General FAQs Summary List

(Click question to see answer)

• Will the BI be offered at other schools such as CU Denver and CU Boulder?
• Is this a degree in innovation?
• Can I finish in 4 years?
• What if I change my mind, can I convert over to a BS?
• Can I change from a BS to a BI after I am at UCCS?
• Is this program accredited?
• Will I get paid for the team work?
• Will there be opportunities to paid internships?
• Can I take innovation courses even if I am not a Bachelor of Innovation major?
• What is the expected class size?
• Will I be working closely with Professors?
• Can I be a BI student if I am employed full time?
• What courses should I take in high school to prepare for the BI?
• When do I need to declare a particular BI Major?
• Will employers recognize these degrees? Will employers hire BI students?
• Who will pay for the time abroad if I choose the Globalization Core?
• Do BI students qualify for financial Aid? Are there any special scholarships?
• What if I don't get along with my innovation team members?
• Will the BI be offered at CU Denver or CU Boulder?
• Is this being offered via distance or online?
• I am from the community, how can I get involved with the BI teams
• When is the last date to apply for Fall?
• Was development of this program supported by many grants?

Questions and answers

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Will the BI be offered at other schools such as CU Denver or CU Boulder?

The current plans call for UCCS to be the only US institution offering the BI family of degrees. We are working with some international partners which may just partner for the teaming and globalization components or may offer the BI in this home country. There are no current plans to offer it at any other CU system campus. But we do see it as a model for overall improved education, so who knows what the future will bring, Qué Será Será.

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Is this a degree in innovation?

No this is a degree in whatever major your choose, e.g. the BI in Business Administration is a degree in business administration and the BI in EE in a degree in electrical engineering. The innovation core is the common core across the different majors, similar to how the BA at some liberal arts colleges have a common core. As BS in Innovation (or BI in Innovation) was something we considered but consensus amount the faculty, and the companies with whom we vetted the early ideas, was that the students need to have some depth of knowledge in a component of innovation. (A major in innovation would be more of a focus on the innovation process itself. It is unclear if there is a sufficient body of knowledge to make such a major).

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Can I finish in 4 years?

All BI program are designed to be finished in 4 years with either 128 credits for BI in CS, BI in CS Security, BI in EE or 120 credits (BI in GDD or BI in Business.). In engineering finishing in 4 years does required an average of 16 credits per term, i.e. 5 or 6 courses per term.

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What if I change my mind, can I convert over to a BS?

Yes you can convert over to the BS in the same major. Note however most of the majors have some restrictions on the courses you can take. The program listings show those that, when converting to a BS in an engineering field, should convert as HSS (humanities and Social Science) electives. Other BI-related courses may convert only as free electives, though some BS programs also support professional electives.

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Can I change from a BS to a BI after I am at UCCS?

Yes you can change, but depending on when you convert not all courses taken will count toward the BI degrees. Note some of the BI majors (EE, and CS Security) have no free electives making it more difficult to switch into those majors if you have already taken non-required courses. (You can switch, but it will take more than 128 total credits to graduate).

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Is this program accredited?

UCCS as a school is accredited by NCA. Existing programs in engineering and Business are accredited by ABET and AACSB respectively.

The rules of AACSB thus provide for automatic inclusion of new programs in accredited colleges of business, so the BI in Business Administration is accredited . The remaining programs have been designed in general accordance with the accreditation guidelines, and the actual major is generally identical. However ABET accreditation does not allow for a program to even apply for accreditdation until it produce its first class of students so at this time the Engineering BI programs are not accredited and for the next few years cannot even seek accreditation.

We note there is no accrediting body for majors in Game Design and Development and the BI in in GDD is not expected to seek accreditation.

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Will I get paid for the team work?

Class work will not be paid, however we do expect some of the projects to have added work, in addition to the classwork, that may be hourly employment. Some of this will be done by graduate students working with the team, some will be done by students. Some of these may even be freshman or sophomore positions. If you are work-study eligible its important to lets us know early so we can see if we can arrange your work study to be working on BI related project.

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Will there be opportunities to paid internships?

Many of the companies that have already approach us about being BI team sponsors said they have existing summer intern programs and wanted to know if we could work it so the team members could be summer interns and keep working on the same project. What do you think we said..
We said, "of course we can do that".

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Can I take innovation courses even if I am not a Bachelor of Innovation major?

Probably. The courses are open to all students at UCCS, on a space available basis and, of course, the prerequisites will need to be followed. Students that are in the BI majors will be given preference if there are more students that spaces in the courses. You need to have taken INOV101 before taking any of the innovation teams, and have been on a Inov 201/202 course before taking Inov 401..

