fees to, and get approval from, the Bursar’s office.

This is like a wish-list of the courses i.e. a pre-registration phase. Here, you go to the course registration form and rank all the courses you want to take. One thing to note that most people forget is that you can actually put professor and class time preferences in this form during this phase. Freshmen may not be able to do this- but try if you can; there is no harm in asking for a preferrence. Simply click on the search icon next to the class and press list of classes to put down a preference. There isn’t a guarantee but at this stage you should chose your courses carefully along with options you would accept in case you don’t get them.

To do this, log into myPurdue.purdue.edu and from Registration tab, select “Use Course Request Form”. Although the initial menu has changed since the Registrar posted this video, you can still follow the latter part on how to select.

If you select a course which has a prerequisite, the system will show you a warning. You can then remove that course if you don’t meet the criteria OR apply for an override from your Advisor (say, for example, if you are expecting transfer credit for the prerequisite course which is not yet reflected on your academic records).

If you have certain time commitments that you must protect, like maybe you are part of a running club that meets every day between 7-8am, you need to insert this Request for free time into your CRF. Make sure your Advisor knows of this request and what priority level to assign it, and the system will generally respect it.

If a course you want is full (i.e. no spaces left) but you have a compelling reason for you to be admitted, you may submit a closed section override with the approval of your advisor.

In many cases though, your Advisor may send you a prefilled CRF after your online meeting and discussions. In that case, if you are happy with the recommendations and the courses selected, you just need to submit this pre-filled CRF. See here for a video on this.

Next, the software automatically creates a schedule for you. It takes the capacity of the class, your ranking, your requirements, what courses are compulsory for your major in the semester, alternative classes, scheduling conflicts, distance between classes and more into account.

After receiving your schedule notice e-mail from the Registrar, you can view your schedule by following the instructions below:

1. Go to www.mypurdue.purdue.edu and log in.
2. Select the “Academics” tab on the side menu and check under the “Student Schedule” section
3. Select “Week at a Glance” to view your courses in a grid format. Choose to view your fall schedule. This view will show your courses in a grid view for that week.
4. Select “Detail Schedule” to view your courses in a list format.
   Please note: you could have courses that have a section or component that does not meet every week. It is therefore important to view both “Detail Schedule” and the “Week at a Glance“ to see your entire fall registration.
   

• Did you not get a critical course for your major?
• Is your registration under 12 credits?
• Are you in danger of violating F-1 Student visa requirements (minimum credits per semester or too many offline classes?)
• Are you considering any schedule changes? such as dropping one course for another which you are now attracted to or you saw is open?
• Do you want to change a course that was an alternate to your priority course?
• Have you seen an open space in a priority course on a different date or time and you want to switch?
  
  In all the cases above, get your advisor’s recommendation first to ensure your proposed changes to your course schedule meet your degree requirements. Your advisor is there to answer your questions and to give expert advice.

During Open Registration, you may freely alter courses. Altering courses implies being able to add new courses, modify the timing and/or professor/instructor of existing courses, or deleting courses. Please note that this phase is time sensitive and competitive unlike pre-registration. You will get an email with the time you are eligible for to first alter your courses and you should login at the earliest, as open seats can be snapped up quickly. You can also find your exact start time in your myPurdue > Registration > Time Ticket & Registration Status link. Here is a list of the ticket timings from the Registrar, so that you can have an idea of what time you may get and who you may be “competing” against!

Please note that the first day and time listed in your registration status is the earliest you can register, and registration is available to you throughout that period. If you have a hold that would prevent you from registering, it also will be noted here. If you don’t get the course you want initially, keep checking throughout your allocated time, as seats may open up later!

If you accidentally delete a course, someone else could take your seat. If you drop a critical or major course and then if your space becomes unavailable, this could result in the inability to take a course that is required in your first semester. The University is not obligated to provide you with another space in a course in this instance.

Its always wise to add a course first before removing any existing courses. The tool makes all of this very easy for you by showing you course slots that fit into your schedule and automatically attempting to prevent scheduling conflicts.

Many courses have linked sections. You must register for all sections of a course.  For example, a laboratory course requires a lecture, lab and recitation section. You will see that one section of a course contains the credits with the others showing zero credits. They are all part of the same course and must be submitted together.  

You will use Scheduling Assistant to add and drop changes to your schedule. If you have discussed a schedule change with your advisor via e-mail, and have your advisor’s recommendation, make sure you follow the directions in the steps and videos below to change your schedule. 

1. If you wish to make changes to your initial schedule, first decide if there are any classes you want to keep at the current time. Any such classes should be locked. This can be done on the ‘ List of Classes ’ tab by clicking the ‘ Lock ’ checkbox next to a class.
2. Basically lock all your classes (Say Class A, B,C,and D) that you dont have a problem with, then try and look for an option for the classes you want to be assigned/rescheduled (say class E). By locking, it should then understand to suggest you only those times for Class E the that dont mess with Classes A-D.
3. If you dont lock, it may give you an option for Class E that is at the same time as say Class B- and if you dont realise the clash and accept the Class E, you will lose your seat in Class B. Locking protects the classes you want to keep and tells the system to look for classes in other time slots that are open!
4. Now you NEED TO MAKE SURE you get assigned your new class BEFORE GIVING UP your old class. So in the case above, say you want Class E but dont want to keep Class D. You need to request for E first and get it without giving up D. Once you commit to and get a seat on Class E, you will be having Class A-E showing on your schedule. Then and only then give up D!

How to Edit/Change Your CRF: This video is only for students who are missing a course in their Fall schedule, so this is not for changing times for classes.

For detailed instructions on how to add or drop a class: Scheduling Assistant

• How to Drop a Class
• How to Add a Class

Follow these directions carefully to ensure that your schedule is protected from unintended changes. 

In case, you still don’t get a perfect schedule after Open Registration closes = Don’t worry too much about it! Tens of thousands of Purdue students have had “terrible” schedules and still gotten through the semester just fine. Even if you have a 7:30am MA 162 recitation, it’s important that you still actually go to class. Yes, it may suck. But attending will help!

Once you have gone through whatever changes you wanted to make in the Scheduling Assistant, you wait for the semester to start. You can still make changes even after the semester starts in case you change your mind about something. Maybe you took on too many credits and you are struggling to cope. Or a particular non-mandatory course doesn’t appeal to you and you want to switch. Even after the semester starts, you have deadlines to drop, join, and modify courses. Once again discuss your concerns and proposed changes with your academic advisor.

Also by now your Grade 12 final results should be out. If you had expected any transfer credits and gotten overrides from your Academic Advisor to skip some lower level classes, this is the time now to submit your transcripts to the Admission office and get the credits recorded on your transcript. If you have all the results/ grades you were expecting, then that’s all you need to. However, if the results don’t match up to what you had predicted, then then it becomes complicated, as you were granted exemptions that are no longer appropriate. You need to immediately contact your Academic Advisor and figure out the next steps. You might have to drop the advanced class which has a prereq that you did not get the required grade for.

Wait till the end of the year and if your Academic Advisor has helped you throughout with dedication, please appreciate them. You can send a message here either anonymously or using your name. Here is your chance to recognize them for the time they helped you in a way that positively impacted your time at Purdue.