Student Resources

Undergraduate Advising

Your academic advisor will guide you through your program of study, helping you to identify the courses required for you to meet your degree goals.

Advising Coordinator - Amy Wald is the Advising Coordinator for CNSM, including the Biology and Wildlife Department. You can find her M,T, and F in 352 Reichardt and W,R in 101A Murie Bldg. Amy typically advises all incoming freshman and transfer students interested in biology and wildlife. She assists students with transferring credits, petitioning for course credit, math and English placement exams, as well as short- and long-term degree planning. Use this online scheduling link to make a video or phone appointment or send her an email at alwald@alaska.edu.

Faculty Advisors - Most majors will be shifted to a faculty advisor in their sophomore or junior year. Faculty advisors play a key role in your career development - whether it's writing letters of recommendation for graduate school or employment or assisting you with finding exciting research opportunities on campus. Getting to know your faculty advisor is important. Prior to the start of every semester, you must contact your advisor to register for classes, but feel free to contact him/her throughout the semester as well. Let your advisor know if you need additional assistance with classes, or advice on dropping, adding, or changing courses.

Advising Alerts

General

  • Biological Sciences BS majors should declare a concentration by the end of their second semester. To declare or change a concentration, students simply send an email to the Registrar (uaf-registrar@alaska.edu) on their official alaska.edu account, including their UA ID#.  Until that is completed, use the "What-If" function of DegreeWorks to figure out course requirements under a particular concentration.
  • Be aware that students can double count courses for capstone and biology elective credit. E.g. BIOL F440 Behavioral Neuroscience Research Capstone contains a capstone project and also provides List B (physiology) or List E (biomedical) elective credit (the student can choose).
  • Courses that were not formally listed in the catalog during a student's catalog year will not automatically count as viable elective courses (e.g. List A, List C) within DegreeWorks. This includes courses that were established subsequent to the student's catalog year, special topics courses (BIOL/WLF X93), and trial courses (BIOL/WLF X94). The advisor and student must petition to have these courses count toward the degree requirements. 
  • If you wish to set up an individual study course, see Resources in the main menu for tips.
  • The Biological Sciences B.A. program has changed! Under the 2022-23 catalog year, there is a new capstone course required that is more integrative and interdisciplinary (BIOL 410 Integrative Capstone in Biological Sciences). Current B.A. students who wish to take advantage of this new capstone may take the course and petition to have it count as capstone and as a biology elective, or change their catalog year by emailing the registrar at uaf-registrar@alaska.edu.
  • The capstone course for the Biological Sciences B.S. program is still BIOL 400 plus a research project, but the name of BIOL 400 has changed to distinguish it from the BA capstone; it's now called Research Capstone in Biological Sciences.
  • Starting in fall 2023, both the asynchronous online and the in person versions of BIOL 371 Principles of Ecology will be offered in the fall only. This change was necessary to help balance the online course offerings across semesters.

Advising Alerts for Spring 2024

  • Note - Online CHEM 321 Organic Chemistry I is being taught in spring starting 2023-24. Online CHEM 325 Organic Chem II will follow the next fall. (The in-person versions of these classes will not change: CHEM 321 will be in fall and CHEM 325 in spring.)
  • Research Capstone - Looking for a Biological Sciences research capstone course in Fall 2023?  BIOL 494 Capstone in Boreal Forest Ecology Using Online Data is a new online asynchronous capstone in which students will do research projects that can be applied to the capstone research requirement. For questions about that course, contact the instructor Jay Jones (jay.jones@alaska.edu). Behavioral Neuroscience Research Capstone BIOL 440 will also be taught this spring, by Abel Bult-Ito (abultito@alaska.edu). Students who wish to do an in-person capstone course can take  Ecosystem Ecology BIOL 476 which has an optional capstone project (instructor Tamara Harms tkharms@alaska.edu). 
  • Integrative Capstone - Students in the B.A. program can take BIOL 410 Integrative Capstone in Biological Sciences, taught by Mary Beth Leigh (mbleigh@alaska.edu) this spring. Students under a catalog year prior to 2022-23 should take BIOL 410. Students under older catalog years can do a research capstone, or petition the BIOL 410 integrative capstone, or change their catalog year to 2022-23 or later.
  • For online Biological Sciences students looking for biology upper division courses, there are several options:
    • Asynchronous options:
      BIOL 331 Systematic Botany

      BIOL 342 Microbiology
      BIOL 440 Behavioral Neuroscience Research Capstone
      BIOL 494 Capstone in Boreal Ecology Using Online Data

    • Zoom options:
      BIOL 335 Epidemiology
      BIOL 460 Principles of Virology
      BIOL 481 Principles of Evolution

To view a list of courses offered asynchronously online, click here.