The
University of Utah, like most colleges and universities, is serious about
prerequisites! This is because taking classes in the right order; in the right
window of time; and with a grade that guarantees mastery of the material is
central to success as students move into higher level classes. You can’t build
a solid academic career if you haven’t completed the foundation courses
successfully and recently enough to remember what you learned.
Demonstrating
that you’ve met prerequisite course requirements can be tricky for students
who took their prerequisites at a school other than the U. If you are a transfer student who has taken
or who is planning to take classes to transfer to the U to meet prerequisites consider
the following:
·
Departments
at the U of U have different policies and procedures for prerequisite
checking. It is a good idea to contact the advisor in the department offering
the class(es) you plan on taking at the U. to see what the process will be to
show that you have met their prerequisites.
·
The
content of the course, the grade, and how recently the course was taken could all
be considered in determining if a class can act as a prerequisite.
·
In almost all cases it will be easier
for you to show that you’ve completed a prerequisite if the class that you
hope to use is posted on your U of U record. Many departments will not work with transcripts from
other institutions; their checking systems can work only with posted credits. This
means that applying to the U early – long before the application deadline - is
imperative. The following deadlines are
optimal for applying to the U. They allow plenty of time for your transfer work
to be posted before registration begins:
Fall
Semester – Apply in February
Spring
Semester – Apply in August
Summer
Semester – Apply in January
·
If
you are a student attending a Utah State System of Higher Education School
(USHE) you will often find that your credits have been pre-approved to meet
prerequisite requirements. Once these
credits are posted on your U record, they will automatically allow you to move
on to the next class.
·
Students
with out-of-state credits (and occasionally from USHE schools) will often be
required to provide course descriptions and a syllabus from a class they would
like to act as a prerequisite. Saving the syllabi from your classes and
knowing how to find course descriptions from your previous school can save you a
lot of time after you have transferred to the U.
·
If
the course you hope to use as a prerequisite is in progress at the time you are
admitted to the U. contact the department offering the class your hope to take to see
what the process will be to register for the next class.
·
The
Registrar’s Office has a webpage with some basic information on prerequisite
checking at the U and contains a list of departments currently enforcing
prerequisites: http://registrar.utah.edu/handbook/prereqstudent.php.
