You will be given an advising hold at different times based on student status. Unlike other majors, not all biology and zoology students need to meet an advisor each term to remove their hold.

When students do have an advising hold, an appointment for course planning is required, so please plan ahead. Advising appointments for course usually begin around week 5 of the term. If students have other types of holds on their accounts (ex. balance due or student health) they will need to resolve those holds with the office that placed the holds.

The following list covers when biology and zoology students need to meet with advising to review their course plan an have their advising hold removed.

• All new students must attend their required orientation:
  • Corvallis campus orientation
  • Ecampus online orientation
• Sophomores and higher in biology and zoology only receive an advising hold once a year for the following year. These students should meet with their advisor as outlined in the appointment page.
• First-year students need to meet with an advisor EACH TERM to review their course plan and have their advising hold removed.
• If you were listed with another major before biology or zoology or have recently changed majors from a major that have an advising hold each term, you may have an advising hold at first. Students with some double majors may also have advising holds more frequently as other units place the hold every term.

Please see integrative biology advising information

Please see biology and zoology advising

Mission statement

The Integrative Biology Academic Advising Team partners with and advocates for students to foster their academic, personal, and professional growth. We achieve this by:

• Cultivating welcoming, inclusive, and equitable communities.
• Providing accurate, timely, and relevant information.
• Empowering students as curious, creative, and informed decision-makers.
• Encouraging students to recognize their strengths through self-discovery.

Advising philosophy

Biology and zoology advising is organized around the conviction that students should be actively engaged in their education, as well as the planning and decisions needed to reach their professional goals. From the beginning, advising focuses on educational and professional goals, and advisors work to suggest opportunities that are important to being successful in those goals. However, advisors will never know everything, and students should also actively seek out information on their own. Advisors are there to assist students, but students bear the ultimate responsibility of being aware of requirements and utilizing appropriate resources and opportunities to meet their needs.

Advisor and advisee responsibilities

You should:

• Understand and accept that you are ultimately responsible for your education and your own decisions.
• Ask for help when you need it and utilize appropriate campus resources to ensure your success.
• Make appointments in a timely fashion to avoid crises and cancel appointments that cannot be kept.
• Come to all appointments prepared with the documents and information outlined on the website and be ready to actively participate in the meeting.
• Keep an advising file where you track requirements, as well as professional development and career issues.
• Provide accurate and truthful information when being advised.
• Actively research career information and undergraduate opportunities and discuss any questions with your advisor.
• Follow up on plans of action identified during advising sessions.

Your advisor should:

• Assist students in developing education, life and career plans.
• Provide timely and accurate information.
• Assist with academic success issues.
• Assist with career exploration and graduate/professional school options.
• Assist with appropriate course choices.
• Assist with choosing and integrating appropriate extra and co-curricular activities such as research, internships, volunteering, and study abroad into education requirements.
• Assist with monitoring progress toward educational/career goals.
• Sign forms that require an advisor's signature and write recommendations as appropriate.
• Discuss graduation audits and requirements.

Your advisor will not:

• Plan out all of your courses. Advisors will provide feedback on plans you develop using the online resources, but they will not do it all for you.
• Know everything about all careers. Your advisor will provide what feedback they can, but generally, you will need to engage in further research on your own through reading, orientation classes, shadowing, volunteering, informational interviews and other resources. You should be working on and thinking about this task frequently and discussing what you discover with your advisor.
• Solve all of the challenges you encounter. Your advisor will frequently need to refer you to other services on or off campus based on the situation you are dealing with.

Students on academic warning or probation should communicate with their advisor immediately, particularly related to any math or science course they were not successful in. In addition, these students should read the regulations on academic standing. All Corvallis students on academic warning or probation look at the Academic Success Resources for Biology Students at OSU. Ecampus students should review the online student resources guide and consult with the Ecampus student services as appropriate.

Students on academic suspension should read the regulations on academic suspension and the guidelines for reinstatement.

Students who wish to be reinstated from suspension must do the following:

• Read the guidelines for reinstatement. The Academic Standing Committee will not approve petitions for reinstatement for students who do not meet all of the guidelines.

