It might seem really far off, but many of the non-English speaking programs require 2 or more years of language, so if you want to go abroad during junior year, you should consider taking the language for the country you want to study in your first year. Note that many languages require that you begin a language during fall semesters. You can explore the study abroad programs here and also see the contact information for any questions that come up.
Pre-Departure Information Session for First-Year International Students
Wednesday, July 29, 9:30-11:00 am EDT
(use a time zone converter to find out what time it is at your location)
(use a time zone converter to find out what time it is at your location)
Zoom link: https://wesleyan.zoom.us/j/98727386949?pwd=NFhqRUh0N1pWcWFOQ2hpcm1sdzFCUT09
Meeting ID: 987 2738 6949
Passcode: 643716
Intended audience for this session:
- All undergraduate first-year F-1 visa holders
- All undergraduate first-year U.S. passport holders who reside abroad and identify as international students
- International students who intend to travel to Wesleyan to study on campus in Fall 2020
- International students who intend to take Wesleyan online courses from their home countries in Fall 2020
- Students’ parents/families are welcome to attend
This this session, we will cover:
- Immigration essentials (helpful for F-1 visa holders)
- Scheduling an F-1 visa interview
- Attending an F-1 Visa Interview
- Entering the U.S. with an F-1 Visa
- Immigration logistics if you choose to defer your admission to Spring 2021 or Fall 2021
- Travel essentials (helpful for all internationals who plan to be on campus)
- Navigating travel restrictions during COVID-19
- Ground transportation from various airports (BDL, BOS, JFK, EWR and LGA) to Wesleyan University
- Information about Orientations (helpful for all internationals, including those who plan to study online)
- International Student Orientation
- New Student Orientation
- Live Q&As
The session will be recorded for those who are unable to attend the live session.
About Course Registration
Course registration at Wesleyan is a three-step process. The first step of this process, which opened on July 20, is Pre-Registration Planning.
During pre-registration planning, you should be selecting courses of interest and ranking them in your preferred order. Be sure to build full list(s) to maximize your chances of getting a desirable schedule during the scheduling process.
Once planning closes, the scheduling process will be run. Your schedule will be viewable on August 14. Once your schedule is available, you’ll be able to prepare for the Adjustment Period, which is the second part of the registration process and takes place August 17-20. During the adjustment period you will be able to make modifications to the schedule that has been assigned to you, pending approval from your faculty advisor.
The third step of the course registration process is the Drop/Add Period, which will take place from August 24-September 11. During drop/add courses can be added and dropped from your schedule with the approval of the instructor and your faculty advisor.
As the summer progresses, you will receive email for updates from the Registrar’s Office as we enter into each phase of the course registration process.
The following questions might guide your course planning:
- Do I select a course about something I love?
- Do I need to add a gateway course for a department or major?
- Do I need to continue or begin a language?
- Could I explore something new and interesting?
Course planning involves much more than just the subject matter. You should aim for variety in subject as well as the kind, size, format, and time of day of the courses.
There are a few curricular pathways that require special attention, such as pre-health, pre-law and dual degree engineering programs. There is a three-year option. There are three majors that require declaration during the spring semester of the first year: College of Social Studies, College of Letters and the College of East Asian Studies.
Wesleyan Summer Sendoffs 2020
New students and their families are invited to attend a virtual Summer Sendoff event on Zoom. This is an opportunity to meet others in your area new to Wesleyan, as well as engage with a panel of current students, parents, and alumni from your region. You’ll have the opportunity to hear from Wesleyan staff, and then students and parents will join Zoom breakout rooms to learn more. New students and families are welcome to attend any of these events.
Health Professions Coursework Zoom Session
Presented by Mildred Rodríguez, PhD, Health Professions Advisor
Wednesday, 29 July 2020
11:00 AM – 12:00 PM (Eastern Standard Time)
Register in advance for this meeting:
https://wesleyan.zoom.us/meeting/register/tJAucuCopzkiE92_fXS4yVDFvlDI0_x2PQB4
After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the meeting.
