Q&A (English Version)
The following questions & answers are mainly for China Partner Students
1. How do I Contact my Academic Advisor？
Clear-Admit Undergraduate Student
Step 1: Register for International Rams Orientation
Step 2: Complete Pre-Online Orientation: otp.colostate.edu/online
Step 3: After you finish all the modules in the Pre-Online Orientation, your academic advisor’s contact information will be shown at the very end.
Step 4: If you are high school program students, you can contact your academic advisor to register for classes after you finish the first three steps. If you are 2+X Program students, you need to wait until your credit transfer is completed, because your academic advisor needs to see how the credits are transferred into CSU and then advise you to register classes accordingly.
Step 5: Please contact your academic advisor through email as soon as possible. It’s better to finish class registration by the middle of July. Domestic freshmen register for classes in July. If you register too late, the majority of classes might be full. Please use your CSU email to communicate and check your CSU email address every day. If you use your personal email address, emails coming from CSU may be sent to junk email, which might make you miss some important information.
Note: All the academic advisors are busy with domestic students’ orientation and class registration from late June till early August. If you don’t hear back from your academic advisor in 3-5 business days, please follow up with them based on the previous email you send to him/her after 5 business days.
Conditional-Admit Undergraduate Student
Please try to get the required English proficiency score, such as Gaokao, TOEFL or IELTS, before semester starts to get clear admission. Once you change your status to clear admission, please follow the above steps to contact your academic advisor and finish class registration.
If you keep in the conditional admission status before semester starts, please attend the CSU INTO Orientation. During the INTO orientation, you will be required to take a language placement test. Based on the test result, you will be placed into a certain level. You don’t need to worry about class registration before the on campus placement test.
2. When I contact my academic advisor, what should I ask? How do I have effective communication with him/her?
| Email Sample for High School Program Clear-Admitted UG Students | Hello Mr./Ms. XXX, My name is XXX, major in XX. My CSUID is XXXXXXXXX. I have registered International Rams Orientation and completed the Pre-Online Orientation. I am emailing you to get your advice on course registration for my first semester as well as advising code for me to register classes. What placement test(s) should I complete? I am an international student from China. I would appreciate it if you could help me understand my major requirements and what I need to do to register my classes. Look forward to your reply. Thank you. Your Name |
| Email Sample for 2+X Program Clear-Admitted UG Students with Specific Majors | Hello Mr./Mrs. XXX, My name is XXX majoring in XX. My CSUID is XXX. I have registered International Rams Orientation and completed the Pre-online Orientation. I got the email from the Registrar's Office that my initial transfer evaluation has been completed. I am emailing you to get your advice on course registration for my first semester as well as the advising code for me to register classes. What placement test(s) should I complete? I am a China partner student. I would appreciate it if you could also help me understand my major requirements. Look forward to your reply. Thank you! XXX |
| Email Sample for 2+X Program Clear-Admitted UG Students with Undeclared Majors | Hello Mr./Mrs. XXX, My name is XXX and CSUID is XXX. I have registered International Rams Orientation and completed the Pre-online Orientation. I got the email from Registrar's Office that my initial transfer evaluation has been completed. I am still in undeclared XX Interest major. What requirement(s) have I not met to directly enter the major? I would like to get your advice on course registration for my first semester as well as the advising code for me to register classes. What placement(s) should I complete? I am a China partner student. I would appreciate it if you could also help me understand my major requirements. Look forward to your reply. Thank you! XXX |
| Sample Questions for all the Partner Students when you meet with your academic advisors | After semester starts, we highly recommend you to meet with your academic advisor in the first or second week. One-on-one meeting will help you know more about your major, course arrangements, academic resources on campus. It will also be helpful for your academic advisor to know about your plan, ideas and questions and help you solve those. |
3. When should I start to register classes?
Most domestic freshmen will finish class registration from late June till end of July or early August. Since seats are limited in each class, please contact your academic advisor to complete the class registration as soon as possible.
| High School Program Clear-Admitted UG Students | After you get admitted, complete all the steps in Question 1 and contact your academic advisor to register classes. Please finish the class registration by the middle of July. |
| 2+X Program Clear-Admitted UG Students | After you get admitted, complete all the steps in Question 1, wait for your credit transfer email, contact your academic advisor to register classes. Please finish the class registration by the middle of July. |
| Conditional-Admitted Students | Attend the INTO Orientation in the week before the semester starts. Do the INTO Placement test and then INTO advisor will help you register the academic English classes according to your placement test result. |
4. I emailed my academic advisor, but I haven’t gotten a reply from him/her. What should I do?
Please check your CSU email address every day and use your CSU email to send/receive CSU related emails. If you use your personal email address, it is possible that your email will go to people’s junk email or emails coming from CSU will go to your junk email. That will cause you miss some important information.
Advisors in all the departments will be busy with domestic students’ orientation and class registration from late June to the end of July or early August. Please allow 3-5 business days for them to respond to your email. If you still don’t hear back from them in 5 business days, please follow up with them based on the previous email you sent to them.
5. I am an Undeclared Major. What is an Undeclared Major? How do I enter a specific major?
Undeclared Major means your application meets the admission requirements into Colorado State University; however, it doesn’t meet the requirements for the major you entered. Especially if the major is a competitive major at CSU, students will be admitted into Undeclared Exploring/XXX Interest Major. You can check out what are competitive major(s) and what are the requirements to enter a specific major.
