New Student Registration Information

Set your Westmont College Email/WebAdvisor Password

Information on your Westmont username and instructions on how to set up your password has already been sent by the Office of Admissions to your personal email account. Please follow those instructions to set up your password. This will be the username and password you will use to log into a number of different systems at Westmont. If you have questions, need help, or are having trouble setting up your password, contact your Admissions Counselor at 800-777-9011 or by email at admissions@westmont.edu.

Registration Profile Survey

Complete the Registration Profile Survey, which was sent by the Admissions Office to your email account. 

We will use the survey to assign you to a faculty academic advisor in your preferred academic department. By completing the survey, you are not declaring your major, but it will help us assign you to an advisor who can help you start exploring your interests. 

If you have not decided on a major that is fine! Your academic advisor will still be able to offer guidance and suggestions as you use the general education requirements to help you explore possible interest areas. In the meantime, you will be working together to create a first-semester schedule that will fit your needs. You will be able to change your advisor at any time as you take courses and begin to develop relationships with the Westmont faculty. 

What Foreign Language Class Should I take? 

As part of the general education requirements for your degree, you are required to complete one college-level foreign language course, however, you are not required to register for a foreign language course in your first semester.   

If you plan on continuing the same foreign language you studied prior to Westmont then you must take the foreign language placement exam to determine the appropriate level of language to continue your studies. If you want to start a new foreign language, you do not need to take the placement exam and you may enroll in the beginning semester of the new language. 

Language Placement Assessment 

Frequently Asked Questions about the exam. 

The password is the same password as your email password. 

The placement exam will take about 15-20 minutes. Do not use any resource books, dictionaries or other materials during the placement exam. 

If you are already fluent in another language please contact the Modern Languages Department when you arrive on campus for alternative ways to establish your fluency. 

Preparing to Register for Your First Semester at Westmont

In this step, you will become familiar with WebAdvisor, Westmont's online academic portal. You can use WebAdvisor at any time to explore class offerings for future semesters, register for classes, and to view your overall progress toward completing your degree. 

You need your Westmont username and password to log into WebAdvisor. Use the PREFIX of your email (without the @westmont.edu) as your username when you log in.  

• Test your login to WebAdvisor
• Navigate to the Student Menu

• Click on registration day and time on the Student Menu to take note of the time you can enroll in your classes

• Every student is unique. Use this tutorial to help you navigate through your Program Evaluation, which shows you how you are completing your degree requirements. 

• Click on Search for Sections

  • Use the tutorial to learn how to review class offerings
  • Use the Schedule Planner to continue to build your schedule

What should I take in my first semester?

For the first semester, we suggest one course from the Common Contexts, one course to explore a potential major, one PE activity, and additional courses from the Common Inquiries and Common Skills areas as desired. 

Students should enroll in at least 12 units and no more than 18 units per term.

First-year students can take lower-division courses (numbered 001-099). 

Typically, students will have a schedule with a form similar, but not limited to the one below in their first semester.

Video on Step 2 

Understanding General Education Requirements at Westmont College

Westmont's general education program is organized into 4 main categories: 

• Common Contexts: These courses ground Westmont students in a body of defining material and explicitly invite them into an understanding of the Christian liberal arts.
• Common Inquiries: These courses empower students to explore the knowledge, methodologies, and modes of inquiry within a given discipline. 
• Common Skills: These courses encourage students to develop verbal, quantitative, or physical dexterity. 
• Compassionate Action: These courses give students the opportunity to put their education into action in a variety of ways, many of which may be part of the student's major requirements. This is typically completed in the student's junior or senior year.  

You will find a more detailed description of the general education program and its role in your liberal arts education in the Westmont College Catalog.

Click here to review frequently asked questions about Westmont's general education program. 

The full list of all approved general education courses may help you as you consider what courses to register for each semester. You will find that a number of our general education courses also meet major requirements. This allows you to use the general education program to explore possible major interests. As you begin building a possible list of courses for next semester, start by noting down the course names and numbers of 6-7 possible courses from the General Education Courses Grid below that look interesting to you. Make sure to choose courses in the Common Context, Common Inquiries, and Common Skills areas. We will add possible major courses to this list in the next step.     

General Education Courses Grid 

This tutorial will help you as you navigate the various screens within WebAdvisor so that you can view which courses are offered next semester. Use your initial list of 6-7 possible courses to see if those courses are offered next semester and what times they are offered. You should now have a longer list of possible class sections to choose from. If your list of possible sections is small you may need to go back into the General Education Courses Grid to add in additional class section options before moving to the next step.  

Many courses in the General Education Courses Grid will satisfy two general education requirements as noted in the "Other GE" column. 

Transfer Students: 

Transfer students are not restricted to lower-division courses and may take any course as long as they meet the prerequisites.

Here is a helpful guide on how transfer work is evaluated and transferred to Westmont College.

