Registration Information for Transfer Students

We know this isn’t your first time registering for college classes, but we want to make sure you have all the information you need to register as a Washington University student.

We direct all our incoming first-year students to Registration 101 to learn all the details about registering for their first semester of college courses. There is a lot of information in this area that may also be helpful to you as you plan for your fall semester. Particularly helpful are the Registration Process Videos which will walk you through the steps for using the WashU systems. 

Here are some specific highlights just for incoming Transfer Students

Advising: All Arts & Sciences students have a Four-year advisor. Once a student declares a major, the student is assigned a major advisor. At that point, the student has two advisors.

College Writing 1: This course is required of all students in their first year. If you haven’t previously taken a writing course, you need to take one of three versions of our first-year writing course as soon as possible. If you have already had a writing course, the Writing 1 Office will want to review some samples of your writing to evaluate whether you’ve satisfied our first-year requirement. The Writing 1 Office will be in touch with you.

Foreign languages: If you are planning to continue a language, you’ll need to take a placement exam. Some are offered on-line, and others are offered during Orientation in August. All the details on placement exams can be found in Registration 101.

Declaring a major: You may have indicated your major interest on the admissions application. This doesn’t mean you’ve declared a major. You’ll need to start this process on WebSTAC. Keep in mind, if you’ve previously taken upper-level major courses, the WUSTL department will need to review course syllabi, if these courses are to possibly count toward the major. Transfer sophomores aren’t expected to declare the major until the spring semester. Junior-level transfers should declare the major as soon as possible.