This overview will assist students in developing a schedule that will incorporate at least one of the science pre-requisite courses for the health profession of your interest. Additionally, the goal is to encourage students to explore other areas of study and develop competencies that overlap across disciplines. There will be time for questions in the last 20 to 25 minutes of the overview.
Presented by the Gordon Career Center
Co-Sponsored by the American Medical Student Association, Wesleyan Chapter
Co-Sponsored by Minority Association of Premedical Students, Wesleyan Chapter
Co-Sponsored by the National Organization on Rare Diseases Student Association of Connecticut
Co-Sponsored by the Wesleyan Pre-Veterinary Medicine Club
Tips for Student Athletes
Class of 2024 student athletes, it is unfathomable the hardships you have faced with your last high school season getting cut short and now your fall season being cancelled. While there is nothing that can be said to make up for those lost moments, there are ways to use what you have learned as an athlete to prepare you for the academic rigor of Wesleyan.
Even as a student first, “athlete” remains a crucial part of your identity. The two go hand-in-hand in many ways. Below are some tips on how to best prepare for this upcoming semester with or without an official season impeding on your classes.
To start, time management is a big one. From the classroom to lifting back to the library then to practice and then a review session, your days can become very busy. Thus, it is essential that you find a way to best manage your time. Organization is a key factor of time management. It is so important that you implement some form of planner system or google calendar to ensure that your classes do not overlap with practices or games.
From that last point, one of the go to answers when asked by any coach of how to improve in a game is communication. This applies on and off the field. It is imperative that you establish a relationship with your professors early on so that it is easier to communicate for the very minimal times that athletes may interfere with academics. With that, communication with coaches is also part of your academic success and ensuring the prioritization of academics over athletics in special circumstances. Use your coach as a vehicle towards achieving academic as well as athletic success. In succession with the team as a resource, the use of older teammates in helping navigate the cohesion with your sport and classes is a key point of advice. They have experience with the structure of NESCAC athletics and the rigor of the Wesleyan education.
Lastly, success in any aspect of life is contingent upon proper preparation, which includes sufficient fuel and care of the body and mind. The life of a student-athlete is often go go go, which leaves little room for self reflection. It is ok to take a break and give yourself the downtime that you deserve. Ultimately, while you are labeled as a student-athlete on campus, these tips will help you to distinguish between or separate athletics and academics while also establishing a balance with both.
Check list:
- Time management
- Organization (planner)
- Communication (on and off the field)
- Relationships with professors
- Plan ahead
- Use teammates as resources
- Coaches as resources
- Separate/find balance with athletics and academics
- Take care of body and mind (fuel)
- Give yourself a break and down time
What Do Academic Peer Advisors Do?
This post serves to introduce you to Wesleyan’s Academic Peer Advisors, students who work under the umbrella of the Office of Student Academic Resources to enhance students’ access to academic resources and promote their academic success.
Especially in such tumultuous times, APAs are here to serve as a resource to all Wesleyan students. Although life at Wesleyan will look quite different than it has in past years due to the pandemic, APAs are available to address any concerns you may have, ranging from queries about course selection to questions about getting involved on campus! Over the summer, we are available to answer your questions via email (peeradvisors@wesleyan.edu). Please don’t hesitate to reach out!
During NSO, which will be taking place mostly virtually before arriving on campus, APAs will focus on helping students plan and schedule their fall semester courses. We are part of a large network of academic support that you will be able to access once on campus, which includes pre-major advisors and deans. Before classes begin, you — and every other first-year student — will meet with an APA to discuss course selection for your first semester, as well as any other questions you might have. Throughout the entire academic year, we will continue meeting with students individually as well as hosting group workshops. We are as available as students want us to be, whether you’d like to meet once a week, once a semester, or once a year! Also, we are always extra available during the Pre-Registration and Drop/Add periods of each semester, and you will see us work in conjunction with other offices on campus.
