Undergraduate Orientation

To be classified as full-time at UTD, students must take at least 12 credit hours (generally four classes) per semester. If you are not aiming for full-time status, you should take at least one class to remain active in your program. The maximum number of credit hours you can take in a semester is 19, but the average recommended course load is 15.

Although we offer several online course sections each semester, JSOM students are limited to taking six online business courses total during their time at UTD.

New freshmen can request a change of major through their Orion portals following Census Day. For students remaining in JSOM, your major change will have no impact on your first semester registration. For students wishing to change to a major outside of JSOM, we recommend contacting that school’s advising department directly for assistance.

If you are not currently a JSOM major, you can find our Undergraduate Change of Major policy here.

Incoming students can add a minor through their Orion student portal following Census Day. Students wishing to add a double major will need to meet with an advisor sometime after Census Day to have the second major added and receive an updated degree plan.

You can find the JSOM Double Major policy here.

Yes. Students can defer admission one time for up to one full semester. You can request a deferment by submitting the Deferment of Admission web form, located in your Galaxy portal under the Admission Forms folder. Deferment forms must be submitted prior to Census Day, and cannot be processed if you are enrolled in any courses at UTD.

Please note: Students who are admitted as freshmen are not able to take courses elsewhere during their deferment, as this will change your status to a transfer student. If you want to take courses elsewhere for a semester first, please decline your admission at this time and reapply as a transfer student at a later date.

After you submit your official AP scores to the university, you will be able to claim them through your Orion student portal. Please note that you will need to be enrolled in at least one course at UTD in order to apply AP/IB scores. An advisor can help you through this process at orientation.

To have dual credit applied to your degree plan, please submit an official copy of your transcript from the college that issued the credit. (Please note that a high school transcript listing the dual credit is not sufficient on its own for transferring the credit to UTD.) At orientation, an advisor can help you mark up your degree plan to show where these courses will be applied. Additionally, you can look up your classes on transfercredit.utdallas.edu.

Most AP and Dual Credit courses can be applied directly to your degree as general core requirements. JSOM degrees also require MATH 1325, ECON 2301 and ECON 2302, which can be completed through dual credit or the Calculus and Macro/Microeconomics AP exams.

Common dual credit courses that are not required for a JSOM degree are Statistics and Foreign Languages. Common AP exams that give credit that is not required as part of a JSOM degree include Statistics, Foreign Languages, Human Geography, Computer Science, and Research.

You can find a full list of AP Exam equivalencies and the scores needed to qualify for them here.

Yes! While you are not able to take classes at UTD until your admitted semester, you are welcome to take core or prerequisite courses at a community college over the summer and then transfer them in.

No, your GPA will only be calculated from classes taken at UTD.

No. You will need to submit an official transcript showing your final grade in the prerequisite course before you can register for the next one.

The Texas Success Initiative is a state mandate requiring students to demonstrate reading, writing, and math readiness before registering for college courses. Students can receive full or partial exemptions with the following test scores:

• SAT: EBRW score of 480 or higher / Math score of 530 or higher
• ACT: Combined score of 40 on English & Reading / A score of 22 on Math

Students who had dual college credit may also be eligible for TSI exceptions. Please note that there is a limited number of courses a student can register for without being TSI clear, so we recommend completing this test before orientation.

You can find more information on the Office of Undergraduate Education webpage.

Not at all! You can submit official test scores to UT Dallas through College Board or ACT, and they will be applied to your student account. Please allow up to two weeks for the processing of official documents.

The ALEKS Assessment is a placement exam required for students to be able to enroll in any college-level math course. All JSOM students are required to take MATH 1325: Applied Calculus, so students who already have credit for the prerequisite courses of College Algebra or Pre-Calculus can be exempt from ALEKS.

If you already received credit for Applied Calculus, you won’t need any further math placement. Unlike TSI, SAT and ACT scores cannot be used as ALEKS exemptions.

You can find more details on the Office of Undergraduate Education webpage.

Note: ALEKS is not a registration hold and does not impact your ability to register for non-math courses.

To enter directly into MATH 1325, students need a score of 70 or above. To enter the prerequisite class of College Algebra, students need at least a score of 50.

That is entirely up to you. Students will register for their first semester courses at orientation, so if you do not have an AP score or ALEKS score at that time, you will not be able to register for a math class.

Because of this, some students choose to take ALEKS to ensure they can register for a math class, and then drop it later if their AP score gives them credit for the course.

You can email the Office of Financial Aid at financial-aid@utdallas.edu, or stop by their office located on the first floor of the Student Services Building.

We do not offer any JSOM-specific scholarships to incoming students. However, we have several scholarships available each fall for continuing students, which you can apply for next year.

You can find more information on the JSOM Scholarships webpage.

Tuition is based on several factors including the number of credit hours, in-state vs. out-of-state residency, and financial aid received. Official tuition statements are available in mid-July after a student is registered for classes.

In the meantime, you can request a tuition estimate through your Orion student portal by following the directions here.

You can find the payment and refund calendar on page two of the Academic Calendar for your admitted term.

For questions about payment options, please visit the Bursar Office webpage, or email bursar@utdallas.edu.

