First-Year Curriculum Guide

The information below is a high-level summary of the requirements, courses, and terms related to first-year student fall course registration. Please use this curriculum guide, along with the First-Year Student Registration Preparation Guide, to prepare for your July Advising meeting with your First Year Advisor. Additional details of these requirements, courses, and terms can be found throughout this website. 

Registration Requirements 

Five Academic Courses 

You will register for five academic courses (three-or-more credits each). Moreau FYE, music lessons and ensembles, ROTC, Center for Social Concerns seminars, research, and other voluntary one-credit and two-credit courses are not counted in the four-course or five-course requirement. 

Moreau First Year Experience: FYS 10101

Your advisor will register you for a Moreau First Year Experience course (FYS 10101). Moreau scheduling is based on residential neighborhoods. This means you will be registered for a specific Moreau section that aligns with your assigned residence hall community.

Credit-Hour Limit

First-year students will register for 19 credits in their first semester. In special circumstances, we will allow students to take up to a maximum of 21 credits. If you wish to register for more than 19 credit hours in the fall because of music lessons or ensembles, ROTC, etc, please let your advisor know during your July Zoom meeting. 

First-Year Writing Requirement 

You must take Writing and Rhetoric and one University Seminar (USEM) during your first year at Notre Dame. If you have AP or IB credit for Writing and Rhetoric you can instead take a writing-intensive course in a discipline of your choosing. This writing-intensive course does not have to be taken in the first year. You can find more information on the first-year writing requirement here.

Notes about Courses 

Calculus Proficiency Quizzes

If you are pursuing any of the following majors or are a part of any of the following scholar programs and plan to take Calculus 2 or 3 during the fall semester, you would have received an email from the Center for University Advising with directions to access the Calculus Proficiency Quizzes.  If you did not list one of these majors/scholar programs as your intended program of study, please let your advisor know so that you can gain access to the quizzes.

Majors and Scholars Programs:

• All College of Science majors
• All College of Engineering major
• College of Arts and Letters Glynn Honors students
• College of Arts and Letters Economics majors
• College of Arts and Letters Pre-Health majors
• College of Arts and Letters Neuroscience and Behavior majors
• All students pursuing a supplementary major in Applied and Computational Mathematics and Statistics 
• All students pursuing a supplementary major in Math
• All students pursuing a supplementary major in Economics 

Calculus Tutorials 

Each section of a calculus lecture has one or two corresponding tutorials. You must register for one of these tutorials. For instance, if you register for section 1 of Calculus II (MATH 10560-01), you must also register for section 11 of the tutorial (MATH 12560-11). If you register for section 2 of the lecture, you must also register for section 21 or 22 of the tutorial, and so on. 

Foreign Language Placement 

If you have any concerns about the foreign language course in which you placed, you should contact the relevant language department. First Year Advising cannot override placement exam scores or AP, IB, or SAT II credit. If you want to register for Beginning Spanish I (ROSP 10101), Beginning Spanish (ROSP 10110), or Beginning French I (ROFR 10101), you must visit the Romance Languages department (343 O’Shaughnessy) for approval. You can find more information on Foreign Language placements here.

Writing and Rhetoric

If your AP score does not grant you credit-by-examination for Writing and Rhetoric, select WR 13100 (Writing and Rhetoric), WR 13200 (Community- Based Writing and Rhetoric), or WR 13300 (Multimedia Writing and Rhetoric). WR 13100 and WR 13300 are very similar in content and expectations. WR 13200 requires off-campus community engagement outside of normal class time. The various one-credit and two-credit WR tutorials do not satisfy the Writing and Rhetoric requirement.

University Seminars

You can only take one University Seminar in your first year. If you are taking a USEM during the fall semester, you cannot take one in the spring semester. All USEMs satisfy the USEM requirement and one of the other Core requirements. 

Theology and Philosophy University Seminars

Theology and Philosophy USEMs satisfy the Foundations of Theology and Introduction to Philosophy requirements, respectively. You should therefore not register for a Theology USEM if you are currently taking Foundations of Theology or a Philosophy USEM if you are currently taking Introduction to Philosophy. 

Foundations of Theology

If you plan to take Foundations of Theology, you should register for a section of THEO 10001. You cannot register for a section of THEO 10002. These sections of Foundations of Theology are reserved for upperclassmen. 

Browsing Classes

When using the First-Year Student Registration Preparation Guide to begin to build your fall course schedule, access NOVO Browse Classes in inside.nd.edu to check each of the following categories. Once in NOVO, click on Browse Classes, select Fall 2020 and then select the Subject and the Course Number. When you click on the name of a course in Browse Classes, a dialog box will appear. There will be a tab in the box for each of these categories, as well as a few others that are self-explanatory. 

Restrictions

Many courses are restricted to students in certain groups, such as year (first-year, sophomore, etc.), major, minor, or college. You can only register for a course if you meet these restrictions. 

Departmental Approval Required

Some courses require departmental approval for registration. This requirement will be listed as a “Special Approval” on the Restrictions tab. Your advisor will let you know if you are able to register for them.

Co-requisites

Some courses, such as lab sciences and calculus, have required labs, tutorials, or discussion sections. These parts of courses have unique Course Registration Numbers. You must register for them at the same time as you register for the lecture part of the course. 

Pre-requisites

Some courses are only open to students who are taking or have taken another course. Pre-requisites are most common for math, science, and language courses. For instance, you cannot register for Calculus II unless you are taking Calculus I or have AP or IB credit for it. 

Cross-listed Courses

Some courses are listed under two or more course numbers, usually to make the course available to students in different majors, minors, or academic years. If you are interested in a course but it is full or you do not meet the restrictions, check for a cross-listed course to see if you could register under another number. 

Attributes

Attributes identify which, if any, Core requirements a course will satisfy. With the exception of the University Seminar and the writing-intensive course, one course can only satisfy one Core requirement. If a course has attributes for two or more Core requirements, you can decide in the future which requirement you would like it to satisfy. Below is a chart of the attribute codes. You can search by these codes in Browse Classes if you are looking for a course to satisfy a particular requirement. 

*Art and literature courses have different attributes, but they are considered the same way of knowing for the Core Curriculum. Consequently, either one art or one literature course can count for either Liberal Arts 4 or Liberal Arts 6. You cannot take one art course for Liberal Arts 4 and one literature course for Liberal Arts 6 or vice versa. Students in the College of Arts and Letters must take one art course and one literature course as a college requirement. One of these courses will count for either Liberal Arts 4 or Liberal Arts 6.