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Life Sciences First Year Program

Incoming Students

Incoming students attending New Student Orientation
Incoming LSFY Students and their families at New Student Orientation

Fall 2023

Thank you for choosing NC State University for Fall 2023!  Because you are intending to major in one of the degrees LSFY supports, you will start your journey at NC State with us for your first year. That means if you are intending to major in Biochemistry, Biology, Genetics, Microbiology, Nutrition Science, Plant Biology, or Zoology, you are automatically placed in the LSFY program for the first year. The LSFY team is made up of fabulous academic advisors, professors, and upperclassmen who serve as class assistants in some of your courses. Below you will find important information to help you plan for the start of your college career at NC State. In addition to this information, please make sure you complete the New Student Checklist.

Important:  All LSFY students are required to complete the math and chemistry placement tests, even if you anticipate AP/IB or transfer credit.  If you do not complete the placement tests, you will be prevented from enrolling in fall courses until these have been completed.

Who is your advisor?  When you are first admitted into the program, you will communicate to all the advisors by emailing LifeSciencesFY@ncsu.edu.  You will be automatically enrolled in one of our classes, LSC 103.  The instructor of the section in which you are enrolled will become your advisor.  After this automatic course enrollment, your specific advisor will contact you.  This specific assignment will be made in late May.

Important Dates

  • Early/Mid May – You will receive more information from LSFY about Fall Enrollment.  Check your NC State email account.
  • Set up your NC State email account.  We will no longer email your personal email account so you will miss important information if you are not using your NC State email account instead.
    • Once you set up your Unity Account with NC State, you can log into your email using gmail.com
    • Your Username: “YourUnityID”@ncsu.edu (you must have “@ncsu.edu”). Password = Same as Unity ID Password
    • View “Activate Your Unity Account” here for more help
  • Mid May – Deadline to complete math and chemistry placement exams.  You will want to check this website often for the specific deadline date.  You must complete these placement exams in order to enroll. 
  • End of May – Your specific advisor will be assigned. Your advisor will start communicating with you instead of the whole advising team.
  • Beginning of June – LSFY students can sign up for Fall classes IF you have completed NC State math and chemistry placement tests.  
  • June & July – LSFY New Student Orientation Sessions. More information will be updated here.
  • August 19, 2024 – First day of Fall classes

Common Concerns & Questions

  • Transfer Credits (AP, IB, Early College, Community College): These credits can come late in the summer and therefore you may not be able to sign up for the specific course you would like until the scores are posted. You will discuss this with your advisor to come up with a plan. You will still need to take the placement exams for Chemistry and Math, regardless of your AP or transfer scores. Final enrollment in a course is always based on your highest score, so when your AP/IB/transfer credits do come in, you can make changes to your schedule then, if necessary.
  • “Yes, but I took these specific classes….” This is a very common concern and one that we address in our email communication regarding enrollment. Before reaching out to your advisor, read through the communications from the advising team, which includes an enrollment guide, which will likely answer many of your questions. After reviewing these materials, you can email the advising team LifeSciencesFY@ncsu.edu
  • Planning your classes and building your schedule: The Enrollment Wizard tool in MyPackPortal will be used. Watch this tutorial video.
    • Courses in your shopping cart will be blue until you are able to enroll. At that point, click the enroll button and the courses that you are registered for will be green.
    • If a course you select, such as BIO 181, says “pre-requisites not met”, don’t panic. This is a standard message that is auto-derived to notify all students that if they received AP credit for Biology (BIO 105/106) by scoring a 3 on the AP exam, that they cannot have those credits count towards their degree if BIO 181 and BIO 183 are degree requirements. If you do not have AP credit for BIO 105/106, you will be able to enroll in BIO 181 on your own when enrollment opens for students.
      • If this applies to you, in order to enroll in BIO 181, you will need to send an email to BioSciHelp@ncsu.edu requesting enrollment in an open section of BIO 181.
    • You may already be enrolled for some courses, such as LSC 103. This course will appear on your schedule without you having placed it in the cart.
  • First Year Pre-Semester Programs offered through New Student Programs – get started with connecting to NC State even before you get to campus.  Find out more here.
  • Computers: If you need help and/or recommendations for selecting one, consider this great site from the Office of Information Technology
  • Getting a “Head Start” on Courses: Some students like to take a few courses during the summer prior to starting full time with NC State. Summer Start is a neat program where you stay in the dorms during Summer Session II and take a few classes. Questions about this program should be directed to New Student Programs who run the program. Learn more about the program here.