Hi everyone, thank you so much for.joining us today. My name is Lindsey and.I am with Enrollment Services here at.the Division of Continuing Education at.the University of Colorado Boulder..Thanks so much for joining us for the.webinar today, today we're going to be.joined by Graham Douglas, who's a.Continuing Education academic advisor and Suzanne Classen who's the director of.Student Services at Continuing Ed. Today.we'll be going over a few different.things including an overview of.enrollment terminology, an overview of.the types of courses that are being.offered, questions to ask yourself, and.how to find the best path forward..So the theme of the webinar today is.about whether to enroll at CU-Boulder as.a degree-seeking or a non degree seeking.student. Before we get started I just.wanted to remind everyone that there's a.spot for you to ask questions on your.dashboard, so as the presentation is.going on and something comes up go ahead.and ask those now and we'll address them.all at the end. So without further delay.I'll turn it over to Graham and Suzanne!.Hi and thanks for joining us today, as.Lindsey mentioned we'll start out by.discussing some of the terminology that.is used in higher education to explain.different enrollment options here at.CU-Boulder. Our first term today is.degree seeking. Degree seeking students.are those who've applied through the.Office of Admissions at CU-Boulder and.have been admitted to a Bachelor's.degree program. This population is what.people most commonly think of as a.college student, degree seeking students.must have met the criteria to admit to.CU Boulder, they might be first-time.freshmen, transfer students, or students.who already have a Bachelor's degree and.are coming back for additional.coursework. Well the angle for most.degree seeking students is to earn a.Bachelor's degree, some students may.choose to enroll as a degree seeking.student simply to earn prerequisites for.a graduate program..Our next term is non-degree seeking, some.students or some schools refer to non.degree students as guests or visiting.students. Students who are non degree at.CU-Boulder apply with a one-page free.application through Continuing Education..Students with the non degree status are.earning CU-Boulder credits on an ala.carte basis, these credits will be.reflected on a CU-Boulder transcript and.may be applied toward a bachelor's.degree or service prerequisite credits.for a graduate program. Non degree.students may enroll in one class at a.time or they may choose to enroll.full-time. Some may enroll for just one.semester and others are with us for.multiple semesters..At CU-Boulder both degree and non-degree students may enroll in classes in a variety of.formats. Continuing Education offers.fully online classes, classes for college.credit that are offered in the evenings,.applied music classes which are small.group or one-on-one music instruction.for college credit. Non degree-seeking.students wishing to enroll in on-campus,.daytime courses, on a space available.basis are enrolled through what we call.the ACCESS program. These courses are the.same courses that most degree-seeking.students enroll in. Students interested.in junior or senior level science.courses or natural science labs will.enroll through the ACCESS program..Okay and now we can talk a little bit about, I think one of the first questions that you know we want or we would recommend.that you know students might ask.themselves and that's what's your goal?.Are you looking for an undergraduate.degree or a graduate degree?.I see Boulder has over 90 different.undergraduate and graduate programs so.there's a lot of opportunities and.options there. You may be looking for.transfer credit, to transfer courses back.to your home university. We can certainly.help you know kind of guide you through.that process as well, or maybe you're.looking for some courses to.take as you know, for personal or.professional growth. So I think with this.you know first question being you know.kind of what's your goal is it's a good.question to ask and if you don't know.the answer to that one of the things.that I think I'd you know recommend is.that you go ahead and actually schedule.an appointment with us because we can.actually help you you know drill down.and some things and help you identify.some goals if you haven't been able to.get that yet either so, certainly do you.know feel free to schedule an.appointment with us and we'll talk a.little bit about that at the end of the.webinar but I think that's one of the.central themes that will come back to a.lot is please do feel free to schedule.appointments with us because we can help.you talk through all of these different.options. So looking at our undergraduate.admission, so one of the things that we.want to talk about a little bit of.course is of whether you should apply as.a degree seeking or a non degree seeking.student. So really this comes down to do.you meet the requirements or not for.admission, and if you do meet the.requirements for admission for our.undergrad most undergraduate programs in.the College of Arts and Sciences they're.looking for 2.5 transfer GPA or better.or if you're looking at business or.engineering there's some prerequisite.courses there and some GPA requirements.there as well. So if you meet the.requirements for admission generally.speaking it's better to go ahead and.apply as a degree-seeking student,.however if you don't meet the.requirements for admission, or if you.have you know some questions about