First-Year Students
Summer Advising Days
Download the Summer Advising Days Schedule (PDF)
Your Summer Advising Day will introduce you to the demands of college academics, the opportunities for growth and development provided by the College's co-curricular programs, and the wide variety of support services the College offers. You will hear from College faculty, learn about the Honor Code and campus information technology, and have a chance to meet representatives of offices including Residence Life, Athletics, Career Development, Health and Counseling Services, Multicultural Affairs, and the Office of Academic Skills. Parents will have a chance to hear about life outside of the classroom, information technology and academic computing, and payment options and procedures.
The most important part of your Summer Advising Day is your individual appointment with a faculty member who will help you select your first semester courses. If you have indicated a possible major or area of interest, we will try to have you meet with a faculty member from that department or area. But it's not at all necessary that you know what you want to major in—'undecided' means 'open to a lot of possibilities'! And all the summer advisors are well trained to assist students with all areas of the curriculum.
The links below show a list of courses we recommend for first year students and a list of all the fall 2008 courses. We hold places in each course for each of the three advising days, so you are no more likely to be closed out of a course on June 27 than you are on June 20. In all but a few cases, the numbers under the heading "Avail" on the course lists show the number of seats available in that course for the first day of summer advising. There will usually be the same or a similar number of seats available on the second and third advising days.
Thinking about first semester courses: Some suggestions
By looking over this list of recommended courses, you can begin to envision what four courses would make a good first semester for you. Don't worry too much about fulfilling requirements in your first semester; you will begin fulfilling the writing obligation by taking either ENG 101 or a CNW seminar in your first semester. All first year students must take both courses in their first year and both are offered each semester. And most of the other courses recommended for first year students also count toward general education/distribution requirements. So you can focus on what combination of courses will allow you to make a good adjustment to college academics and get off to a great start at Washington College.
A good balance of courses—a combination of courses that make different demands and require different talents—is usually best. You might take one course in an area familiar to you, one in an area you might major in, one in an area that's completely new to you, and one in an area that you find challenging. Or you might take some combination of courses that require a lot of reading (eg, literature, natural science, philosophy or history), courses that require frequent homework (eg, foreign language, economics, or math), courses that require essays and papers (eg, literature, philosophy, history, political science, sociology and anthropology) courses that focus on contemporary issues (eg, political science, economics, or sociology), courses that focus on the past (eg, history, history of art, some philosophy and literature), and courses with a hands-on component (eg, acting, fine art, lab science or social science courses with field work).
Before you come to campus for your advising day you can review the list of recommended courses and work out several different combinations of four courses that you think might make a good first semester for you. You can also check the College catalog for the requirements and suggested first year courses for majors that interest you. This exercise will help you develop a better idea of what to discuss with your summer advisor and having more concrete plans to discuss with your advisor will help him or her to advise you. And you should feel free to ask your advisor any questions that you have — we expect you to have questions and we're happy to answer them.
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