Graduation
Special Requirements of the College
All students must fulfill the general requirements for graduation. Students in the College of Natural Sciences must also fulfill the following requirements.
- The University requires that the student complete in residence at least sixty semester hours of the coursework counted toward the degree. For the Bachelor of Arts, Plan I, these sixty hours must include at least eighteen hours in the major. For all other degrees offered by the College of Natural Sciences, thirty of these sixty hours must be taken in the College of Natural Sciences or the College of Liberal Arts.
- All University students must complete in residence at least twenty-four of the last thirty semester hours counted toward the degree. For students seeking the Bachelor of Science in Medical Laboratory Science, this rule applies to the academic work completed at the University.
- The University requires that at least six semester hours of advanced coursework in the major be completed in residence. Additional hours in the professional or major sequence in many cases are required by individual natural sciences degree programs.
- A candidate for a degree must be registered in the College of Natural Sciences either in residence or in absentia the semester or summer session the degree is to be awarded. Graduation applications must be submitted no later than the date given in the academic calendar. The application and supplemental in absentia instructions are available via the college’s academics Web page, http://cns.utexas.edu/academics/.
Applying for Graduation
An electronic degree audit is created for each student each semester. The student should view the audit through IDA, the University’s Interactive Degree Audit system. The degree audit tells the student the courses he or she must take and the requirements he or she must fulfill to receive the degree. The degree audit normally provides an accurate statement of requirements, but the student is responsible for knowing the requirements for the degree as stated in a catalog under which he or she is eligible to graduate and for registering so as to fulfill all these requirements. The student should speak with his or her assigned academic adviser before registering if in doubt about any requirement.
In the semester or summer session in which the degree is to be conferred, the candidate must be registered at the University and must file an online graduation application form via the academics section of the college’s Web site, http://cns.utexas.edu/academics/. This should be done during the first week of classes, if possible, but in no event later than the deadline to apply for an undergraduate degree; this date is given in the official academic calendar. No degree will be conferred unless the graduation application form has been filed on time.