For 2+X program students, most of you have a specific major and have taken 2-year courses at your home institution. If you think you have met the requirements to enter the major, please consult your academic advisor.
6. I am a conditional admit. What is a conditional admit? How can I become a clear admit and start registering courses related to my major at CSU?
Conditional Admit means your English proficiency (TOEFL or IELTS) has not met the admission requirements. You need to study the Academic English program at CSU INTO to improve your English proficiency skills. After you pass the language courses, you will be a clear admit and start registering courses related to your major at CSU. You can learn more about the INTO Academic English Program, including program introduction, timeline, tuition and fees, and more.
7. How do I calculate my tuition and fees? What’s the deadline to pay tuition and fees? How do I make payment?
If you are a conditional admit, please refer to the link in Question 6 to find the tuition for INTO Academic English program.
If you are a clear admit, please find the out-of-state tuition and fees. The tuition is based on how many credits you register. For international students, you are required to register at least 12 credits in the fall and spring semester. Your academic advisor usually will advise you to register 12-18 credits per semester based on your situation. According to the table in the above link, if out-of-state students register 12-20 credits, the tuition stays the same. For China partner students, they can get 1/3 off the tuition column. Besides the tuition, both in-state students and out-of-state students pay the same amount for the fees.
Tuition Deadlines
Fall Semester: September 10
Spring Semester: February 10
Note: If you are going to stay in the on-campus apartments, the due date of the apartment rental fee is usually on the 10th of the current month. For example, in the fall semester, you are going to move in on 8/15. The billing statement of your rental fee from 8/15-8/31 will be emailed to your CSU email address in July and the deadline to pay that bill will be 8/10.
How do I pay tuition and fees?
We suggest you apply for a debit card after you arrive in the United States. You can let your parents wire your tuition, fees, and living expenses to this debit card before the deadline. Then, you can log into your RamWeb, under the billing and pay all the tuition and fees. When you apply for the debit card, the bank will provide you an account number and a routing number. You can pay through RamWeb with both numbers and your personal information.
If you have trouble paying through RamWeb, you can bring your debit card and CSU ID card to the Cashier’s Office at Colorado State University. The address is 555 S Howes Street on the first floor (it’s about 10-min walk from Laurel Hall) and their office hours are 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., Monday through Friday.
8. How do I get health insurance for international students?
Every international student is required to have health insurance. Every semester, CSU will automatically add the Student Health Insurance Plan (SHIP) onto your billing statement. You can find more detailed information and fees of this insurance here. We highly recommend you purchase the health insurance from CSU, because most of the cost students get charged at CSU Health Center will be covered by this insurance and it can be tracked within the CSU Health Center system. If you have any questions related to this insurance, CSU has designated staff at the Health Center to help answer your questions.
If you don’t want to purchase this insurance (SHIP), you need to purchase another insurance that meets all the requirements and submit the waive application before the add/drop class deadline. Students in the INTO program need to submit the waive application before the first day of class. More information and contact information can be found here.
The following questions and answers are for 2+X Program Students
1. Can I change my major?
Since 2+X program is a dual degree program, the major you choose at CSU needs to be the same or very similar with the major at your home institution and also needs to be approved by your department at home institution. After you fulfill the graduation requirements from both CSU and your home institution, you will get degrees from both institutions. If you change your major at CSU, even if you fulfill the graduation requirements at CSU, it is possible that you won’t be able to get the degree from your home institution in China. If you plan to change your major, please get approval from your home institution before you do so.
2. Can I graduate in two years?
How long it will take students to graduate from CSU depends on following factors:
Admission Status
- If you are conditional admit, it requires you to complete the academic English program to meet the English proficiency requirement before you start classes at CSU. It usually takes more than two years for you to graduate.
- If you are in an undeclared major, you need to complete some prerequisite and basic classes to meet the requirements to enter the major. It usually takes more than two years for you to graduate.
Program of Study
- If you plan to do double majors or add a minor, it usually takes more than two years for you to graduate.
- Undergraduate students usually register 15 credits or more per semester. If you register less than 15 credits per semester and you don’t take classes during the summer, it usually takes more than two years for you to graduate.
Major Requirements
Some majors require more credits for students to graduate than other majors and have a very specific program of study students needs to follow, such as engineering majors. You need to contact your academic advisor to learn about the major requirements and your course arrangements for each semester so you will have an idea of how many semesters you need to graduate.
3. How do I check my credit transfer result?
After you are admitted to CSU, the Registrar’s Office will review the course descriptions provided by your home institution. Once the initial evaluation is completed, you will get emails from ro_international_evaluation@mail.colostate.edu about your credit transfer result. Please read carefully those emails and attachments and follow the steps in the email to log into your RamWeb to check your credit transfer information.
4. If I have questions about credit transfers, who should I contact?
If you have questions about credit transfer before the new semester starts, please contact Ying Cheng (ying.cheng@colostate.edu) to see if your home institution shared your course descriptions with her. If Ying has those, she will contact the CSU Registrar’s Office. They will request departments to re-evaluate the course descriptions. If Ying doesn’t have your course descriptions, she will contact your home institution to provide them.
If you have questions about credit transfer after the semester starts and the courses are within your major department, please contact your academic advisor directly to ask who is the right person in the department to re-evaluate the courses. If they need course description, you can contact Ying Cheng to share it with you. If the course is in other departments, please contact Ying Cheng directly. She will reach out to your home institution or Registrar’s Office and certain departments to request a re-evaluation.
If you have any questions or concerns related to above questions, please contact Ying Cheng.