Congratulations, Rams! We’re excited that you’re joining us, and we want to help you make the transition to CSU as smooth as possible. So here are some tips to help you do orientation right.
What’s most urgent
The CSU Math Placement Tool is your most pressing orientation task. This impacts which math courses you can register for, and the deadline for completing the Math Placement Tool is just around the corner, on June 2nd. So if you haven’t yet, head to the Math Placement Tool web site for review materials and a link to the tool itself. And remember, you can take the Math Placement Tool up to two times, if you’re not happy with your first effort. There’s extra help available for students who don’t place out of the PreCalculus math courses (i.e. MATH 117, 118, 124, 125 and 126) using the Math Placement Tool, too – see our ENcourage Engineering Math Program page for details.
You’ll also want to arrange reporting of all official concurrent enrollment transcripts and AP or IB exam results directly from the reporting institution, College Board or your IB program, if you haven’t already done so.
What’s different this year
The first thing to note is that orientation is being conducted virtually this year, due to the pandemic. You can sign up for virtual orientation sessions here. Make sure you grab a spot soon – orientation sessions run from early June through mid-July, so this isn’t something you can leave to the last minute.
Earlier this spring, the CSU System announced that COVID-19 vaccinations will be required for students, faculty, and staff for the Fall 2021 semester, conditioned upon full approval of one or more vaccines by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. All students can voluntarily submit their COVID-19 vaccine records to CSU Health Network. If you are vaccinated, we encourage you to take a few minutes to upload your record now. If you are not yet vaccinated and are not able to get a vaccine over the summer, there will be on-campus vaccine clinics in August. More information will be available when those clinics are scheduled.
Finally, the pandemic has delayed delivery of advanced placement (AP) and International Baccalaureate (IB) exam scores from the spring 2021 semester. If you expect advanced placement based on late-arriving exam scores, your advisor will help you register for the courses you’re currently eligible to register for during your virtual Ram Orientation session. You can then connect with your advisor to make adjustments to your fall course schedule, if necessary, once AP and IB scores are reported in early August.
Firing on All Cylinders
You’re engineers, we get it: you want to check all the boxes. In addition to the Math Placement Tool and Virtual Orientation sign-up, there are a handful of other tasks to be completed, and the sooner the better. They include the ChemPrep process, which is required for all engineering majors except Computer Engineering; the College Composition readiness process; establishing an ETS account; housing applications; and checking RAMWeb to ensure you’re “Registration Ready”.
Our Engineering Orientation page has tons of links and tips for completing all of these steps, including a pre-orientation checklist specifically for engineers.
What about transfer credit or other questions?
Transfer credit questions can be answered at the excellent Transferology web site. Simply log in and follow the steps to determine what credits apply for each course you’ve completed.
Answers to many other questions can be found in the orientation email you should already have received. But, of course, there’s always a human at engr-orientation@colostate.edu if you get stumped.
We’re excited to see you on campus in August! Good luck with the orientation process, and be sure to reach out if you need help with anything.
