The Academic Advising Information Form is officially live and due by Saturday, July 1. Please fill it out as soon as possible! Read on for more about the advising process and summer placement exams at Oxy.
Dear incoming transfer students,
I am Occidental's Director of Advising and I wanted to share some information with you, as well as a few "to-do" items, that will get you started on your academic journey at Oxy.
Advising Information Form and the Advising Center
At Orientation in August, you will meet with your faculty adviser to discuss your fall course schedule. To help us match you with an academic adviser, we ask that you fill out the Advising Information Form by
Saturday, July 1
. More information about advising and preparing for registration will be shared in early August.
In the meantime, the Advising Center is available to answer any academic-related questions you may have! You can send questions via email (advisingcenter@oxy.edu) or visit the Advising Center webpage for more information.
Placement Exams and Limited Summer Registration
Some courses require a placement exam to be taken prior to registration. Placement exams are offered for chemistry, calculus, music theory, and several languages. The purpose of these exams is to place you in the courses that best match your experience level. Most of these exams are available online, though a few are only offered in-person during Orientation. For the exams that are available online, we ask that new students take them no later than
Wednesday, August 9
. To take an online placement exam—or to find out more information—visit the Advising Center's Placement Exam webpage.
In general, if you are planning to take courses in calculus, chemistry, music theory, French, German, or Spanish, you should take the appropriate online placement exam this summer. That said, there are some exceptions:
- If you will be studying a language for the first time, you will be able to register for a 101-level course during Orientation and do not need to take the placement exam.
- If you took an AP, IB, or SAT II score in the subject, you may be able to use that score to determine placement. See the Placement Exam webpage for more information.
- If you have already taken a course in the subject at another college or university, you will most likely be able to take the next course in the sequence without needing to take the placement.
The deadline to take online placement exams is
August 9
, but we encourage you to complete them earlier in the summer. This is particularly beneficial for the calculus placement exam, which can be taken multiple times and includes online review modules to help you improve your placement.
Students who complete a placement exam in chemistry, math, French, German or Spanish (or submit qualifying AP, SAT II, or IB scores in those subjects) may be able to register early for the courses in which they have been placed.
If you have questions about any of the topics mentioned in this email, feel free to contact the Advising Center. We look forward to welcoming you to campus this fall!
Best Wishes,
Ed Johnson, PhD
Director of Academic Advising
Occidental College
P.S. Remember to stay on track with upcoming dates and deadlines by following the
To-Do Checklist & Timeline
!
And, don't forget to join us for our advising-focused Tiger Chat on Friday, June 16!