When looking at your student account, you may see you have some holds. Don’t worry; these are easy to remove once you understand what they are for. Some common holds you will see are:

• Student Affairs Enrollment Hold: This hold will be removed when you check in for your orientation session.
• Academic Advising Hold: This hold will be removed when you attend the course registration session of orientation. Students are not required to meet with an advisor separately prior to orientation.
• Meningitis Vaccine Hold: Students under the age of 22 must submit proof of vaccination against bacterial meningitis, or an Affidavit for Exemption, no later than ten days before the start of the semester. Students will be able to register for courses with this hold in place; however, if proof of vaccination or exemption is still missing by the deadline, they will be dropped from all classes. The University is not able to make any exceptions or extend deadlines for this policy, so be sure to complete it ASAP! You can find more information on the Office of the Registrar webpage.
• TSI Hold: This will be removed once the TSI office has received your TSI scores, or reviewed your exemption documentation.

All incoming students will register for their first semester courses during Transfer Orientation. If you are attending a virtual orientation, you will register for courses on your virtual orientation date after your holds have been removed.

No. All JSOM students are required to attend orientation in order to have their holds removed and register for courses.

JSOM Advisors will be available at orientation to assist students with the registration process and answer any questions you may have about your degree plan. Please note that your Academic Advising hold is removed at orientation, and it is not necessary to meet with an advisor before then.

If you still need assistance following your orientation session, the Office of Recruiting and Onboarding handles all first semester advising and would be happy to meet with you. You can contact them at jsomug@utdallas.edu.

If attending virtual orientation, we ask that you review all information on this webpage and complete the JSOM orientation quiz, and then email us to set up an appointment if you still need assistance.

Yes, you can! Many students choose to complete their core through a community college while simultaneously being enrolled at UTD. Just keep in mind that you can only use financial aid at one school at a time and can only be enrolled full-time at one school.

No. You will need to submit an official transcript showing your final grade in the prerequisite course before you can register for the next one.

No. If a class is full, the only option to join it is through the waitlist.

When looking at your student account, you may see you have some holds. Don’t worry; these are easy to remove once you understand what they are for. The most common holds you will see are:

• Student Affairs Enrollment Hold: This hold will be removed when you check in for your orientation session.
• Academic Advising Hold: This hold will be removed when you attend the course registration session of in-person orientation, or complete the JSOM Orientation quiz for virtual orientation. Students are not required to meet with an advisor separately prior to orientation.
• Registrar Meningitis Hold: All Texas college students under 22 must receive a vaccination or booster against bacterial meningitis no later than ten days before the start of the semester. More info is available on the Registrar Webpage.
• TSI Hold: All Texas students are required to demonstrate college readiness prior to enrolling in classes. If you believe you have a TSI hold in error, or were marked TSI complete at your previous school, you can email tsi@utdallas.edu. If you still need to take the TSI exam, you can find more information on the Office of Undergraduate Education Webpage.

As part of orientation, you will receive a personalized degree plan that shows which courses transferred, how they contribute to your degree at JSOM, and which courses advising recommends you take next.

Your degree plan will be uploaded to eLearning under Organizations > JSOM New Transfer > My Grades. Please note that degree plans are not created until after you have registered for orientation.

There are several reasons why a course may not transfer to UTD. If a course does not transfer at all, it is most likely classified as a technical course or is specific to your previous school. Additionally, any coursework with a grade below a C cannot be transferred in.

If a transferred course appears as elective credit, it means UTD accepts the credit, but it is not one of your degree requirements. Please note that required courses from your previous school may not always be required at JSOM, and vice versa. If you have questions about specific classes not transferring, you can email jsomug@utdallas.edu.

Students can petition for credit through the TCEP (Transfer Credit Earned Prior to Attending UTD) form through JSOM academic advising. When petitioning for credit, you should include as much information as possible to show the content of your previous course compared to the UTD course. This includes a syllabus from the semester the course was taken and a list of any prerequisite courses. After attending orientation, you can email JSOMUGAdvising@utdallas.edu to begin the petition process. (Please note: Advising only submits the petition on your behalf; the final decision on whether a course will count for direct credit comes from the Office of the Registrar.)

Degree plans are based on the most recent official transcript UTD has on file for you. Any courses you are currently enrolled in outside of UTD or completed since submitting your last transcript will not be reflected. Official degree plans will be updated prior to next semester’s registration, but in the meantime, you should download a copy of your plan and add your missing courses to keep track.

If you are changing to another major within JSOM, this is a quick and easy process that can be done through your Orion portal. If you want to switch to a different school within UT Dallas, we recommend contacting their advising office to ask about their requirements.

Every student’s path is unique, and the time it takes to complete a degree can vary. Because of this, it’s not as simple as saying a sophomore has three years left, a junior has two, and so on. Student classification is based on the number of credit hours already completed, and your graduation date depends on how many hours you have left to complete. This is impacted by several factors, including how many of your previous courses count directly towards your JSOM degree, and how many courses you plan to take each semester. To get an idea of how many semesters you have left to complete, you can count the remaining classes on your degree plan and divide it by the number of classes you plan to take each semester.

To be classified as full-time at UTD, students must take 12 credit hours (generally four classes) a semester. If you are not aiming for full-time status, you should take at least one class to remain active in your program. The maximum number of credit hours you can take in a semester is 19, but the average course load is 15.

Although we offer several online course sections each semester, JSOM students are limited to taking six online business courses total during their time at UTD.

You can email the Office of Financial Aid at financial-aid@utdallas.edu, or stop by their office located on the first floor of the Student Services Building.

We do not offer any JSOM specific scholarships to incoming students. However, we have several scholarships available each fall for continuing students, which you can apply for next year. You can find more information at JSOM Scholarships Webpage.

For questions about payment options, please visit the Bursar Office Webpage, or email bursar@utdallas.edu.