Transfer Checklist for Success

Explore next steps, deadlines, and events below. We hope this helps you as you start your journey to Georgetown and Southwestern.

– Move-In & Required Orientation –

• Orientation & Move-In

Make note of all **Required** sessions. You are fully expected to participate in all orientation sessions and/or events, unless otherwise indicated. Please make arrangements now, with work or other obligations, to be available.

Full orientation schedule is coming soon! Here are some dates and times to be aware of.

Thursday, January 11, 2024

• 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. - Move-in for students living on campus.
• 1:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m. - Advising appointments for students needing to register for classes.
• 5:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m. - **Required** - Dinner with Student Life staff.

Friday, January 12, 2024

• 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. - **Required** - Orientation check-in.
• 9:30 a.m. to 10:30 a.m. - **Required** - Meet your fellow transfer students.
• 10:30 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. - **Required** - Shaping your Southwestern experience.
• 11:30 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. - **Required** - Lunch & Panel Discussion.
• 1:00 p.m. to 2:00 p.m. - Campus tour.
• 2:00 p.m. to 3:45 p.m. - Discretionary time to conduct university business.
• 3:45 p.m. to 4:30 p.m. - **Required** - Advanced-Entry Seminar Introduction.
• 4:30 p.m. to 5:30 p.m. - **Required** - Afternoon Reception/Tales and Traditions.
• 5:30 p.m. - Dinner on your own/Explore Georgetown

Tuesday, January 16, 2024

• First Day of Spring Semester
  
  

• Student ID Card

In the coming weeks, watch for an email from piratecardphoto@southwestern.edu. Use your SUeID to login and submit your photo via the CloudCard Online system. If you complete this prior to your arrival to campus, your student ID card will be waiting for you. Students who do not complete the process can have student ID cards created at orientation on January 12.

• Vehicle Registration & Parking Decals

• All Southwestern students are automatically billed $100 per semester for vehicle parking registration. If you are not bringing a vehicle to campus, please see the section below to waive the charge.
• To register your vehicle in advance, please visit the Campus Parking Information website and fill out the Vehicle Registration Form. Your parking decal will be waiting for you at check-in on January 12.

Waive the Vehicle Registration Charge

• If the student does not have a vehicle on campus, the charge may be waived. You will get an email with all pertinent information and instructions to waive this charge. You may also contact the Business Office at studentaccounts@southwestern.edu or 512.863.1928.
  
  

– Getting Your SUeID –

Now that you have submitted your enrollment deposit, you will receive an SUeID, your official Southwestern University Electronic ID, which allows you to enter the Southwestern student portal, my.southwestern.edu . Please keep in mind that this is different than your admission status portal login.

• The Information Technology Office will generate SUeID’s within 48 hours of your enrollment deposit (excluding weekends). 
• SUeIDs will be delivered to you through your admission status portal; the same place where you received your admission, scholarship, and/or financial aid letters.
• You will use your SUeID to access the mySouthwestern student portal .
• And, you will use your SUeID when it’s time to register for classes (see below), sign up for housing, check your Southwestern email (through the Google Gmail interface), and access Moodle (Southwestern’s classroom management system) when classes start.

– Course Advising & Registration Information –

• Advising & Registration 
One-on-one advising and registration appointments are required for spring semester transfer students. You must fill out the Alternative Advising & Registration Request form. The Director of Advising and Retention will use this form to match you with an academic advisor for your advising and registration appointment. All of our advisors are trained to work with all students, regardless of potential major. You will be assigned your official academic advisor once classes begin in the spring.

Appointments will begin in late November. Your Alternative Advising & Registration appointment will be conducted by phone, virtually, or in person and will be approximately 1 hour.   

If you have any questions about advising or registration, you may contact Jennifer Leach at leachj@southwestern.edu or 512.863.1886.

*This is only an option for deposited students. You cannot register until you have received your SUeID. This information can be found in your admission status portal.

• Advanced-Entry Seminar (AES)
The Advanced-Entry Seminar is a required course that helps you begin to practice an education that arcs across your experiences and the curriculum; connecting the questions and perspectives you encounter, as well as the skills you develop, to each other and to the world. It is also your first exposure to Paideia—Southwestern’s distinctive interdisciplinary approach to integrating curricular and co-curricular experiences. 

