During the first two years at Carolina, students are enrolled in the General College. Incoming students who make an early declaration as physical sciences or Applied Sciences major are assigned to a faculty advisor from those departments as their General College advisor. Students who later declare an Applied Sciences major should request reassignment to a physical sciences advisor. It is important that all students interested in Applied Sciences complete through MATH 383 and PHYS 117  during the first two years, as these courses are prerequisites for a series of higher-level courses offered in fall or spring semesters only, and Materials students must also complete APPL 150. To miss a junior/senior course at those scheduled times adds one or two semesters to the undergraduate career.

Students interested in Polymer Science should complete CHEM 262 by the end of their sophomore year. It is often the case that students intending to pursue one of the Applied Sciences will have prepared themselves in high school by completing equivalents of Biology 101, Chemistry 10, Math 231 and one or two foreign languages. These students are encouraged to pursue the next level course when exemption status or "by examination" status is obtained via the Office of Admissions. Formal declaration of a major is usually made in the spring semester of the sophomore year.

Perspective Courses

All tracks in Applied Sciences require seven General College perspective courses: two each in the Aesthetic (one each in Fine Arts and Literature), Social Science (from two different departments), and Western Historical/ Non-Western/Comparative Perspectives (one must be pre-1700 Western History) and one in the Philosophical Perspective. As in other B.S. curricula, some of the General College Perspective courses are not completed during the first two years and their completion extends into the upper years. One of these GC Perspectives must also be among the numerous courses approved to meet the Cultural Diversity requirement of the university (see the Undergraduate Bulletin for a listing of these courses), or an additional GC Perspective meeting this requirement is required.

Minimum QPA

For graduation, students in the Curriculum must earn a minimum of 18 hours of C or higher (not a C average) in courses specifically required in their track by name and number above Biology 101, Biomedical Engineering 400, Chemistry 102, Computer Science 101, Mathematics 233 and Physics 128 (as appropriate for the track). Grades of C- do not count toward this requirement.