As you begin planning your fall schedule of classes, there are a few things you should keep in mind.

  1. First-year students enter Puget Sound with no declared majors, and we urge all students to explore the liberal arts. However, if you have a certain major (or majors) in mind as you begin, it is sensible to choose a class (or classes) in the area(s) of your interest. Often the best strategy is to choose classes from a possible major that also meet core requirements, so that if you change your mind later, you will have met requirements in any case. Requirements for all majors are listed in the Bulletin and online under Academics.
  2. Before coming to campus in August, you will already have been assigned to your First-Year Advising class and your fall First-Year Seminar (for some first-year students, this will be the same class). Thus you will already be enrolled in one or two of the three or four courses you will take for the fall term. When planning your schedule, be sure to include your First-Year Advising class and First-Year Seminar. Then select additional classes for a total of three or four in the fall term.
  3. Before coming to campus in August, you will have taken Puget Sound's Mathematics Placement Test (you will find this mandatory test on your myPugetSound portal) to help in finding the appropriate level at which to begin college mathematics. Your advisor will have guidelines by which to assist you during Orientation in selecting an appropriate mathematics course (if you choose to take this type of course in the first semester). Use the Bulletin course descriptions to make your preliminary selection, and plan to discuss a final selection with your advisor before registering for the remainder of your fall schedule.
  4. All Puget Sound students are expected to satisfy our foreign language graduation requirement. If you have not met this graduation requirement before coming to campus (or if you have other reasons for pursuing foreign language study), consider enrolling in a language course in the fall, since the first courses in both elementary and intermediate sequences are offered only in fall term.
  5. Classes are ordinarily numbered in accordance with the class standing of students who should be taking them. As a rule, first-year students should confine themselves to 100- and 200-level courses as they begin their Puget Sound careers.
  6. If you plan to enroll in a class that lists both a lecture and several labs, you will need to select one of the labs as well as the lecture section. Be sure the time the lab and/or discussion section is offered fits into your schedule.
    Note: If your advising class is a laboratory section of one of our science courses, you will also be enrolled for that course's lecture. In all sciences but physics, you must enroll in the lecture whose section letter is repeated as the first letter of your lab (for example, if your advising section is Biology 111AA, you must enroll in the Biology 111A lecture). Physics students may choose whatever lecture fits their schedule.
  7. Of the 32 units required for graduation, two may be earned in activity classes. Feel free to take an activity class as you begin, as moving the body helps the mind! Varsity athletes and musicians participating in Puget Sound ensembles should plan to register for credit in these activities.
  8. You may take one course pass/fail. But bear in mind that courses taken pass/fail may never be used to meet core or major requirements. Also be aware that no more than four units of pass/fail coursework may be applied toward graduation. Finally pass/fail grading requires at least a C- for a pass, a higher standard than letter grading. Many students never exercise the pass/fail option.