Frequently Asked Questions

You should choose courses that you genuinely want to take, with some attention to courses that are requirements for specific areas of study in which you are interested. (You can see a list of all programs of study in the Catalog.) There are no prescribed schedules or courses specifically for incoming students, in general. If you are interested in programs such as Pre-Health, Pre-Engineering or Pre-Law, you should check the pre-professional program’s webpage for course recommendations, and take note of suggestions that will appear automatically when you select these programs on your Course Selection Form.

Sewanee has identified essential "ways of thinking" and intellectual skills that we want all our students to develop. We frame these expectations as our General Education Curriculum. Students are expected to complete these requirements by the end of their junior year. Not all courses available to incoming first-year students satisfy or work toward these requirements, but the majority of them do. Often, courses that do not have General Education attributes are pivotal to beginning studies in particular areas or programs, so students are encouraged to select courses regardless of whether or not they satisfy General Education requirements. As your fall schedule is built, the Academic Guides will ensure that you are adequately working toward meeting your General Education requirements, so this is not something you need to concern yourself with at this point. 

No, not all incoming students will be enrolled in math and English classes in their first semester. Fall course selection will be based on the students’ interest and course availability.  

The Academic Guides will automatically be given your ranked Finding Your Place section preferences and will enroll you in the section you’ve requested that makes for the most balanced schedule with your other course requests and concerns. Proceed with selecting the six subjects and six specific courses that most interest you as instructed on your Course Selection Form.

Transfer students will fill out a slightly different form than incoming first-year students. Your transcript will be evaluated over the summer, after which time we will learn how your credits will be applied. Because you have probably completed some of your introductory-level coursework, you will be choosing from a potentially broader array of courses. You will fill out your form to indicate some primary interests, and if necessary, one of the Academic Guides will contact you individually to help you choose other courses that will most usefully supplement the others you have taken elsewhere.

This form provides instructions on how to send and receive credit for Advanced Placement (AP), Cambridge International A-Level, Dual Enrollment, or International Baccalaureate Higher Level (IB) courses. In order for you to get credit, students must send official test scores to the Office of the Registrar. Often times, exams can satisfy General Education requirements, substituting for 100-level courses. In many cases, however, departments require specific 100-level courses for their major or minor requirements. If we see that you have expressed an interest in an area that requires a specific 100-level course for their major requirement, but you have earned transfer credit that will provide General Education credit in that area, it is likely that we enroll you in the 100-level course anyway so that you can work toward your major or minor requirements and satisfy any prerequisites needed to access upper level courses in that area. Your approved credits, however, will be counted toward your overall credits for graduation, allowing you greater flexibility in your enrollment. 

In many cases, transfer credit exams or coursework are not scored until mid-July, leaving a question as to how you might select classes for the fall. First and foremost, make sure your scores will be sent to the Office of the Registrar as soon as they’ve been determined. We are still building schedules through the end of July, and often can apply your newly received test scores to the building of your schedule. 

We cannot enroll a student in any course with an (AP) attribute unless we have a passable AP/IB score on file in the Office of the Registrar. If your high score arrives in Sewanee after your courses have been chosen for you, you will have an opportunity to make adjustments to your schedule accordingly once you have met with your academic advisor during Orientation. 

International students are still required to complete a foreign language requirement, but this requirement cannot be in their native language. For example, if you are native Chinese speaker, you cannot meet your language requirement by taking Chinese courses. Instead, you can fulfill this requirement in one of two ways. The first is by studying a language other than your native language. The second is by petitioning to have English 101 fulfill the foreign language requirement, a process that you will undertake upon arrival. If you hope to satisfy your foreign language requirement by taking English 101, please make note of this in the comment section of your Course Selection checklist item.

Yes, international students should continue to be in contact with the International Enrollment Coordinator and the Office of Global Citizenship. They have compiled a list of information for incoming international students.

Yes. Any recommended class(es) that you want to take should be listed in your six "specific courses of interest." You will not be automatically placed in recommended courses. Make sure to include the recommended courses (which appear below whichever pre-professional program selection you make at the top of the Course Selection Form) in your selections.

If you want courses in these subjects, all you need to do is select the Calculus or Chemistry course option among the six specific "courses of interest" on your Course Selection Form. You will see that Calculus is listed as "MATH 101 / 102 / 207" and Chemistry as "CHEM 119 / 150." You will be placed into the appropriate level for Chemistry and/or Calculus by the Academic Guides, based on the respective department's review of your academic information. (In exceptional cases the Mathematics faculty may recommend placement in a course above MATH 207; if you are interested, please note in the comments section of your form.)

All of these classes are less than 4-credits, and students can enroll in any of these courses once they arrive on campus and have met with their academic advisor. The courses you are selecting on your Course Selection Form are only full-credit (4 credit) courses. 

We will only use your Sewanee email address, and we will not be sending email to non-Sewanee addresses from this point forward. Please check your Sewanee email regularly after you submit your form, or if you will not have regular internet access, tell one of the Guides how you may be reached if they have a question about your responses. We may need to reach you to clarify your preferences or resolve a conflict in your schedule.

You will have a chance to meet with your academic advisor and discuss any changes you wish to make to your schedule during Orientation. All incoming students will be assigned an academic advisor and you will receive an email in early to mid-August announcing who your academic advisor will be.

You will be registered for four classes, each worth four credits. This is a standard course load every semester at Sewanee.