The links below will help you plan for how any Advanced Placement and International Baccalaureate credits are applied to a student's record. 

• Click here to review how accepted AP test scores will benefit you at Westmont College. 
• Click here to review how accepted IB test scores will benefit you at Westmont College. 
• Check your Westmont Unofficial Transcript and Program Evaluation to view accepted scores in WebAdvisor. Credit will be posted as it is received by the Student Records Office. 

Video on Step 3

How can I get started on my major now? 

Westmont has provided sample plans below outlining course suggestions for the first-year in each discipline. These sample plans will be useful as you can add in potential major courses to the list of courses you are developing for your first semester. Keep in mind that these are sample plans. Not every student will complete the major in the same way. 

If you are currently unsure of your major, don't worry! The general education requirements are designed to cross disciplines so that you can experience different aspects of Westmont's academic offerings. Focusing first on completing your general education requirements will help you discover what majors might interest you.

Once you have a list of possible other classes, use the Schedule Planner to help you create a preferred schedule with no time conflicts. Use the remaining class sections on your list as backup courses in the event that your preferred sections are already closed.  

• View the major and minor requirements in the Westmont College Catalog
• View the first-year sample plans for each discipline below

Using WebAdvisor to Select and Register for Classes

Now that you're familiar with Westmont's general education classes and reviewed your initial schedule, you can now finalize your schedule. Using your completed schedule planner with the list of 8-10 possible courses you are now ready to register for classes! 

• On the Student Menu in WebAdvisor, click Register and Drop Sections
  • This registration tutorial will help you create your preferred sections in WebAdvisor 
  • On your appointed registration day and time, you can use this Register and Drop Sections tutorial to walk you through the final steps of registration. 
  • Double-check My Class Schedule on the WebAdvisor main menu once you've registered to make sure that your class registration was successful. 

Some notes on registration: 

• If the course title includes "w/lab" you must also register for the lab section associated with the course. For example, the lecture section of the General Chemistry w/lab course is CHM-005-1 and the lab section of the course is General Chemistry, CHM-005L.
• Be flexible with the time offerings for courses and be prepared by selecting backup courses in case your first choices have closed by the time you register. 
• To ensure that you are not barred from registering for specific courses due to a prerequisite requirement, you may attempt to register for courses in your preferred sections list before your appointed time. You will not be allowed to register before your appointed time, but any issues that prohibit you from registering will appear as a warning. Be sure to clear up these issues prior to registering. 

Video on Step 5

I'm on a Waitlist.  Now what?  

Managing Waitlists

When a class has reached its capacity its status is changed to "Closed". When a student adds themselves to the waitlist, the course is still closed, but the status of the course is changed to "Waitlisted." A student on the waitlist will not automatically be moved into the course from the waitlist, even if a space becomes available. 

If you are waitlisted for a course, you are responsible for moving yourself from the waitlist into the closed course by getting instructor approval.

Adding &  Dropping Classes 

After you register, you still have the opportunity to add and drop via WebAdvisor until the day before the first day of classes.

On the first day of class, however, you will not be able to use WebAdvisor to make changes to your schedule. You will need to either get an Add/Drop form from the Student Records Office or have the instructor add or drop you from their course on WebAdvisor. The form can be picked in the Student Records Office when you arrive on campus.  

To make schedule changes using an Add/Drop form:

• Fill in the course information for the Department, Number and Section as it appears in WebAdvisor in either the Add Courses or Drop Courses sections depending on the schedule change(s) you wish to make.
• Have the instructor sign the form next to their course. 
• Bring the Add/Drop form back to the Student Records Office to finalize the schedule change(s) before the Add/Drop Deadline.  

Student Success Coaches and the Student Records Office staff members are here to support you in your transition to Westmont! 

The Student Success Coaches and the Student Records Office staff are knowledgeable about schedule options, navigating WebAdvisor, and other tools for new students. Please reach out to them as needed during the registration process.  

Before you reach out to the Student Success Coaches and the Student Records Office, please review all of the information in the Registration Checklist tabs and have a list of questions prepared. Friends and family are welcome to assist you in the registration process, but it's important to know that federal laws protect a students' academic privacy. Without the students' consent, there are some questions we may not be able to discuss over the phone unless the student is present and active in the conversation.  

Contacting the Student Success Coaches and the Student Records Office staff members is a great opportunity for students to be "in the driver's seat" on their first-semester schedule.  

If students have any questions or concerns about the registration process, they can contact their Student Success Coach. Each student has received an email on how to set up an appointment with their Student Success Coach.

If you would like to talk with a Student Records Office staff member, call 805-565-6060 (leave a message at this time) or by email at registrar@westmont.edu. 

Textbook Information

Purchase or rent your textbooks from the Westmont College Store.  Your textbooks will be ready to pick up when you arrive! You may retrieve them from the Westmont Mail Center. 

Questions? Visit the College Store FAQ site.