Glossary of Common Terms

Your academic advisor is a faculty or staff member who counsels you on academic options throughout your college career. All students are assigned an academic advisor. Upon matriculation, you can find the name of your advisor in GradTracker. Your first advisor is considered your "pre-major" or "undeclared" advisor. After you declare a primary major, you are assigned a faculty advisor from your chosen department or program. While you may have different advisors throughout your time at UR, you will always have someone to answer your questions and help with course selection, academic guidance, and registration!

Area Coordinators (AC) are professional staff members who work with Residence Life to oversee multiple residential spaces. ACs work to create a sense of community, safety, and support on campus. They’re also here to help you and will assist with solving problems if you and your Resident Assistant (RA) are unable to resolve an issue.

BannerWeb is an online tool where students can perform a number of actions including looking up and registering for classes, checking for holds on their student account, adding money to their SpiderCard, and accessing academic tools like GradTracker. Have questions about navigating BannerWeb? Check out the Registrar’s Office guide. 

Also known as the cashier, the bursar’s office is responsible for the invoicing of student tuition. This is where you’ll go to pay your tuition and the office you’ll turn to if you have questions about your account. 

A concentration is a specific focus or subject within a major. Concentrations always pair with a related major subject (e.g. Biology with a concentration in Neuroscience), whereas most minors can match with any major.

Learn more about majors, minors, and concentrations

The course catalog is the collection of all courses offered at the University of Richmond and is available online. Each listing comes with a description of the course, any prerequisites associated with the course, and any general educatoin attributes it may carry. It is important to note that we do not offer every class, every semester, so it is not an effective way to plan your class schedule. The courses we offer each semester are listed in BannerWeb.

CRN is the abbreviation for "course registration number." Since some classes may have multiple sections (different time slots and professors), each section has its own unique five-digit CRN. CRNs can be used to register for classes in BannerWeb.

A First-Year Seminar (or FYS) is a course designed specifically for first-year students. Your FYS will enhance your skills in written and verbal communication, critical analysis, and research. New first-year students are required to take one FYS course in the fall semester. There are a variety of seminar topics offered each year, ranging from jazz and technology to fairy tales and film.

GradTracker is an online portal where you can track your progress towards graduation, review course history, and even simulate different combinations of majors and minors! The registrar offers helpful videos to demonstrate how to navigate GradTracker.

A hold on your student account in Bannerweb will prevent you from class registration and possibly graduation. Holds can result from things like unpaid tuition or incomplete Wellness courses. 

Combining different fields of study or subjects.

The Web of Inquiry engages students in new and relevant modes of inquiry across all four years of their education. Learning areas include:

• Areas of Inquiry: Students select from courses in six areas of inquiry – historical, social, literary and textual, visual and performing arts, natural science, and symbolic reasoning, which form the basis of their liberal arts education.
• Integrated Focus Areas: Students enhance their knowledge of quantitative data literacy, written and embodied communication, and power, equity, identity, and culture.
• Engagements: Students participate in a First-Year Seminar, become proficient in a second language, and are exposed to wellness offerings to help them build a healthy lifestyle.
• Integrative Learning Pilot: Students practice integrative learning through the application of prior knowledge and skills to understand new situations and solve new problems.

A living-learning community is an opportunity for students interested in a specific topic matter to live in the same residence hall and attend a related class together. These programs are application-based but are open to all interested students. The Richmond Endeavor program is for first-year students, while sophomores can participate in the Sophomore Scholars in Residence (SSIR) program.

A major is the primary focus of your chosen course of study, and all students are required to have at least one in order graduate. UR offers over 40 different majors.

Learn more about majors, minors, and concentrations

A minor is an academic field of study secondary to your major. Minors are optional for students but can be added to your course of study if you have varying interests you’d like to pursue. Think of a minor as a “mini-major” — fewer units are required to complete a minor.

Learn more about majors, minors, and concentrations

Your NetID, or network account, is the username you use to log in to UR databases. For help with activating your network accounts (or any other technical problems), contact the IT Help Desk through SpiderTechNet.

Orientation is your welcome to campus and life as a Spider! All activities are designed to help you make a smooth transition to college. First-year orientation, called New Spider Orientation, occurs right before the start of the fall semester.

Your orientation advisors are current students trained to help acclimate you to life as a Spider! They supervise a group of about 30 new students, guiding them thorugh orientation and other activities after move-in and before the start of classes.

A peer advisor (PA) is a student advisor trained to answer questions related to academics and college adjustment. Your PA will guide you through the summer registration process and remind you of upcoming deadlines and important pre-arrival events. PAs work within the Academic Advising Resource Center.

A prerequisite course is one that you must complete prior to enrolling in a second course (usually a higher-level course). Think of it as a class where you learn the necessary foundations for the second class you plan to take.

The Office of the Registrar is your go-to resource for enrollment information, academic records, class schedules, and more! They also run the behind-the-scenes process of class registration and graduation.

A resident assistant (RA) is an undergraduate student employed by Residence Life who lives in the residence halls and oversees the students living in their assigned wing. Your RA is there to help you out with any problems you’re having, and they also host fun events for the hall like cookouts and game nights.

The Richmond Endeavor is a living-learning experience designed for first-year students. Students live together as a cohort in Lora Robins Court and enroll in related classes in the fall and spring semesters. The community themes change each year, allowing you to choose one that most interests you.

Within the course catalog, some courses may be titled “Selected Topics.” The specific focus of the class will depend on the faculty member teaching that semester and the subject on which they choose to focus. Course descriptions for selected topics can either be found in BannerWeb or on department websites.

SSO is an authentication method that allows its users to sign in to related software applications and websites with a single login. This way, you don’t have to memorize multiple passwords when accessing different UR webpages. Your SSO is your NETID (see above) and the 16-character password you created when you activated your account.

SLP is the abbreviation we use for the second language proficiency requirement at UR. Students may fulfill this requirement in a few ways. For example: you may be fluent in another language and can provide supporting documentation; you may also submit a qualifying score on a standardized foreign language test, like the Advanced Placement (AP) exam; or you may begin a new language or continue your existing language study. 

Your SpiderCard is your Richmond identification card, grants you access to buildings on campus, holds your dining dollars and dining hall swipes, and can be used at the SpiderShop.

Tuition is the amount paid for classes at the University of Richmond. This price excludes housing and food, the cost of books and other supplies, and personal expenses. Questions about tuition costs can be directed to the Student Accounts office..

A unit is the measurement of credit hours used at UR. One unit equals 3.5 credit hours. Most courses at UR are worth 1 unit, though a few others are valued at 0.25, 0.5, 1.5, and 2. In order to graduate, you will need to complete a minimum of 35 units.

During registration, you can add yourself to the waitlist of a class if it is full. Once a seat opens up, the registrar’s office will send the first student on the list an email with instructions on how to register for the class.

Learn more about waitlists here.

The Web of Inquiry, Richmond’s general education curriculum for students entering in fall 2024 and after, prepares students to be inquisitive and engaged citizens and leaders. It will expand their perspectives through exposure to a variety of disciplines, equipping them to build their own distinct educational, career, and life paths. It will inspire them to think critically, to view the world from multiple viewpoints, and to optimize their strengths.

Learn more about the Web of Inquiry here.