In our one-on-one meetings with students, we help with various academic skills like time management, organization, study strategies, and reading or note-taking, as well as with course registration, major planning, and a variety of other academics-related skills and topics! In our workshops — which can be with different Residence Halls, class deans, athletic teams, or other liaison groups, campus groups, and communities — we also help students become familiar with the various academic processes and skills that were mentioned above, but in a group setting instead of an individual one. We also serve as liaisons to other campus resources, both general and specific, helping to connect students with any and all resources they might need, from peer tutors, math and writing workshops, and the library, to the Resource Center, CAPS, and the Office of Religious and Spiritual Life — plus everything in between. Basically, we are here not only to help you but also to help you help yourself!
This year, more so than many others, will be a challenge for the Wesleyan community as a whole. The APAs are here to enhance your access to academic resources and help you reach your academic goals at Wesleyan, despite the extraneous circumstances that make this year especially difficult. But how do you get connected with the peer advisors? All of our bios are posted on the website (with our emails), so if you read through them and think that you would connect well with a certain peer advisor, feel free to reach out to them directly. Otherwise, as we said before, we are available over email at peeradvisors@wesleyan.edu to answer any and all of your questions that you might have — please do not hesitate to reach out! While this was just a quick overview of our roles on campus, we are happy to help with whatever we can. We look forward to working with you, and welcome to Wesleyan!
All You Need to Know about Pre-Reg from the Academic Peer Advisors
Via Zoom, Thursday, July 23, from 12:00 noon-1:00pm EDT
In this session, join the Academic Peer Advisors and Dean Phillips to learn how to navigate the Pre-Reg system. Topics covered include the whats and hows of Pre-Reg, navigating WesMaps, and factors to consider in choosing courses. There will also be a Q&A at the end of the session where your pre-submitted and on-the-spot questions will be answered, so be sure to tune in!
If you would like to participate in this panel, please sign up though this link (Wesleyan login required).
Course Pre-Registration Opens July 20
The Course Pre-Registration system opens July 20. Until the system closes on August 6, you will be able to browse WesMaps and rank your course preferences for the fall semester. You will be informed of your course placements in mid-August.
You should begin to think in terms of building a manageable course of study that offers challenge as well as flexibility for you to explore the curriculum and discover new interests. As you pursue your educational goals, keep in mind the idea of constructing a schedule that is balanced, challenging, and interesting. An academic schedule is balanced when:
There is a combination of small and large classes, lecture and discussion, and variations in course content and focus (e.g., reading, writing, quantitative work, artistic activity). This can provide breadth and stimulate academic curiosity while keeping a schedule manageable yet challenging.
There is variation in class days and times and instruction mode. For some students, this is as important a consideration as what courses to choose. Without sacrificing intellectual rigor or interest, students should try to distribute their courses across the week and throughout the day in the way that works best for them.
Charting a Course through the Open Curriculum: An Open Conversation with Professor Gottschalk and Dean Phillips
The open curriculum affords every student the freedom to chart their own educational journey through Wesleyan. Because the curriculum is open, there are no required courses at Wesleyan other than the courses required to complete one’s major. Students are expected to pursue intellectual breadth and depth during their four-year course of study, but the open curriculum does not proscribe any set path to achieve this goal. Students are expected to find their own path.
So how do you navigate the open curriculum if there are no guideposts? How do you chart a path through the open curriculum if you don’t yet know where you’re going? This fall Wesleyan will be offering over a thousand courses in dozens of fields of study. How will you decide which ones you want to take?
Peter Gottschalk, Professor of Religion, and David Phillips, Dean for the Class of 2024, will be hosting an open conversation on how to chart a course through the open curriculum via Zoom on Friday, July 24, from 11:30am—12:30pm EDT. If you would like to join this conversation, please sign up though this link (Wesleyan login required).