that.you're not sure that it's the right time.for you. It might be better to apply as a.non-degree seeking student but again you.know with the the I guess the the caveat.that if you are at all unsure about this,.please always do feel free to schedule.an appointment with an academic adviser.here in Continuing Education and we can.kind of help help develop that plan for.you whether that's applying as a degree.seeking or non degree we can kind of.look at your unique situation and help.you get into that. Some of our students.may be looking at graduate school.admission or a professional school.admission and so this this process can.be certainly a little bit different but.but a lot of the same kind of concept.still apply..Students looking at graduate school.maybe pre-health students looking at.getting into health profession and maybe.career changers, you may be looking at.exploring some of CU Boulders graduate.programs we have over 65 different.graduate programs and so there's a lot.of opportunity there for graduate school. We do have a lot of interest with.computer science students and we do have a new post-bacc computer science program.starting in Spring 2018, so feel free to.contact us if you have any questions.about that we kind of help you look at.that, because if you're looking at a.graduate degree in computer science.there's quite a bit of prerequisite.coursework that you'd want to to.complete before being a competitive.applicant for those programs we can kind.of help you navigate what that looks.like. You know some students may be.applying to graduate programs and.in order to be a competitive applicant.they may need some upper division credit.at the undergraduate level and we can.certainly help you identify some of.those courses in conjunction with you.know your graduate program of interest.and help you look at that. So there's a.lot of different opportunity to help.help students we're looking at you know.the possibility of being a graduate.student to take classes as a non-degree.grad, to take classes in a program before.you know being formally admitted to the.program, I'm going to kind of explore all.of those options, so we do have a lot of.options for our students looking at.graduate degrees and you know again I'll.come back to it one more time please do.feel free to schedule an appointment as.to kind of talk about your situation and.we can help you develop that academic.plan to move forward. Another situation.where students might be considering.taking courses with us is going to be to.transfer credit. So if you're you know.looking at completing a degree at.another institution and you have the.opportunity to take some courses here.with us at CU-Boulder to transfer those.back we could certainly help you with.that and talk about that process as well..Generally speaking it's it's better to.apply as a non-degree student to take.courses just to transfer them back to.your home University, and as you're.looking at this process it's certainly.one where you need to to be in contact with your home university to find out what.their transfer credit policy is like and.then we can kind of help you look at the.CU-Boulder side of things and what it.means to take courses as a non-degree.student and help you transfer those.courses back. So I guess the other.opportunity that students might be.looking at for taking some courses with.us would be through or you know for.developing some personal and.professional growth. So again we've got.over 3,800 different courses offered at.the University of Colorado Boulder so.there's a lot of opportunity to take a.course in something that you might be.interested in, and so you can take those.courses as non-degree, you could even.look at non-credit or auditing courses.so there's just a lot of opportunity. So.if there's just something you're.interested in studying and want to know.more about and we have a course in that.field or in that subject area come talk.to us, schedule an appointment with an.academic advisor and we can help you go.through that process and see what it.looks like to enroll in a course and.help you reach those goals that you have.for yourself. Great so um.another question we encourage students.to ask themselves are, what are your.priorities? And the two biggest competing.priorities for most students are time.and money. Students should ask themselves if.completing coursework as quickly as.possible, typically as a full-time.student regardless of the price or paying.a lesser amount each semester but taking.longer to complete coursework, that would.be typically as a part-time student is a.higher priority. As you can see from the.slide if you're planning to enroll.part-time or only in the evening or.online classes or if you want to ease.back into school or just take one class..Enrolling as a non-degree student is a.great option. If your plan is to be a.full-time student enrolling in daytime.classes for the fall and spring.semesters applying through the Office of.Admissions as a transfer student is.likely a better option for you. That's not to say that non degree students can't enroll full-time, they.certainly can there just may be some.additional obstacles in the enrollment.process. Regardless of your interest in.enrolling full or part-time, enrolling as.a non-degree student will be a more.cost-effective option. We've highlighted.the financial advantages of enrolling in.classes as cheaply as possible.at CU-Boulder is your top priority. Again.as Graham stated if you have questions.about these competing priorities,.scheduling