University of Cincinnati

1. 1 In DAAP and engineering, co-op is not optional — and it is five years

   UC invented cooperative education in 1906, and in two of its colleges it is still the shape of the degree rather than an add-on. The College of Design, Architecture, Art, and Planning and the College of Engineering and Applied Science "mandate co-op for all undergraduate programs." How it actually runs: you alternate a semester of classes with a semester of paid, full-time work, 35+ hours a week for 15 to 18 weeks, and "typically, you'll complete between three and five co-op semesters prior to graduation, which is equivalent to 1.5 years of job experience." After the first year the calendar stops looking like a normal one — there is no long summer off, because a summer is often a work term. That is why these are five-year degrees. UC's own tuition guarantee policy describes the co-op track as "five years comprised of 15 consecutive semesters", against "four years comprised of 12 consecutive semesters" for everyone else. If you are comparing UC against a four-year offer elsewhere, compare five years of living costs, not four — and then compare the earnings from three to five paid work terms against them. While you are out on co-op you are still enrolled, and you still pay something: "Effective Fall 2026, the undergraduate co-op fee will increase from $465 to $600 per co-op term." It is deliberately small — "Students pay this reduced co-op fee—rather than full tuition—while on co-op in order to maintain full-time status for financial aid and insurance purposes." So budget $600 a work term, and know that your aid package and your insurance do not lapse while you are away.

   Center for Cooperative Education — programs with required co-op UC — mandatory co-op Undergraduate co-op fee adjustment (Fall 2026) College of Engineering and Applied Science — co-op
2. 2 Your college adds a program fee on top of tuition

   The tuition number in the brochure is not the number on your bill, and the gap depends on which college you are in. For 2026-27 on the Uptown campus, an Ohio resident in the current cohort pays a base tuition of "$618" per credit hour, or "$7,412" for a full-time term. Then the program fee lands, per term: DAAP $750, the College-Conservatory of Music $750, Engineering & Applied Science $504, Business $500, Nursing (BSN) $338, and Arts & Sciences STEM disciplines $215. Non-STEM Arts & Sciences coursework is included in base tuition and adds nothing. Part-time students pay the same fees per credit hour instead — DAAP $63, CCM $75, Engineering $42, Business $42, Nursing $29, A&S STEM $18. Two things follow. First, switching majors can change what you pay, in both directions, and nobody will volunteer that when you switch. Second, when you compare UC's cost against another school's, compare base tuition plus your college's fee — a DAAP or CCM student pays $1,500 a year more than the headline figure, before any course-specific fees. Some individual course fees can be opted out of, on a form due by the fifteenth day of the term; program fees are not that, and cannot be opted out of.

   UC costs 2026-27 (tuition and program fees by college) Office of the Bursar — tuition & fees Bursar — course fee opt-out
3. 3 Your registration time is set by credits you already finished

   Registration at UC is not first-come. You get an enrollment appointment, and everyone above you in the queue registers before your window opens. What decides the order is the one thing a first-year student has least of. The Registrar: "Priority is determined by the number of hours a student has earned and will include any transfer credit that has been awarded. It will not include hours for which the student is currently registered." Read that twice. The fifteen credits you are sitting in right now count for nothing until they are finished and posted. AP, CCP, IB and transfer credit already on your record do count, and they move you up immediately — which is a real argument for sending every score and every transcript in, even for credit that does not shorten your degree. One more rule worth knowing: "Early Registration Enrollment Appointments are assigned only to those students who have registered for UC classes within the last three semesters." Take a term off and you lose the early window. Find your own time in the Catalyst Student Portal under My Academics, then View Assigned Enrollment Time; UC also emails continuing students their day and time. Build your shopping cart before it opens, with a backup for every class, because the seat you wanted may already be gone by the time your window arrives.

   Registrar — registration appointments One Stop — find your enrollment times Fall 2026 registration appointment calendar
4. 4 Three finals in one day is a request you are allowed to make

   Exam week gets built from a grid, not from your schedule, and it is perfectly possible to end up with three finals between breakfast and dinner. UC's exam schedule carries the remedy in one sentence: "Any student having three examinations on one day can request postponement or reassignment of one of them provided it can be worked out with the instructor of one of the courses in question." The conditions are worth reading carefully. It is three in a day, not two. It is a request, not an automatic right — the words are "provided it can be worked out". And it is settled with an instructor, one of the three, not with the registrar; appeals go to the University Registrar afterwards. So the move is to pull up the exam grid the week the schedule posts, not the week of exams, count your days, and if one of them has three, email the most flexible of the three instructors early, while moving you is still easy. Instructors are also expected to be ready to offer a make-up for a genuine conflict. Fall 2026 exam week runs December 7 through 11, after classes end December 5; final grades are due December 16 at 5:00 pm.

   Registrar — Fall 2026 exam schedule Registrar — Fall 2026 dates and deadlines
5. 5 Upload your textbook to Gus and ask it questions

   Gus is an AI college companion built around your actual course materials. Upload the textbook chapter, the slide deck, the reading, the syllabus — then ask. It answers out of those pages rather than out of the internet, so the answer matches the class you are actually in. From the same material it will tutor you through what has not clicked, generate flashcards and quizzes, summarize a lecture you recorded, and check your writing. It is free to try.

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