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.
  • Immunology has a new number: BIOL F463, and will no longer be stacked with the graduate veterinary medicine class, but it IS still taught by Veterinary Medicine faculty.

Advising Alerts for SPRING 2023

  • Please be aware that this is the last spring BIOL F371 Principles of Ecology will be offered online. To help balance the online course offerings across semesters, the online BIOL 371 course will be offered every fall and not in spring, starting with Fall 2023. The in-person version of the course will continue to be offered in fall.
  • Looking for a Biological Sciences research capstone course in spring 2022?  BIOL F440 Behavioral Neuroscience Research Capstone is the only research capstone course offered this spring. It is taught asynchronously online.
  • If you are pursuing a B.A. in biology, you can satisfy the capstone by taking BIOL F410 Integrative Capstone in Biological Sciences this spring and apply it as one of your required biology electives. You will need a petition to take advantage of this opportunity; your advisor or the BIOL F410 instructor can help with this.
  • BIOL F360 Cell and Molecular Biology is not being offered this spring. Instead, students are welcome to replace it with CHEM F470 Cellular and Molecular Neuroscience (3 credits). CHEM F470 will be taught in spring MWF 11:45-12:45 in 203 REIC by Dr. Maegan Weltzin. It has a number of prerequisites that differ from BIOL 360, but Dr. Weltzin says the prerequisites for BIOL 360 will be fine to succeed in CHEM F470. You will likely need a prerequisite override to register for the class; please contact Amy Wald (alwald@alaska.edu) for an override. Alternatively, we plan to offer BIOL F360 as usual in fall 2023 (asynchronous online) and spring 2024 (in person) next year.
  • Note that CHEM F351 General Biochemistry: Metabolism is now CHEM F449, with the same name and general content.

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