Month: June 2009

Advanced Placement, International Baccalaureate, and other Pre-matriculant Credit

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So now you have all these good scores from your Advanced Placement, International Baccalaureate and A-level (and similar test) exams.  What can you do with them?

You can post up to 2.00 of these pre-matriculant credits to your Wesleyan transcript.  Make sure that you can provide official documentation of your scores or grades.  Some AP subjects, such as English and Biology are automatically posted while others require that you pass a departmentally-identified course with a minimum grade in order to be eligible to post the credit.  Complete information on how to post AP and IB credit to your transcript is maintained by the Registrar’s Office.

College courses taken on a college campus and taught by a college faculty member with other college students prior to your matriculation at Wesleyan also may be transferred to your Wesleyan transcript, if they were not used to complete requirements for your high school diploma.  You will need to ask the college to send a transcript directly to me at the Deans’ Office at Wesleyan (237 High St., 06459) in order to post this credit and if the credit is listed on your high school transcript, have your high school counselor confirm on school letterhead that it was not necessary for graduating high school.

You may post all your pre-matriculant credit, but only up to 2.00 credits total of any kind of pre-matriculant credit will count towards your graduation requirements.

Learning and Living Seminars

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Students who are interested in living with other students from one of their classes this fall should definitely enroll in one of the four Learning and Living seminars. This cool program, in its second year at Wesleyan, allows students to more easily continue discussions outside the classroom and collaborate on course assignments.  It also means that you go into the classroom knowing the other students with whom you will be working.  Students will be housed in first-year appropriate housing, some of which are also home to sophomores.  The 2009-2010 Learning & Living Seminars are COL130 “Thinking Animals,”  PHIL218 “Personal Identity & Choice,” RELI381 “Religions Resist Modernity,” and THEA170 “American Playwright Performed.”

All the First Year Initiative seminars, with their small enrollments (no more than 19), offer the opportunity for intensive and in-depth discussions and interesting coursework for first-year students only.  The Learning and Living seminars offer students the additional benefit of being housed together.

Academic Skills Assessment Survey

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The Academic Skills Assessment Survey is an opportunity for you to take stock of your study habits before hitting the books this fall at Wesleyan.  Not only does this survey ask you about your academic behavior, but, in many cases, it also gives you ideas of ways that you could, for example, better manage or track your time.  Done honestly and openly (you’ve already been accepted to Wes), your responses will enable us to refer you to particular workshops or make study suggestions that will facilitate and support your academic success at Wesleyan.  And hey, who doesn’t want academic success?

So among the other things you get to do this summer as you prepare for your arrival at Wes, login to your e-portfolio to make sure you complete the Academic Skills Assessment Survey.

Faculty and Student Advising Handbook

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This summer, as you think about which courses you will be enrolling in after you arrive at Wesleyan in September, please take time to carefully review the Faculty and Student Advising Handbook. The Handbook is designed to help you achieve your educational goals by providing advice on how to get the most out of your relationship with your faculty advisor as you build your program of study over the course of your Wesleyan career. The Handbook also provides information about academic departments and programs, graduation requirements, study abroad, the major declaration process, academic support services for students, and the procedures of the Honor Board and the Student Judicial Board.