Purdue University College of Liberal Arts

Current Students

Selecting Courses for Fall

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Before you arrive to STAR, you may want to spend some time choosing classes for the fall.  Because each student is unique, it is important to choose classes that will meet your individual academic goals.  Purdue University offers more than 6,000 classes.  Narrowing that to find a class that meets your needs will take some planning!

First, choose classes that will get you off to a good start.  Choose courses that will fulfill Core and major requirements.  Usually, students take 15-17 credits per semester.  A typical first-semester freshman schedule will look like this:

  • ENGL 10600 OR COM 11400 (3-4 credits)
  • Mathematics (3 credits)
  • Foreign Language (3 credits)
  • Core Requirement from the Liberal Arts Core Sheet (3 credits)
  • Introductory class for your major or minor (3 credits)

 

With a schedule similar to this, you would complete 15-16 credits in the first semester and fulfill requirements toward graduation.  Because each student is different and each major has its own requirements, it is important to speak with your academic advisor regarding your degree requirements and your interest in other areas of study. 

 

Searching Online for Courses

Here's how to search for information about courses offered at Purdue:

  1. Go to myPurdue and then click on the "Search the Schedule of Classes" link.
  2. Choose a specific academic term (i.e. - Fall 2012) by clicking on the drop down arrow under the "Search by Term" heading, and then click on "Submit."
  3. Click on a "Subject" name that interests you and then "Class Search" at the bottom of the page and a list of courses offered by that department/program for that academic term will appear.
  4. Scroll through the list of courses and click the blue CRN link to the left of the screen then click on "View Catalog Entry" to read more about the course.
  5. Use your browser's "Back" button to select and then view information about other courses.

You can use the "Attribute Type" when doing a class search in MyPurdue to easily find available courses in Liberal Arts Core areas.  First, select all subjects by highlighting the first subject, hold the shift key. and highlight the last subject in the list.  Then, select the Attribute Type and click search.  All of the Liberal Arts Core Attributes begin with "LA". For example, LA Gender Issues will show you all of the courses offered in that area. This is a great way to see what is being offered during that semester and which classes still have space available.



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