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What is the expected class size?

Most of the Innovation Core classes and many of the cross-disciplinary core classes have limited enrollment (e.g. < 30 or 35 depending on the room). The course in the various majors are subject to their standard limits. There is no planned limit on the number of BI Majors. Or expected number of total BI majors in the first year is 15-30.

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Will I be working closely with Professors?

The program is designed to be highly interactive. While the innovation teams may have graduate students involved, the classes courses in the innovation core, including the innovation team will lead by faculty experienced in innovation. You will be working in teams with faculty, graduate students, company representatives as well as a range of undergraduate students. Undergraduate research on federally funded research is also possible.

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Can I be a BI student if I am employed full time?

It is possible to be a BI student and employed, but unlike many of the existing majors the core BI courses are not expected to be offered in the evening, so it will mean taking time off course to attend class and team meetings. (Note the innovation team have a class time but are also expected to work together outside of class.) Issues of intellectual property will have to be worked out which may limit the team choices for students that have employment that places restriction on their IP.

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What courses should I take in high school to prepare for the BI?

Preparation should match that for the appropriate college. In general that is 4 terms of English, 4 years of college prep math, 3 years of science including 2 years of lab science, 2 years of foreign language, 2 years of social science. For more details on admission see UCCS Prospective Student Page or download the Admission Criterion (pdf) page.

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When do I need to declare a particular BI Major?

We hope you will declare your intent when you apply, so we can better plan the class offerings. You may declare any time, but the BI majors have fewer electives than many traditional majors, so the longer you delay the more likely it will be that will take courses that cannot be counted toward your degree and therefore require more than 120/128 credits to graduate.

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Will employers recognize these degrees? Will employers hire BI students?

The short answer is yes, we expect these students to be more sought after than existing BS students.. This was explicitly address in our survey of companies (look here for details.

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Who will pay for the time abroad if I choose the Globalization Core?

Covering the costs any time abroad for the globalization core is the responsibility of the student. UCCS will be working to organize particular international partners to simplify the process. Students will document their time abroad via section in their innovation portfolio (including documenting travel costs).

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Do BI students qualify for financial Aid? Are there any special scholarships?

BI students are regular students at UCCS, so qualify for all the standard benefits including financial aid. At the current time there are no special scholarships just for BI students.

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What if I don't get along with my innovation team members?

Sorry if we are the first to break it to you, but life requires learning to work with people with whom you may not always get along. That is actually one of the issue of 3 years of teaming, to learn some of the "softer" experiential issues that only come from long term experience. However, just as in the real world, innovation teams, will include mechanism to "fire" members that are simply not producing. And, just as in the real work, teams get an overall performance rating, but individuals within the teams do not all get the same performance review (i.e. grade).

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Will the BI be offered at CU Denver or CU Boulder?

While the BI family of degrees has been approved by the Regents of the CU system, at the current time the degree family will be offered only at UCCS. It will not be offered remotely from the other campus. Students from those campuses can transfer to UCCS to obtain these unique degrees.

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Is this being offered via distance or online?

Because of current resource constraints, and the strong experiential and social networking component, the current plans are to offer it only as an on campus program. But we will be working out the most difficult "distance part", the teaming via virtual teams with international partners. If there is sufficient feedback showing demand for this program at a distance it may happen. Let us know if you feel its critical

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I am from the community, how can I get involved with the BI teams

We are still actively seeking more community members, but expect we will have more interested companies than teams in the early years of the program. Contact Dr. Boult (via the Contact page.

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When is the last date to apply for Fall?

The basic date for a priority application is April 1, to meet the (first) needs-based financial aid decision date of April 7. For Merit-based aid, the scholarship have their own deadline, but most require application by at least March 1. See the scholarship page for more details. The general application deadline for UCCS is July 1.
If you meets the "assured admission criterion", the decision after applications is usually 3-5 days. If you do not meet the assured admission it will have to go do a committee and takes up to 15 days. Applications are formally accepted on a rolling basis and if the decision (with timing as above) is before the start of semester (e.g. August) students may be admitted on a a space/aid available basis.

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Was development of this program supported by many grants?

The majority of the development effort was done "on load" service over a 2 year period, i.e. just extra faculty time with no course offloads. We gratefully acknowledge a $23,000 grant from the national collegiate inventors and innovators alliance which supported program development travel, materials, tech-support for the web survey and web development and a course offload for offering one of the new courses on a trial basis.