Achieving your academic goals not only depends on your success on individual courses but also on effective planning to guarantee the correct curricular sequence in accordance to the prerequisites of each course. This will allow you to set milestones for your career and keep a tab on your progress. To facilitate this process we include important information that you should consult every semester before you do your course selection for the semester that follows. This will vary depending upon the year that you are in.
First Year Students
These are the steps that you should follow:
Educate yourself about both areas of our curriculum: Integrative Biology and Cellular-Molecular Biology. If you have been admitted to Biology, you must declare your preferred area of emphasize no later than your third semester. Changes are easier during the first 1.5 years of your studies, before you start taking the courses required by each area.
Click on the suggested course sequence button (also on the right side menu of this page) for a suggested order in which to take the courses based on their prerequisites and your placement in the Advanced Placement tests (AP), consult the Biology courses for a list of all the courses that we offer in Biology with corresponding prerequisites and co-requisites, and consult the Current Course Offerings (also on the right side menu of this page) a list of those courses that will be offered specifically in the upcoming semester.
Take control of your curricular planning by following the steps described above and filling-in the Course checklist form and adding up all the credits that you have passed. This will allow you to understand your status regarding the required course work, i.e., credits, that you need to complete to graduate in a timely fashion.
Sign-up for the academic evaluation by consulting the postings right outside the Department of Biology in our main NCN building.
If you have doubts, consult the FAQ section.
Second, Third, and Fourth Year Students
Follow the same steps suggested for first year students (above), but make sure that when you set up your appointment for academic evaluation at the Department of Biology, you follow the instructions that are specific for your year of classification.
Other Students (Con-validation, Substitutions)
Los/las estudiantes de unidades del sistema UPR e instituciones privadas locales, instituciones universitarias en EU y/o internacionales que quieren que quieran que sus cursos sean convalidados o sustituidos deben seguir los siguientes pasos
Solicitar una cita con la Decana (o) Auxiliar de Asuntos Estudiantiles de la facultad a donde fueron admitidos.
Los estudiantes admitidos en la Facultad de Ciencias Naturales tienen que entregar la información de los cursos que quieren que sean convalidados o sustituidos en el Decanato de Asuntos Estudiantiles. Esta unidad enviará los expedientes a las unidades correspondientes de la Facultad (Biología, Matemática, Física, Química, etc.).
Una vez en las unidades correspondientes, el/la director/directora o ayudante académico revisará los expedientes. Si existe un precedente de evaluación del curso el estudiante no tiene que presentar un prontuario. Si no hay precedente del curso o el curso ha cambiado se le notificará al estudiante para que provee el prontuario. Este prontuario será evaluado por un profesor/profesora de la unidad correspondiente. En todos los casos también se evaluará la calificación que haya obtenido el estudiante en el curso evaluado (calificación mínima C).