• If you consider petitioning, meet with your advisor about their support in the reinstatement process and if you meet the guidelines above. You will need to share your written petition statement with your advisor as part of this process. You will also need to complete an Academic Performance Agreement and the College of Science Head Advisor name and contact also needs to be included in the petition.

• After submissions, you should attend the Academic Standing Committee meeting and complete any other tasks you are assigned.

You can change your grade to (S/U) or withdraw from courses up until the Friday of Week 7, but there are specific rules about which courses you can S/U. Before making any decision about dropping or withdrawing from a course (or term), you should do the following:

• Meet with your professor to discuss what grade you actually have in the class. It can be unclear how you are performing in a course (better or worse), and the professor (or TAs for labs) is usually the only person who can clarify questions you might have. You want to be clear on where you stand in the course and what you need to get in the remainder of a course to pass in order to make a good decision about withdrawal (W) or Satisfactory/Unsatisfactory (S/U). You should carefully evaluate if it is realistic for you to perform at the level needed to be successful, and you should not assume you will do radically better than you have before without good reason. It also does not help to ride out a course to the end that you have no possibility of passing as these grades stay on your record even after retakes.
  
• Talk to Financial Aid (Kerr Administration Building) if you have loans, grants or scholarships. They can tell you the financial repercussions of dropping a course. In general, you must complete at least 67% of all credits attempted for your current degree or certificate (which means you can usually drop below full-time!). Both OSU and accepted transfer credits will be counted as attempted credits. You must contact the Financial Aid office to confirm this general rule related to your specific situation.
  
• Contact your advisor if you need to discuss what you find out and/or your decision. They can help you see what impacts it will have on future coursework and degree progress.

Guidelines for S/U or W from a course:

• No Satisfactory/Unsatisfactory (S/U) grades are allowed for major, minor or option courses. S/U is OK for Baccalaureate Core or other courses not required by major, minor or options. If the course is in your major, minor or option, your only choice is withdrawal (W).
  
• Students must have a 2.0 (C average) cumulative OSU and major GPA, but do not need a C in all major courses. The BI 22x series and all math courses require a C- or better, and students who are in a series should have a C- or better before moving forward. Other courses in the major a D- or better is passing. Most professional schools will not accept D's in courses that are prerequisites.
• A U grade essentially means you failed, while a W is ambiguous and simply suggests you exited the course for some reason. A pattern of W grades is not good, but a limited number are not an issue. Any D+ or lower grade in an S/U class changes to a U. If you know you will receive a D+ or less in a course a withdraw likely makes more sense.
• When a course is repeated for a grade at OSU, only the second grade counts for GPA even if that grade is lower. If the student repeats the course for a third time, the grade will not replace the second grade in their GPA, but the retake can work for major requirements after checking in with an advisor. All retakes will appear on transcripts.
  
• A student cannot repeat a course as S/U if they received a letter previously. See the appropriate repeated courses academic regulations (AR 20) for more information.
  
• Students can withdraw a maximum of 18 times. (AR 12)
  
• Incompletes (I) can be granted in specific circumstances at the instructor's discretion as noted in the academic regulations. You must be passing the course when you request an incomplete. (AR 17)
  
• Further information on withdrawing.
  
• Further information on Incomplete "I" and other grading issues.

S/U and W process:

• Directions to S/U a course.
  
• Directions to drop/withdraw from a course.
  
• Directions to withdraw from the term.

Important S/U and W dates (see Academic Calendar for more details)

• Week 1: The last time students can add and drop classes online. Students can change the grading of a course to Satisfactory/ Unsatisfactory (S/U) if the course is not required for a major, minor, or option.
  
• Week 2: Students can drop a course online. Adding courses requires department and instructor approval. Contact the department office of the unit offering the course for details.
  
• Week 3: Students can still change the grading of a course to Satisfactory/Unsatisfactory (S/U) if the course is not required for a major, minor, or option.
  
