Special Programs

Please click on the following links to learn more about:

Undergraduate Experiences

Associate Vice Chancellor for Student Success: Margaret C. Wood, PhD
Phone: 303-315-2133
Email: margaret.c.wood@ucdenver.edu
Website: ucdenver.edu/ue

The Office of Undergraduate Experiences (UE) strives to enhance student learning by providing access to high quality and innovative programs for all CU Denver undergraduate students, regardless of school or college. Our office is committed to the education of the whole student through the integration of general education, major, co-curriculum, and community. As such, we support programs that enhance student learning, promote academic excellence, and link student and academic affairs units. Our major programs and initiatives include: High Impact Practices (especially First-Year Experiences, Learning Communities, Undergraduate Research and Creative Activities, Internships and Service Learning ), Early Alert, and the Core Curriculum.

High Impact Practices (HIPs)

UE is leading the initiative to more fully integrate HIPs into the undergraduate curriculum. HIPs are specialized practices or programs of engaged teaching and active learning. Ten specific HIPs are recognized nationally: First-Year Seminars, Common Intellectual Experiences, Learning Communities, Writing-Intensive Courses, Collaborative Assignments and Projects, Undergraduate Research, Diversity/Global Learning, Service Learning and Community-Based Learning, Internships, and Capstone Courses and Projects. National research shows that student participation in HIPs increases engagement, retention, and completion, especially in the case of underrepresented groups.

First-Year Experiences (FYE)

FYE Director: Emilie Waggoner
Email: emilie.waggoner@ucdenver.edu
Website: ucdenver.edu/fye

The First-Year Experience (FYE) is a comprehensive approach to ensure that first-year students at CU Denver make a successful transition to college. Our primary goals for FYE participation are active engagement with the CU Denver community, relationships with peers, faculty, and university staff, high levels of academic performance, and strong academic and professional skills. Our First Year Seminar program delivers faculty-designed special topics courses that apply toward Core Curriculum credit in the various knowledge areas. Along with rigorous academic content, first-year students participate in academic skill workshops and campus social events. The new College Success course (UNIV 1111) focuses more exclusively on academic skills, support, and transition to the university. Students receive hands-on support in developing their academic writing, critical thinking, library research, career preparation, professional communication skills, and personal strengths from faculty, staff, and campus resources across the university. 

Why should incoming students participate in a First-Year Experience course?

• higher first semester grades
• student engagement with campus activities
• small class size
• faculty and peer mentoring
• knowledge of campus resources and student support services
• early exploration of career paths and a suitable major
• more likely to stay in college
• Core curriculum credit (for First-Year Seminars)
• active learning pedagogy designed to improve writing and critical thinking skills

Learning Communities ( LC)

LC Coordinator: Christy Heaton
Email: christine.heaton@ucdenver.edu
Website: ucdenver.edu/fye

CU Denver Learning Communities (LCs) create intentional and inclusive communities formed around common themes or purposes where students learn together. These communities strive to cultivate critical inquiry and reflection, holistic student growth, and collaborative connections on campus. At CU Denver, learning communities typically include paired courses, or a single course, integrated by an academic theme, collaborative learning, peer mentoring, and intentional co-curricular activities.

Undergraduate Research and Creative Activities (URCA)

URCA Director: Dr. Lindsey Hamilton
Phone: 303-315-7066
Email: lindsey.hamilton@ucdenver.edu

Undergraduate students can play a significant role in creating new knowledge. Undergraduate research and creative activities foster personalized student learning outside the classroom under the guidance of a faculty mentor. Undergraduate Research Opportunity Program (UROP) grants are designed to cover expenses, travel, and stipends for undergraduates who undertake scholarly research and creative activities in collaboration with a faculty member. Students participating in UROP gain experience presenting project results at the Research and Creative Activities Symposium (RaCAS) each spring. Students often present their findings in a variety of ways: through oral presentations, published articles, artistic projects, musical compositions, theatrical presentations, multimedia displays, models, and posters.

Internships

Director, Experiential Learning Center: Tony Smith
Phone: 303-315-7258
Email: tony.smith@ucdenver.edu
Website: ucdenver.edu/elc

Experiential learning includes a variety of activities with one common goal-to immerse students in hands-on learning outside the classroom where experience is at the heart of the learning process. The Experiential Learning Center, located within the UE division, is committed to working closely with students, faculty, employers, and community partners to provide quality experiential learning opportunities that enhance academic learning, integrate theory and practice, and promote professional development and active citizenship. The ELC offers resources for internships, undergraduate research, and professional development experiences.