This course is a full, four-credit, graded course for all incoming transfer students. The Advanced-Entry Seminar typically meets on Tuesdays and Thursdays at 8:30 a.m. and will be automatically added to your schedule your first semester at Southwestern.

If you have any questions about the Advanced-Entry Seminar Program, please contact Julie Cowley at 512/863.1510 or cowleyj@southwestern.edu.

• Foreign Language Placement Exam
All students must take 3 semesters of a foreign language as part of Southwestern’s General Education requirements. 

Most incoming students are required to take a short exam to determine their level in the language sequence. There are five exceptions to this requirement: 1) students who did not study a foreign language in high school at all; 2) students who studied a foreign language in high school that is not offered at Southwestern; 3) students who are certain they will study a language offered at Southwestern that is different from the one they studied in high school; 4) students who are transferring college-level foreign language credit from another institution.

Please note, having taken the Advanced Placement (AP) or International Baccalaureate (IB) exam does not exempt you from taking the placement exam if you plan to continue studying the language you studied in high school.

Even if you are certain you will study a language at Southwestern you did not study in high school, it is nevertheless highly advisable that you go ahead and take the placement test in the language you have studied. Taking the test in no way commits you to continue in that language, and if you place high enough you may earn course credit and thereby save time and tuition money in completing your degree plan.

Exam information for Chinese, French, German, and Spanish placement

Exam information for Latin placement

If you have advanced proficiency in a language not taught at Southwestern, you may contact Jennifer Kisel, Associate Registrar, at kiselj@southwestern.edu to see what arrangements can be made to test you in that language.

– Transfer Housing Information –

Please fill out the Spring Housing Request form in your Southwestern student portal.

All spring transfer students who require on campus-housing arrangements, should fill out the Spring Housing Request form. 

Once the form is received by Housing & Residence Life, you will be contacted by phone or email to discuss appropriate on-campus housing options. Placement will be determined by high school graduation date, age, and number of credits/hours transferred, along with information gathered from the housing request form.

– Business Office/Billing –

All account balances are required to be paid in full by the posted deadline indicated on your billing statement. Students with past-due balances may be dropped from classes and will not be allowed to move into on-campus housing until paid.

Late-payment penalties are assessed when students fail to pay their current charges by the due dates. A late-payment fee of $100 is charged to all unpaid accounts.

More Information

• Business Office Student Accounts

– Required Health Record –

The Health Center requires copies of your immunization records and a TB screening test by the posted deadline.

Call the Health Center directly at 512.863.1252  with any questions you may have.

– Student Health Insurance & Waiver –

Required Coverage

• All full-time students are required to have and maintain health insurance coverage as a condition of enrollment. All student accounts will automatically be charged for the University’s student health insurance plan annual premium. 
• Students who need health insurance coverage may purchase Southwestern’s insurance plan for coverage. 

Waive the Charge

• A student who is covered through their family’s health insurance plan can waive this charge by providing evidence of a primary insurance plan. You will get an email with all pertinent information and instructions to waive this charge. You may also contact the Business Office at studentaccounts@southwestern.edu  or 512.863.1928. 

More Information

• Southwestern’s Health Insurance Plan  

– Dewar Tuition Refund Plan & Waiver –

Billed Coverage

• All 2023-2024 students are automatically billed for, and enrolled in, the Dewar Tuition Refund Plan . The Dewar tuition refund plan is an optional supplemental insurance that is offered to protect your educational investment by providing a refund of tuition and fees in addition to the University refund policy in instances where a student withdraws for medical reasons. The plan covers up to 100% for injury and sickness withdrawals and up to 60% for mental health withdrawals with required doctor’s certification that the injury/sickness prevents the student from completing the rest of the semester.

Waive the Charge

• You will get an email with all pertinent information and instructions to waive this charge. You may also contact the Business Office at studentaccounts@southwestern.edu  or 512.863.1928.

– Connect –

• Follow @SouthwesternU  on Twitter and Instagram for all the latest news and info.