• Week 7: Friday of week 7 is the last day to S/U or W from a course.
  
• Week 8: After week 7 students can only petition the Registrar to receive a W or S/U grade in single courses, but they must have a significant reason why they missed the deadline (serious illness or emergency). Students considering withdrawal from the term should see the appropriate regulation.

Please see the GPA calculator.

Your advisor does not automatically know you are retaking a course. If you are considering repeating any course you completed at OSU or another school, or you are repeating any OSU course for the third time, you should bring the specifics of your situation to the attention of your advisor. You can also review the points below and the appropriate Academic Regulation (AR 20) for more information.

It will not always be very beneficial to retake courses, particularly since small changes in grades are often dwarfed by your cumulative GPA by the time you graduate. In general, unless you must retake a requirement, it is generally not a good idea to retake a course unless you feel you can do significantly better and you have not already attempted it twice. Often it is better to focus on doing well in subsequent courses. You can use the GPA calculator to run scenarios of repeating courses and the impact on your GPA.

A few considerations related to repeating courses:

• The second time you take a class at OSU (first retake) will replace your original grade in the OSU GPA, regardless of whether the second grade is higher or lower.
  
• Every attempt of a course will appear on the OSU transcript.
  
• Any retakes at other institutions or any third or subsequent graded attempts at OSU will not count toward your OSU GPA. If the second attempt of a course was not passed at OSU, the third or additional graded attempts at OSU will also not count for the 180 credits required for graduation or for the total credits for other requirements such as minors. Students in this situation may have to complete additional course to make up for those credit deficiencies.
  
• Some courses that are pre-requisite for other courses in the major require a C-, and students will need to retake those courses until they achieve a C- grade in order to continue even if it take more than two attempts.
  
• In progress courses are counted in MyDegrees in the total credits for degrees, majors, minors, etc. If one of those courses in progress is a retake the credits for the retake will be subtracted from any totals once grades are fully processed. This issue can be particularly important to seniors who may show having exactly 180 credits with retakes in progress but end up with less than 180 after retakes are accounted for.
  
• Most professional schools, and human health professions in particular, do not replace the original grade when a course is retaken, and use every attempt when calculating your GPA. Plan to discuss all retakes with a pre-professional advisor.

For many courses a D will count, but not all of them. Biology and Zoology students need a C- or better in BI 221, 222 and 223 Principles of Biology series or the Ecampus BI 204, 205 and 206 series before moving on to upper division (300-400 level) BI and Z coursework. Both majors also require a C- or better in the CH 23x/26x general chemistry series (Biology and Zoology) or the CH 12x (Zoology major only). Biology majors need a C- in both CH 331 and CH 332, while Zoology majors only need a C- in CH 331. All OSU students also need a C- or better in all math courses to progress to the next course. All Biology and Zoology students also need a 2.0 AVERAGE in their major and OSU GPAs to graduate (see MyDegrees for these numbers). All of these requirements are tracked in MyDegrees.

Many students are missing important emails from professors and advisors when using Google Mail for OSU since some of these emails end up in the Social or Promotions tabs of the Google Inbox. For instance, the Biology and Zoology listserve posts show up in many students’ Promotions tabs. To fix this issue, you can do one of two things: 1) Disable Google tabs and have just one inbox or 2) Add one Biology and Zoology listserve email to your Primary inbox (drag & drop or right-click, then click Yes on the pop-up message to send future messages to the Primary inbox.

How to disable tabs

How to add emails from a specific sender to primary inbox

OSU Mobile

Help for Google apps.

OSU help desk

If you had coursework approved previously they should be visible or noted in MyDegrees. If courses that are not yet articulated are listed in the OSU Transfer Course Search Tool as OSU courses that count in your program, then they will work like the OSU courses. Your advisor can discuss other transfer coursework or possible substitutions.

Your advisor is an excellent resource for starting a discussion of how courses taken abroad will integrate with your plans. All OSU approved study abroad and internship programs receive OSU credit and can be potentially be used for major requirements. Additional guidance and details can be found on the Study Abroad Course Approval website.

