Search Help

The Prestissimo course search offers a lot of functionality, but perhaps all of those search fields can be a little overwhelming. Have no fear! In our series of Search Help articles, we aim to explain how each field works - hopefully we can clear up some confusion!

Search

• The Department selector returns courses being offered by the specified department. If more than one department is selected, the search will return courses that are listed in at least one of the selected departments. All courses are displayed, including Private Readings and Honors listings.
• The Course Name field filters courses by their titles. Search results will have titles that match or contain the query. For example, searching either "Principles" or "Principles of Computer Science" will return the course "Principles of Computer Science."
• The Professor field returns courses being taught by a professor whose name matches or contains the search phrase.
• The Semester selector determines which course catalog to search. The most recently available catalog is the top option.
  Note: Most course catalogs become available midway through the preceding semester, and Prestissimo updates to the new catalog at this time. Check to make sure you are searching the preferred semester!
• The Keyword search field performs a keyword search of course descriptions, titles, departments, crosslistings, and prerequisites. Entering multiple search terms will return courses that match either all of the terms or any of the terms depending on which you have selected. To search for specific phrases surround queries with single or double quotes.
• The Credits slider filters results by credit amount, inclusive.
• The Course Level slider limits results to the specified course level range, inclusive.
• The Course Meeting Time slider filters results by the times during which classes meet, only showing classes that are contained entirely within the specified interval. For classes that have multiple meeting times (such as for a class with lecture and lab components), only one of the meeting times must align with the selected interval
• The Course Size slider filters results by the maximum enrollment, inclusive.
• The Course Enrollment slider filters results by the number of students enrolled, according to our most recent data, inclusive.

  
  NOTE: prestissimo does not have as up to date data as OberView. We get new data every few hours during add/drop and less frequently during the rest of the year. Our database was last updated on April 28, 2025 at 12:00 PM

• The Days boxes restrict results to courses offered on the selected days. Checking a day will show all courses that occur on that day. Selecting more than one day will return courses that occur on at least one of the days selected.
• The CRN field searches for courses by CRN. When this field is not blank, all other fields are skipped since there will only be one course with a given CRN. Search terms in the Keyword field will still be highlighted.
• The Natural Science, Social Science, and Humanities boxes restrict results to classes that are in the specified division of the college. If one division is checked, courses in that division will be shown. Selecting multiple boxes will return courses that are associated with any of the selected divisions.
• The Proficiencies boxes filter classes by which requirement the classes fulfill. Checking one box will return classes that offer credit for that proficiency, and checking more than one box will return classes that offer all of the selected proficiencies. For example, if both Cultural Diversity and Writing Proficiency are checked, only courses that give both Cultural Diversity and Writing Proficiency will be returned.
• The Conservatory Attributes boxes restrict results to classes that have the specified Conservatory attribute. CNDP denotes Conservatory courses which count as Arts & Humanities courses. DDHU denotes Conservatory courses which count as Arts & Humanities courses for the Double Degree Program.
• The Full Course, Half Course, and Co-curricular boxes filters results by number of credits as specified by the new degree requirements.
• The Modules boxes filter courses by the module of the semester in which they are offered.

  
  Full: the course runs for the entirety of the semester.
  1st Module: the course runs from the start of the semester until the week of Fall/Spring Break.
  2nd Module: the course runs from the week of Fall/Spring break until the end of the semester.
  Special: a class with various, often irregular meeting times.

• The Arts & Sciences, Conservatory allows you to search only for College of Arts and Science classes, or only for Conservatory classes. Specifically, we consider a class to be in the Conservatory if it's in one of the following departments: CMUS, APST, COMP, JAZZ, HPRF, MHST, MLIT, MUTH, PVST, ETHN, PACE, CNST, MUED, OPTH, TECH. Note that we consider CMUS to be in both Arts & Sciences and the Conservatory. All other classes are in Arts & Sciences.