Being a college student is hard. The UCDAccess student portal makes it easier. There’s no way around it, college courses are difficult – but enrolling in them doesn’t have to be. Neither does paying your bill, chatting with advisors, or checking your graduation progress. Here’s just four of the many new features in your student portal that make life as a student a little less stressful.

1. Redesigned Homepage

You’re through syllabus week, which means you now have about 20 pages of paper to read through if you ever have any questions about class policies… Great. Let’s leave researching to the librarians. We brought the Student Center and all of its functionality directly to the homepage with clean, easy-to-understand icons.

We also added Pay Your Bill and Student Schedule tiles. As soon as you open the page you’ll have real-time account balance information and a full list of your current courses. Fewer clicks, less time spent on the page, less stress.

2. Mobile Optimization

Most college students in the U.S. spend over 8 hours a day on their smartphone (here’s the link to that study if you want to fact check me – I dare you). That means you’re probably reading this from your phone, and I don’t blame you. It’s easier. That’s why we made sure to make the new design responsive across devices. View all of your student functions from your phone or tablet, without zooming in.

3. Make an Appointment

CU Denver prioritizes accessibility for all students, both virtual and in-person. So, we wanted to make it easier for you to get in touch with your advisor. In additional to virtual front desks on the new website, we implemented a simple appointment scheduler on the homepage of your student portal. Now, you’re able to get in touch with your program advisor in one click.

4. New Smart Search Feature

You know what books have that websites don’t? An index, with definitions and page numbers. Gross. In the event you don’t immediately see what you’re looking for on the home page, just search for it (no need for an index, unless you’re Google – save that for a different discussion).

By Ben Dewhurst ’19, graduated from the College of Liberal Arts & Sciences