Transferring to Wake Forest

Every incoming first-year or transfer student will be assigned a lower-division advisor (a faculty or staff member), along with a student advisor. Student advisors are continuing students who have been successful throughout their first year(s) of college and wish to share their knowledge with incoming students. Incoming students will receive support and outreach from their lower-division and student advisors within the first semester to ensure that they are adjusting to campus life at Wake Forest.

Once a student declares a major, s/he will be assigned to an academic advisor within that department.

Students must meet with their advisors each semester to discuss the current term, future course selection, and obtain their PIN for registration. We encourage all students to meet with their assigned advisors throughout the year for academic advice or concerns and for everyday guidance in navigating college.

After transfer students are admitted to Wake Forest, they will work with the Registrar’s Office to submit previous university coursework for transfer credit. To prepare for this process, students should collect all syllabi from previous semesters. Please see the Departmental Guidelines for Transfer Credit spreadsheet regarding transfer credit.

Transfer students must earn at least 60 hours at Wake Forest, and no grade below a C can be transferred for academic credit. More details can be found at https://registrar.wfu.edu/transfer-credit-portal/transfer-student-information/

Unlike incoming first year students, transfer students register for their first semester of courses with the help of an academic counselor from the Office of Academic Advising. This is a benefit of being a transfer – you do not have to self-register via the portal with every other first year. This process typically occurs in June for fall admissions, and in December/January for the spring. Registration is dependent on each student’s transfer credit evaluations, so submit all records, transcripts, syllabi from previous institutions early.

Start with divisional and basic requirements! The more you get out of the way early, the more flexibility you have later on. The course completion checklist (registrar.wfu.edu) is a great resource for exploring which courses fulfill those requirements. Additionally, check out our major exploration page for the introductory courses for every campus major.

Students interested in pre-business, pre-health, and engineering need to follow designated tracks or take certain pre-requisite classes, so if you have an idea of what you’re interested in, check out the pre-professional page under the Academic Planning tab at advising.wfu.edu. Certain fields of study have very strict requirements, so you’ll want to check those out and get started right away.

Generally, no. However, some courses from your previous university may fulfill some requirements. For example, if your previous school offered a freshman seminar that was like a “University 101” course focused on study habits and professional development, that would not count for your FYS credit. However, if you took a writing-intensive seminar, that might fulfill the requirement for FYS or WRI 111. Transfer credits vary greatly from student to student.

If you do not transfer in an FYS and you transfer fewer than 23 semester hours, you must enroll in and pass (on a graded basis only) a First Year Seminar (FYS). Those awarded 23 or more hours in transfer work must take either an FYS or an alternative course that emphasizes reading, writing, and participation in class discussions. The alternative course will be selected after consulting with your academic advisor and with the concurrence of the Office of the University Registrar. The alternative course cannot fulfill other basic, divisional, major, or minor requirements nor may it primarily consist of individual research that culminates in a single project of an independent rather than a seminar experience. These classes include HMN 280, HMN 283, HMN 290, WST 321, HON 133, CLA 276, REL 320 and departmental seminar courses not required for major or minor. It will be the student’s responsibility to email the registrar at registrar@wfu.edu upon completion of the course, as this will require manual adjustment to the degree evaluation.

You can declare a major at Wake once you have completed 40 credit hours. Most sophomores declare during a declaration period in the second semester of sophomore year. There is no need to rush major declarations, but it is beneficial to declare for registration purposes. Once you have declared a major, your major advisor will help register you for courses each semester.
To declare, visit WIN>Virtual Campus>Add/Drop Major/Minor Concentration

View the course completion checklist – found on the homepage of the University Registrar. There you will also find a list of quantitative (QR) and cultural diversity (CD) courses – you need one of each.

Also, you can search for any course and its descriptions along with pre or co-requisites within the Undergraduate Bulletin.