Newly Admitted Students

Welcome!

Now that you’ve sent back your signed admission letter and signed up for your VandalCard and VandalWeb email, here are the steps to get started with planning your degree program.

*If you are a new user, visit Vandal Setup to activate your account. If you need help or have questions about logging in, contact the OIT Help Desk.

First Steps

TRANSFERRING CREDITS

SELECTING CLASSES AND REGISTRATION

STUDY PLAN

Transferring Credits

The University of Idaho allows up to 12 credits of upper division (400 or 500 level work) to be transferred into a Masters’ program or 30 credits into a Doctorate program. These could be from either a) classes you took elsewhere or b) classes you took at U of I as a non-degree seeking student. These credits must each fulfill a required category (e.g. “Ecology and Management” or “Electives” in the MNR). They ALSO must not have been used previously towards meeting any prior degree requirements (except in the case of transferring up to 30 credits from a Masters into a Doctorate).

Selecting Classes and Registration

1. Check the Course Schedule for courses each semester. Make sure to only look for online courses if you are a distance student. Once you find a course, write down the Course Registration Number (CRN).
2. Visit VandalWeb to register.
3. Login to VandalWeb using your U of I username and password.
4. Registration deadlines can be found here.
5. VandalWeb will not allow registration actions beyond the noted deadlines.
   You can also follow these steps.

Common Question

Q: When I try and register it says Instructor Permission Required, what do I do? OR I am told an undergraduate course has prerequisite courses, but I haven’t completed an undergraduate degree at the UI, what do I do? OR The course is full but I really want in, what do I do?

A: In each case, you need to email the course instructor. Tell them you are a graduate student. In most cases, they will do a simple registration override to allow you to then register for the course. For more FAQs see our online resource.

Study Plan

The Study Plan tool is designed to help you draft your curriculum outlook. The tool is useful for sharing your planned courses with your advisor so that they can review them. It is recommended that you have your advisor review your study plan before the end of your second semester.

Degree audit, on the other hand, is an automated system- it automatically populates with the courses you have already taken, and places them in the appropriate bins. The degree audit will indicate which requirements you have yet to fulfill prior to graduation. You can see a forecast of the degree audit as an option on the study plan page- this is a helpful visualization tool, but won’t automatically account for any course substitutions you plan to make (e.g. if you take courses outside of the list in the curriculum descriptions).

Rapid Resources

MNR Getting Started Guide (PDF)
Natural Resources Online Prospectus (PDF)
College of Natural Resources Graduate Handbook (PDF)