Service Learning

Director of Student Life & Campus Community: Tierza Watts
Phone: 303-315-0775
Email: tierza.watts@ucdenver.edu

Students gain a better understanding of community issues, develop practical skills, and make a difference in the world around them when they engage in service activities. From the first-year experience course to senior capstone classes, faculty weave service projects into their courses, giving students a wider view of the world. These service learning experiences vary in length of time, but the impact is always transformational.

Core Curriculum

Core Curriculum Oversight Committee Chair: Antwan Jefferson, Ph.D
Phone: 303-315-2133
Email: ccoc@ucdenver.edu

The general-education Core delivers the knowledge, skills, and dispositions that all students need to be successful in multiple future careers and as informed and engaged citizens of a rapidly changing, diverse, global world. All undergraduates, regardless of major, take courses in each of the nine Core Areas: Composition, Mathematics, Arts, Behavioral Sciences, Biological & Physical Sciences, Humanities, Social Sciences, Cultural Diversity, and International Perspectives. The Core Curriculum is designed to provide each undergraduate student with a high-quality general education based on a liberal arts and sciences foundation, while allowing students flexibility based on their individual backgrounds and specific career goals.

A complete listing of Core courses can be found here .

Early Alert (EA)

EA Contact: Erika Larsen
Phone: 303-315-2133
Email: studentsuccess@ucdenver.edu

CU Denver participates in a campus-wide Early Alert program to identify undergraduate students needing assistance from academic and student service offices. The Early Alert program is designed for faculty to identify students in the 5th-6th week of the semester who need assistance because of academic performance, class participation, and/or behavior issues. Assistance is provided to students identified by faculty through academic advising and through referrals to appropriate CU Denver student service offices.

University Honors and Leadership Program (UHL)

Director: Jennifer Reich, PhD
Program Coordinator: Elisabeth Hawksbee
Office: 1047 Ninth Street Park
Telephone: 303-315-7838
Fax: 303-315-7836
E-mail: UHL@ucdenver.edu

University Honors and Leadership (UHL) is a program of excellence designed for students who have demonstrated superior achievement in academic performance and/or outstanding leadership qualities. UHL is founded on the premise that the integration of rigorous programs of academic excellence and leadership education provides the ideal environment in which to develop the gifts of the next generation of leaders in academia, business, policy-making, and service to communities local, national, and global.

The four-year UHL program is unique in integrating academic honors and leadership education within a highly selective learning community of outstanding students and faculty. The UHL program allows students to complement their major field of study with a traditional honors experience in the academic honors track or with a program of leadership education in the leadership studies track. Students move through the UHL program in cohorts that simultaneously promote community, teamwork, and individual initiative. All UHL courses are multidisciplinary, reflecting the view that the ability to effectively analyze the challenges faced in all sectors of society can be enhanced by the integration of appropriate information drawn from a broad base of perspectives and problem-solving skills. The UHL program complements this philosophy with an emphasis on the development of exceptional oral and written communication skills, projects that steep students in sophisticated research methods, and the opportunity to work in teams to solve practical problems in the community.

The Academic Program

UHL is a multidisciplinary cohort program consisting of 27 semester hours of coursework to be completed over four years. The UHL courses substitute for most of the CU Denver core curriculum requirements.

UHL students have the opportunity to pursue an honors experience through the academic honors track or to focus on leadership education through the leadership studies track. UHL students have a shared first-year experience, taking a core of coursework common to both tracks. The second and third years of the UHL program offer programs designed specifically for the academic honors and leadership studies tracks. UHL students come together for a two-semester capstone research seminar in the fourth year.

Students pursuing the academic honors track have the opportunity to earn a minor in “Multidisciplinary Research Methods.” Those completing the leadership studies track have the opportunity to earn a minor in “Leadership Studies.”

UHL students who successfully satisfy the course and credit-hour requirements and maintain a GPA of 3.50 or higher in their UHL courses will graduate with “University Honors.”

Health Professions Programs on the Denver Campus

College of Liberal Arts and Sciences

Health Careers

Health professions Advising Team

Director/Advisor: Trishia Vasquez
Telephone: 303-315-7541
Advisor: Dr. Gene Brooks
Telephone: 303-315-7538
Undergraduate Pipeline Program Coordinator/Advisor: Ken English
Telephone: 303-315-7542
Program Specialist: Greg White
Telephone: 303-315-7536

Health Career Advisors on the Denver Campus assist in planning a course of study designed to improve a student’s chance of success in a health career of their choice by sharing information about career paths in the health professions, work role and environment, related careers and relevant professional development or graduate school programs. We can provide insight into career options, professional opportunities, and extracurricular opportunities to improve your chances of success in the health career of your choice, including: dentistry and dental hygiene, medicine, medical technology, nursing, optometry, osteopathy, pharmacy, physical therapy, physician assistant, podiatry or veterinary medicine. A comprehensive list of health career options and additional information to help you mold your academic experience to your specific goals is available on the health professions programs website at https://clas.ucdenver.edu/health-professions-programs/.