All transfer coursework must be sent directly to OSU Admissions. If you have sent coursework and it is not visible in MyDegrees, it may be that it has not been processed or it is in the excluded or electives area of MyDegrees. If you had transcripts sent before completing coursework (final grades) or award of a transfer degree (i.e. AAOT, DTA, IGETC) you will need to have another transcript sent. Contact OSU Admissions to confirm the receipt of coursework or to discuss questions.

Exceptions in MyDegrees cannot be dealt with until transfer coursework is articulated. MyDegrees exceptions do not clear prerequisites. Prerequisite overrides may be granted by departments based on completed coursework with final grades before it is articulated by Admissions. Follow up with the department offering the course to discuss options. Additional details about transfer credits and degrees can be found at the OSU Transfer Credit Central website.

Please see Priority Registration.

An advising hold is an indication that you need to meet with your advisor to review your course plan before you can register for classes.

When students do have an advising hold, an appointment for course planning is required, so please plan ahead. Advising appointments for course usually begin around week 5 of the term. If students have other types of holds on their accounts (ex. balance due or student health) they will need to resolve those holds with the office that placed the holds.

The following list covers when biology and zoology students need to meet with advising to review their course plan an have their advising hold removed.

• All new students must attend their required orientation:
  • Corvallis campus orientation
  • Ecampus online orientation
• Sophomores and higher in biology and zoology only receive an advising hold once a year for the following year. These students should meet with their advisor as outlined in the appointment page.
• First-year students need to meet with an advisor EACH TERM to review their course plan and have their advising hold removed.
• If you were listed with another major before biology or zoology or have recently changed majors from a major that have an advising hold each term, you may have an advising hold at first. Students with some double majors may also have advising holds more frequently as other units place the hold every term.

Errors and overrides

Review the common registration errors and any holds listed at the top of MyDegrees to see what might be causing the error. The Science Success Center (Kidder 109) is open Monday-Thursday, 8 AM-7 PM, and Friday 8 AM-5 PM to assist with registration for Corvallis campus students. Ecampus student services at [email protected] or 800-667-1465 (option 1) can assist Ecampus students. If you are having trouble registering for a course required to graduate the next term, contact your advisor. If you cannot enroll in a class you believe you meet the pre-requisites for, contact the department offering the course (see below). You will generally need to share documentation or a transcript for transfer coursework or test scores that relate to enforced prerequisites. In some cases a syllabus will also be required.

Directions for override requests

Biology or Zoology

Email [email protected] or call 541-737-2993 or visit Cordley 3029.

Chemistry

Some chemistry sections are restricted to chemistry majors (+520 restriction) - you cannot take these. For prerequisite overrides based on transfer coursework or test scores, use the override request form. For other chemistry issues and overrides, contact the main chemistry office through email (preferred) [email protected] or call 541-737‐2081.

Biochemistry

For override requests or registration issues please complete the registration and override help form.

Math

Some math sections are restricted to EOP students (09x sections) or INTO students (6xx sections) - only these students can take these. For prerequisite overrides based on transfer coursework or test scores, use the override request form. For other math issues and overrides, email [email protected].

Microbiology

Contact Linda Bruslind at [email protected].

Other OSU departments

Call 541-737-0123 or review the OSU college and department contacts.

If you cannot get into a course that has an online waiting list you must register for the waiting list during Phase II of registration. If the course is baccalaureate core and has no online waiting list, you should pick another course. If the course is a math or science course you need for graduation, you should contact the department offering the course to discuss options. The location of departments can be found in the OSU schedule of classes course descriptions; by searching for and viewing the department web page on the OSU website; or by calling Campus Information at 541-737-0123 and asking for them. Some other common departments are listed in the registration issues and overrides.

Registration holds are placed on accounts when students owe money or have not complied with OSU requests. All holds are displayed on the top section of your “MyDegrees” checklist. You should already have an email in your OSU account for any holds placed, but you can also email the address listed with the holds in the MyDegrees header to get more information. Your major advisor cannot place or lift holds.