STUDENT TRANSITION EXPERIENCES

Wildcat Welcome, Northwestern’s mandatory on-campus orientation program for all new students, involves you in a wide range of activities designed to foster community, prepare you to choose classes, and celebrate the journey you’re about to begin.

June’s Purple Prep email will include a Wildcat Welcome Information Form to be completed by June 30, and a Wildcat Welcome programmatic overview will be released in late August.

No, Northwestern does not offer any summer orientation programs. All orientation activities, including course registration, will take place during Wildcat Welcome. All new first year and transfer students are required to attend the events and activities associated with Wildcat Welcome.

Registration will take place during Wildcat Welcome.

If you have previously studied a foreign language (Arabic, Latin, Chinese, French, Japanese, Korean, German, Hindi, Italian, Portuguese, Russian/Slavic, Spanish, or Swahili), chemistry, computer science, mathematics, or physics, and you plan to continue to study these subjects at Northwestern, you'll need to determine at what level to begin. Departments teaching these subjects may use your scores on the Advanced Placement (AP) Examination, SAT II, and/or a Northwestern placement exam to help you plan an appropriate academic program.

Carefully read the Placement Exam section of the Purple Prep website to determine if you need to take a placement test either over the summer or during Wildcat Welcome. As a rule, online placement exams should be taken as early as possible.

Upon check-in to Wildcat Welcome, you will receive a printed booklet that will contain the Wildcat Welcome schedule for the first two days. A full schedule will be posted on the Class Canvas page, and the daily schedule is emailed to students the night before each day of Wildcat Welcome.

Your peer adviser is a returning student with an academic concentration similar to yours who has been carefully selected and trained to guide you through your transition to the University over the summer, during Wildcat Welcome, and throughout your first year.

Your PA has already been through the whole experience and is an outstanding resource, so don’t hesitate to ask about your curiosities and concerns. Peer advisers reach out to new Wildcats in late July/early August to connect you with your peer adviser group.

Information about orientation programs, and if any pre-orientation programs will be occurring, will be included in Purple Prep when it is released in early May.

Yes! We strive to make Wildcat Welcome representative of the transfer student experience. So, from the get go you are placed in a peer adviser group with other transfer students and led by an upper class transfer student.

Definitely! During Wildcat Welcome there will there be a Transfer Welcome, where you’ll be with the rest of the transfer community, and get an official welcome from the Dean of Students and hear from current transfer students. There will also be opportunities to get to know transfers outside of your Peer Adviser group during the Transfer Student Bonfire and the Transfer Trip to Chicago.

We know this can feel a little overwhelming, so head to Off-Campus Life to learn more about housing in Evanston.