Undergraduate Pipeline Programs

BA/BS-MD Program

The BA/BS-MD degree program at the University of Colorado Denver and Anschutz Medical Campus aims to promote the diversity of medical professionals practicing medicine in Colorado and to better serve the health care needs of the State of Colorado by assembling up to 10 outstanding students each year from broadly diverse backgrounds. Applicants must be Colorado residents and have an interest in serving the health care needs of Colorado as primary care physicians. This program is a partnership between the University of Colorado Denver College of Liberal Arts and Sciences and the University of Colorado School of Medicine.

Being accepted to the program allows students to earn a reserved spot at the University of Colorado School of Medicine provided he or she meets specific academic, non-academic, and professional requirements annually.

Admission of individuals will be conducted through a holistic review in a manner which treats each applicant fairly, on the basis of experience, attributes, and metrics. For more information, visit https://clas.ucdenver.edu/health-professions-programs/babs-md-program-information or contact Mr. Ken English at kenneth.english@ucdenver.edu.

BA/BS-DDS Program

The BA/BS-DDS degree program at the University of Colorado Denver and CU School of Dental Medicine at Anschutz Medical Campus aims to promote the diversity of dental professionals practicing dentistry in Colorado and to better serve the health care needs of the State of Colorado by assembling and educating up to five students each year from broadly diverse backgrounds. Applicants must be Colorado residents who are interested in serving the health care needs of Colorado as dentists. Acceptance and participation in this program does not guarantee admission to the University of Colorado School of Dental Medicine or any other dental school.

Students who successfully meet all program requirements including a successful interview with the School of Dental Medicine (SDM) Admission Committee, will be eligible for a “reserved” spot in the CU SDM matriculating class.

Admission of individuals will be conducted through a holistic review in a manner which treats each applicant fairly, on the basis of experience, attributes, and metrics.

For more information, visit https://clas.ucdenver.edu/health-professions-programs/babs-dds-program or contact Mr. Ken English at kenneth.english@ucdenver.edu.

College of Engineering, Design and Computing

Contact: Engineering Student Services, 303-315-7510
or
Department of Bioengineering, 303-315-7576
Website: engineering.ucdenver.edu

The desirability of obtaining an engineering education prior to undertaking a study of medicine is increasing continually as medicine itself is evolving. A great deal of new equipment is being developed to assist the medical practitioner in the treatment of patients. Bioengineering, computer science, communication system design and analysis, big data analysis, mechanical engineering and probability are highly applicable to medical problems. Contact the Engineering Student Services Center or a specific department for more information.

Inworks

Inworks Founder: Dr. John Bennett
CU Denver Associate Director: Kate Goodman
CU Anschutz Associate Director: Monika Wittig
Program Manager / Contact: Kelsie Faulds / kelsie.faulds@ucdenver.edu

Address: CU Dravo Building 1250 14th street suite 1300
Phone: 303-315-0047

Inworks draws together faculty, staff and students from across the two campuses, as well as entrepreneurs and leaders from industry, government, education and the community, to address problems of importance to human society. Our mission is to impart skills and habits of mind that allow people to collaboratively create impactful solutions to human problems. Inworks seeks to create innovative solutions to some of the world’s most challenging problems, while in the process creating life-long innovators

Inworks offers a wide range of courses, an undergraduate certificate, a graduate certificate and a minor in Human-Centered Design and Innovation. We also offer broad opportunities for learning: speaker programs, workshops and other programs that bring together people from radically different backgrounds to consider issues of importance to human society. Our modern facilities support collaborative innovation and provide extensive facilities for rapid prototyping. For more information, visit www.inworks.org.

Math Pathways

Offering students the highest quality education is a central goal for CU Denver. The choice of the right type and level of Math is crucial for student success. CU Denver highly recommends that all students take Math in their first or second semester. Students who wait longer find it much harder-with Math, you use it or lose it.

National statistics show that one of the primary reasons that students halt their degree is connected to completing their first college-level Math course with a grade lower than a C. Since we want CU Denver students to finish their degree, and to do so at the lowest cost in time and money, without having to re-take a Math course because of a low grade or withdrawal (D, F or W), we have tools to guide students with initial placement.

All undergraduate students must complete one Core Mathematics course in order to fulfill the university’s graduation requirement.  There are currently four different mathematics pathways which are available for students:  the Quantitative Literacy Pathway, the Business Mathematics Pathway, the STEM Pathway and the Statistics Pathway. Students should consult with their advisor and major graduation requirements to select which math pathway is best for them.  

