Waivers and Substitutions

Many students arrive at UCCS with equivalent courses or experiences that meet the requirements for the Compass Curriculum. The information and links below explain how you can petition to use previous course work and experience to meet Compass requirements.

Many courses have been approved by the State of Colorado to meet Guaranteed Transfer (GT-Pathways) requirements. UCCS accepts all GT-Pathways courses for their appropriate designations.

GPS Waivers

GPS courses focus on an introduction to college, the Compass Curriculum, and oral communication among other skills that will help you succeed at UCCS. Students who take GPS are more likely to graduate from UCCS as well as have better success in their courses. However, many students arrive at UCCS with comparable experiences and are not require to complete GPS.

The three most common exemptions to GPS requirements are all handled directly by your UCCS Advisor.

Please note that calculation of credit hours for GPS Waivers do not include credit by exam such as credit earned through AP, BI, CLEP, or DSST.

• Students who matriculate with 30 or more credit hours are exempt from GPS 1010.
• Students with 24-29 credits from colleges other than UCCS and a 2.4 GPA or higher need approval from their designated UCCS advisor to be exempt from GPS. You can contact your advisor on the UCCS Advising Website.
• Students who have completed a course similar to GPS at another college may work with their designated UCCS advisor to determine if the course can be transferred as a substitute for GPS. You can contact your advisor on the UCCS Advising Website.

If students meet with their advisor and do not qualify under any of these categories, they may apply for exemption under the policy below.

• Students who have completed 16 college credits after graduating high school and a GPA of 2.4 or higher may submit a petition to appeal to be exempt from GPS by completing the appeal form below.
• Submitting a petition is not a guarantee that the requirement will be waived. Petitions are evaluated and a decision on whether to waive or accept the replacement for the course is made by the Compass Director.

Advisor Approval

UCCS Advisors may review a student's transfer course work from other institutions to make course substitutions for:

• Explore courses
• Lower Division Writing Intensive requirements.
  • Advisors may count sophomore to senior level transfer courses that meet WI criteria as lower-division WI credit at UCCS.

Your UCCS Advisors can help you explore options for replacing or substitute the requirements below, but decisions about waivers and sustitutions are made by UCCS colleges or academic departments.

• Core Writing One (ENGL 1310, 1308, or 1300+1305)
• Core Writing Two (ENGL 1410, TCID 2080, TCID 2090, or INOV 2100)
• Quantitative Reasoning

Direct Petition to Compass

Students may also directly petition Compass to waive or substitute most of their Compass requirements. Before completing the form, please speak with your Academic Advisor about your plan to petition. Submit your petition at this link: Compass Petition Form

• Submitting a petition is not a guarantee that the requirement will be waived. Petitions are evaluated and a decision on whether to waive or accept the replacement for the course is made by the Compass Director.
• The form does not save your work until you submit. If you close before you are finished or fail to hit submit, your work will disapear!