CDCS Guide

The Course Descriptions/Course Schedules (CDCS) website is an online search tool that lets you view a complete list of course schedules and descriptions based on a variety of criteria. You can use this tool to explore courses you may want to take for the upcoming semester.

Once you're on the , you can find courses by using the filtering options:

  • For the Year/Term field, select the term Fall 2024 from the drop-down menu.
    • Note: While this is the only required field, it’s best to select additional search criteria to get a more refined and manageable list.
  • For the School field, select Arts, Sciences and Engineering. This will give you a complete list of courses in the School of Arts & Sciences and the Hajim School of Engineering & Applied Sciences for the fall 2024 term.
    • Note: This list will be quite large, so we recommend selecting a subject in the subject field to narrow the results.
  • You may now select additional criteria:
    • Subject: Subjects are sorted alphabetically and are listed with their three- to four-digit alpha abbreviation.
    • Course: The course field is an open text field. If you know a course's alpha abbreviation or course number, you can enter it in this field to narrow your search.
    • Status: The status field contains three options: open, closed, and canceled. Use this search criteria if you only want to view courses that have statuses of all open, all closed, or all canceled. Leave blank to view all course statuses.  
    • Description – Keywords: If you’re looking for a course containing a particular work or phrase listed in its course description, use this field to search for it. 
    • Title: If you’re looking for a course with a particular word in the title, you can use the Title field to search for it.
    • Instructor Name: If you know of a particular instructor you'd like to take a class with, you can enter their name and search for classes associated with that instructor.
      • Note: The system works best when entering the instructor’s last name.
    • Day: To find classes that meet on particular days of the week, use the Day search field. 
    • Start Time Between: Use this search field to find classes that start between certain hours of the day.
    • Credit Hours Between: Use this search field to find classes based on their credit hours.
    • Division: Use this Division search field to find classes in the main academic divisions: Humanities, Social Sciences, and Natural Sciences/Engineering.
      • Note: Some courses are listed as Variable, which means they count in more than one of the three divisions.

In addition to the search fields above, you can select a checkbox for Upper-Level Writing Courses, Diversity Courses, and/or Community-Engaged Learning Courses to find courses with one of these designations.

Once you've selected all the search criteria you want, hit the search button to pull up your list of courses. You can change, add, or delete any of your search criteria and hit search again to update the resulting course list. If you want to start over completely with a clean search, hit the Clear button.