Start preparing for your academic experience at Occidental!
The Advising Center is your primary resource for questions related to the curriculum and other academic inquiries. There are several tasks to complete over the summer to prepare you for advising and registration for your first semester on campus.
Advising Form
Each Occidental student is assigned a faculty adviser who will help guide you through the College’s academic program. Your first meeting with your adviser will take place during orientation (in August), when they will assist you in selecting courses for the fall semester. The advising form is now live and will close on June 20.
First-Year Seminar Registration
The first class that you will register for is the First-Year Seminar (FYS), a signature element of the College’s Core Program. FYS courses are 4 units, fulfill graduation requirements, provide a shared intellectual experience with other new students, and help you transition to the College with college-level writing and critical thinking skills.
FYS registration will be open June 16-20 and you will receive detailed instructions about how to prepare and register for your fall FYS. Until then, you may browse through the FYS course offerings for Fall 2025 and start making a shortlist of those that interest you.
Placement Exams
Placement exams are available in several subjects–calculus, chemistry, music theory, and languages. Whether you need to take a placement exam depends on several factors, including the major(s) you are considering, whether you have taken AP exams in certain subjects, and so forth. The placement exam webpage has more details to help you figure out if you need to take a placement exam and how.
Preparing for your first advising appointment
To help you prepare for your first advising appointment, we recommend you watch the following videos, which will introduce you to some of the requirements you will need to complete during your time at Occidental:
- Intro to Advising, Part 1: Graduation Requirements
- Intro to Advising, Part 2: Core Requirement
- Introduction to Course Counts
After you've watched these videos, start looking at the courses that are being offered on Course Counts, our course schedule.
New students can enroll in up to 18 units during their first semester. Most students take four, 4-unit courses, for a total of 16 units. There are also many optional 1- or 2-unit courses you can sign up for as well. To make steady progress toward finishing your degree, we recommend taking at least 16 units each semester.
When orientation starts in August, you'll have an advising session followed by class registration.