an appointment with an.academic advisor can save you a lot of.time and research we have this.conversation with students on a regular.basis and for each individual student.the choices you know may fall towards.time or may fall toward money so feel.free to schedule an appointment with us.to discuss your options. Ok and you know.I think one last important question to.ask yourself as you're considering.taking some courses with us here at.CU-Boulder.would be um, What's your academic.background like? You know what is your.GPA from an undergraduate degree or from.your previous academics? Some programs.have GPA requirements and so we'll want.to you know take a look at that so if.you know admission into a certain.program is as part of your plan and part.of your goal we'll want to you know see.what it looks like to, to make sure that.the courses you take with us are.helping you to improve that GPA or your.GPA may already be there so so kind of.looking at your academic background it's.certainly a good place to start..That also can include some specific.courses that you may need in order to to.gain admission into certain programs we.can help you identify which specific.courses you would you you know would.need to take or might need to take and.we work very closely with the.undergraduate admissions office and we.can also put you in contact with.graduate program coordinators and.assistants throughout the university, so.that we can get you know the answers.to these questions and you know find out.which courses might be a good fit for.you and then you know I think last on.the slide but certainly not least is.time away from school, you know has it.been a little while since you've been in.an academic setting? I like to think.that it's a lot like riding a bike and.that you don't you know really forget a.lot of these skills but sometimes it's.important to kind of brush up on some.things you know as you as you look at.rejoining some academics so we can.certainly help you navigate that process.kind of find out you know where where.you're at and kind of what your academic.background is and help prepare you to be.successful in the courses that you're.hoping to take with us. There's a lot of.resources on campus that we can take.advantage of here so if you need writing.support we have opportunities for that,.time management skills there's all sorts.of different things that we can you know.help you with as a as you consider.returning to academics and and it can be.you know something that can feel kind of.daunting but that's that's why we're.here, is to help you navigate this whole.process so as you're you know looking.back at your academic career and asking.yourself this question you know, what is.your academic background? Please again do.feel free to reach out to us you.know here in academic advising and we.can kind of help you look at this and.again help develop that plan forward so.we would just offer that if there are.any questions that this webinar didn't.answer for you or if after watching this.you decide that you would like to follow.up and meet with an advisor do you feel.free to schedule an appointment with us.all you need is an email address to set.yourself up in the system and schedule.an appointment with an advisor. We in.addition to academic advising we do also.offer pre-health advising and career.advising here at Continuing Education.and in addition to that Jennifer Long is.an admissions counselor for the main.campus here at CU-Boulder and she also has office hours at.the Continuing Education building, so her.contact information's on the slide there.as well as our general advising email.address. So do feel free to follow up.should you have any additional questions..All right thank you so much.Graham and Suzanne. We'll address some.frequently asked questions and we do.have some questions from the audience as.well so I just wanted to remind everyone.to go ahead and submit any of those.questions that might have come up during.the presentation. So the first one.can I take online courses not for credit?.So we have several different grading.options that are available to students.for all of our classes and one of those.options is non-credit so the traditional.grading option for all courses is to.receive a letter grade for the class,.that is one thing you can choose when.you enroll in a course. Another option is.to take a class as pass/fail and that.would be a grading option you can choose.again when you sign up for the class. The.third option is to take a class for.non-credit and you do formally enroll in.the course, the tuition would be the same.as a student who who was enrolled for.credit but it's just a grading option.that you would choose. We do sometimes.get the question can I audit an online.course and auditing is only available in.a face-to-face in person class, auditing.is where you simply sit in on the class.you don't do any of the course work.you're just there to absorb the.information you can attain in a lecture.format and that's auditing is not an.option for the online courses. All right.thank you, next question are there.courses offered in both in classroom and.online at the same time, so that if the.person was in town one week and out of.town the next that they could mix and.mingle I know there's a hybrid option on.the the website?.Yeah we have hybrid courses where for.you know our evening courses you can.take its let's say a three credit hour.course and two of those credit hours are.done in person, one credit hour is done.online. So I