Quantitative Literacy Pathway: 

MATH 1010-Mathematics for Liberal Arts is the recommended entry-level math course for all degrees within the Arts and the Humanities, including but not limited to majors in Art History, English, Film & Television, History, Modern Languages, Music, Philosophy, and Visual Arts.

To support student success in this course, a co-requisite class, MATH 1011-Mathematics for the Liberal Arts Workshop, is available for students to take alongside MATH 1010.  Students with a High School GPA less than 3.25 and an ACT score less than 19 (equivalent SAT less than 520) are required to register for this 1-credit hour workshop along with their MATH 1010 course. 

Business Mathematics Pathway:

MATH 1060-Finite Mathematics is the recommended entry-level math course for students in different business tracks. 

STEM Pathway: 

MATH 1108 and MATH 1109-Stretch College Algebra; MATH 1110-College Algebra; MATH 1120-College Trigonometry; MATH 1130-Precalculus or MATH 1401-Calculus I are the recommended entry-level math courses for all degrees within the Applied, Natural and Physical Sciences, including but not limited to majors in Architecture, Biology, Chemistry, Engineering, Mathematics and Physics. Many health careers also require these mathematics courses.

Since student success is one of our goals, students will most likely need to complete a math placement assessment from the “ALEKS Placement, Preparation and Learning” program prior to registering, to determine which level the student is best prepared to enter.

ALEKS PPL guides appropriate mathematics placement and registration, in addition to providing students an opportunity to review material and gain confidence in their math skills. Students may take the ALEKS PPL assessment up to five times, and the highest score is the one that will count as a prerequisite for registering for classes. Using ALEKS PPL, the learning modules that are provided in response to assessment results and advising resources, can lead students to success in the first semester of math and save valuable tuition dollars. Students in this pathway should use these tools to help them succeed.

• The assessment typically takes 60-90 minutes with approximately 30 questions.
• Students should complete ALEKS PPL assessment before orientation and/or registration so they are eligible to register for Math before they leave that day.
• It’s important to be honest while taking the placement assessment.

Students must complete the assessment with the score from the chart below for the corresponding course. The only course that is open to all students in this pathway that does not require assessment is MATH 1108 and MATH 1109-Stretch College Algebra

If students already have math college credit from AP/IB/CLEP exam or a concurrent enrollment course, CU Denver will recognize that once we receive official test scores and/or transcripts. This previous coursework (AP/IB/CLEP/concurrent enrollment) may shift your eligibility to enroll in a higher level math course, but ALEKS will still help to give you the most current reflection of your level of preparation and help inform and guide your math selection.

Statistics Pathway: 

MATH 2830-Introductory Statistics, is the recommended entry-level math course for all degrees within the Social, Behavioral, Educational and Integrated Sciences, including but not limited to majors in Anthropology, Communication, Education, Ethnic Studies, Geography and Environmental Sciences, International Studies, Political Science, Psychology, Public Administration, Public Health and Sociology.

To support student success in this course, a co-requisite class, MATH 2831-Introductory Statistics Workshop is available for students to take alongside MATH 2830.  Students with a High School GPA less than 3.25 and an ACT score less than 19 (equivalent SAT less than 520) are required to register for this 1-credit hour workshop along with their MATH 2830 course.

Questions? Contact MATH.Placement@ucdenver.edu or your academic advising unit.

Reserve Officers Training Corps (ROTC)

The Air Force, Navy/Marines, and Army offer college students the opportunity to receive a commission as an officer through the Reserve Officers Training Corps (ROTC) program. These military training programs occur in conjunction with a student’s undergraduate coursework and lead to a commission upon graduation. All ROTC programs offer competitive scholarships, allow for elective academic credit depending on policies of the student’s home school or college, and include a commitment to military active or reserve duty.

The University of Colorado Denver actively supports students desiring to participate in one of the ROTC programs and provides registration access to Army ROTC (sponsored by the Metropolitan State University of Denver) and to Navy/Marines or Air Force ROTC (sponsored by the University of Colorado Boulder).

Interested students should contact the specific ROTC program directly for military training, scholarship information, and registration details.

Air Force ROTC
AFROTC Detachment 105
University of CO Boulder
UCB 371
Boulder, CO 80309-0371
Phone: (303) 492-3128; (303) 492-8352

Navy/Marines ROTC
Naval ROTC
University of CO Boulder
UCB 374
Boulder, CO 80309-0374
Phone: (303) 492-2576

Army ROTC
Dept. of Military Science
633 Curtis Street
Modular Building MO-1
Denver, CO 80217
Phone: (303) 352-7419

Transfer students enrolled in Army, Air Force, or Navy/Marines ROTC programs should consult with their school or college regarding the application of ROTC course credit toward graduation requirements.