guess that you know that.could work so you're in class let's say.one evening a week and then if for the.two hours at a time and then if you're.traveling for business or you know other.things so you can complete that.remaining credit hour online but as far.as is the question about taking one.course and and kind of taking it in a.face-to-face format and then also taking.it online? Yes kind of at the same time.so if they were gone for like a few.weeks. Yeah I don't I don't think that we.really that the hybrid doesn't fit that..Yeah the hyper doesn't really fit that.most, Suzanne what do you is there.anything that you're familiar with some of.the graduate courses have something like that but yeah, we would typically encourage a student.if they're going to be traveling and.miss more than one or two classes in a.typical semester to simply enroll in the.online version of that course. Yeah, okay.all right thank you..Next question where does a student go to.apply as a degree seeking student? So.that's going to depend on if you're.they're applying as a undergraduate.student looking for a Bachelor's degree.or if they're applying as a graduate.student looking for masters or PhD.program so, but it would all be through.the office of admission so applying as a.degree seeking student will be handled.through the office of admissions and we.do work very closely with them so if you.have any questions about kind of how to.approach that, or you'd like to schedule.a meeting with us first we can certainly.help with that and kind of figure out.timing. Okay that makes sense how does a.student know who their advisor is? Well I.guess for us here in Continuing.Education we have usually have same-day.availability for advising we don't have.you know any kind of specified system.for saying you know this is a student.who would work with this advisor or this.is student would work with this.particular advisor so,.really for us it's just whatever is.convenient for your schedule and if.you're able to schedule an appointment.with us that works then you know you can.come in and see that advisor many of our.students like to after meeting with one.advisor like to continue and have you.know follow-up appointments with that.same advisor, so for for students coming.through Continuing Education it's really.just going to be what's convenient for.them. Okay great, next question, will the.credits that the student takes as a.non-degree student transfer to their.degree program? Yeah absolutely, we get.that question a lot and credits taken as.a non-degree student those are.CU-Boulder credits you're starting a.CU-Boulder transcript when you enroll as.a non-degree student so students do have.to go if they decide to move from a.non-degree student to a degree seeking.student they do still have to go through.the formal admissions process but their.credits and their GPA will follow them.into either a Bachelors program if they.were enrolling in undergraduate credits.or a graduate program if they were.taking non degree graduate courses. That.makes sense, that's awesome and then if.the student wants to transfer them back.to their home university what would the.process look like on our side?.Sure so since they have a transcript.from CU-Boulder they could just log into.their myCUinfo transit, myCuinfo portal and they could request an.official transcript be sent back to.their home institution, we also get the.question a lot I'll just add on here how.do I know if my credits will transfer.back to my home institution? And we do.strongly encourage students to be.working with an academic advisor from.their home institution to make sure that.the CU-Boulder credits will transfer.back the way they think that they will.and that's not a determination that we.can make at CU-Boulder that's something.that the home institution it's always.the receiving institution that makes.that determination. All right that makes.sense,.just gonna add on to that as well that.some institutions do have like a.pre-approval process as well so that you.can you can be certain ahead of time.that the courses you take with us would.would transfer back to your home.institution so that's that's another.good reason to reach out to them..All right, and then last question can you tell a.student which classes they need to take.to get into graduate school? Well we can.help them identify some particular.courses that could be a good fit.for them..We'd work with the graduate program.specifically I guess when I get I get.that question a lot and I very often.will recommend that the student.connect with their graduate program.directly to to kind of find out where.they're at in the application.process, what they would need to be a.competitive applicant, and if there are.very specific courses that they would.need to take in order to be that.competitive applicant for the program. In.some situations absolutely there are.some very specific courses that that.graduate program may require in other.situations, you know there may not.be so it's always a good idea to I think.connect with that graduate program.directly and we can certainly help make.that connection you know for students..All right awesome, okay I think that is.it thank you everyone for joining us..Thanks again to Graham and Suzanne, if.anyone does have additional questions.again feel free to make an appointment.with one of our advisors and then just.like the email address on the screen.they're also available via email so.that's:.ceadvise@colorado.edu. Hope everyone.has a great day! Thanks everybody!.
