Students in the College of Architecture and the College of Art are held to the standards outlined in Washington University’s Undergraduate Student Academic Integrity Policy.
The Bulletin lists policies specific to the College of Architecture and the College of Art. Below is an overview of frequently referenced policies shared by the College of Architecture and the College of Art. Please note that the information provided below is for quick reference only. Full policies can be found using the links to The Bulletin provided above.
A maximum of 15 non-WU credits can be counted toward your degree in accordance with policies for Advanced Placement, International Baccalaureate, and British A-Level.
AP, IB and British A-Level credit counts as open/general electives toward any Sam Fox School degree. AP, IB and British A-Level credit does not count toward Sam Fox School major or minor requirements.
Students are responsible for ensuring that AP, IB and British A-Level scores are received by the Sam Fox School Registrar’s office. Scores and units awarded are posted to the student’s academic record in WebSTAC.
College credit may be awarded for university classes taken in high school if all of the following criteria are met:
- The course was taken at an accredited college or university.
- The course was taught on a college campus by a university instructor.
- The course did not count toward high school graduation.
Questions? Email samfoxregistrar@email.wustl.edu.
To audit a course means that you attend class but do not complete work for the course. You do not receive credit for an audited course. Auditing works best for large lecture classes. Studios and smaller classes such as seminars are not good options for auditing. Auditing a course requires approval from your academic advisor and the course professor.
Undergraduate students enrolled in the College of Arts & Sciences, the James McKelvey School of Engineering, and the Olin Business School may apply to transfer into the College of Architecture or the College of Art in the Sam Fox School. Students who wish to switch Colleges within the Sam Fox School must apply to do so.
Transfer requests must be made in WebSTAC by the last day of final exams of the semester before the effective semester. It is strongly recommended that you meet with a Four-Year Advisor in the Sam Fox School prior to registration to ensure that you know what classes to take the following semester and can be given waitlist priority. Otherwise, enrollment in the required studios for your semester of entry may not be possible.
There are separate interdivision transfer policies for The College of Architecture and the College of Art. Each interdivision transfer request is evaluated on a case by case basis. Meeting the transfer criteria does not guarantee admission into the College of Art or the College of Architecture.
All Washington University students must spend their first semester in the academic division that admitted them.
You may pursue a maximum of three academic programs not to exceed 2 majors + 1 minor or 1 major + 2 minors.
You must be enrolled in at least 12 credit hours/semester to maintain your status as a full-time student. Failure to do this will jeopardize your financial aid and — for international students — your student visa status. Enrolling in over 18 credits hours is permitted only after consulting with your academic advisor.
Students may take one allowable* course under the pass/fail option each semester with one exception. If one course is offered only for pass/fail, a second course may also be taken pass/fail.
- Course fulfilling the first-year writing requirement.
- Courses for major or minor requirements.
- Courses that do not allow pass/fail or audit as a grade option.
- Courses with an F10 or F20 department number, unless otherwise noted in the course description.
- Students majoring in Architecture must take Calculus and Physics for credit. A grade of C- or better is needed to fulfill the requirement.
- History of Western Art, Architecture & Design (L01 Art-Arch 113) may be taken pass/fail by College of Art students. Students in the College of Architecture must take this course for a grade.
- Introduction to Modern Art, Architecture and Design (L01 Art-Arch 215) may be taken pass/fail by students in the College of Art.
Students wishing to transfer credit for other completed at another institution must bring a full catalog description of the course(s) to the Sam Fox School Registrar’s Office for pre-approval. Upon receipt of an official transcript indicating a grade of C or better, courses will be considered for transfer. Grades for transfer courses will not appear on the student’s Washington University record and will not figure into the student’s GPA. College courses taken to earn credit for high school graduation will not be considered for transfer. Washington University does not transfer credits for courses taken online. No transfer credit will be accepted for courses taken while a student is suspended from Washington University for violations of the University Student Judicial Code or Academic Integrity policy.
Students deferring admission or taking a gap year are not eligible to earn transfer credit.
Courses listed with the prefix “U-” are CAPS (formerly University College) courses. You are permitted to take one such course each semester; however, they do not count toward your degree requirements and are not included in your GPA.
Enrollments for most undergraduate courses in the Sam Fox School are “Managed by Waitlist.” This means all students who sign up for a course are placed on the waitlist, after which the Sam Fox Registrar’s Office manually enrolls students based on a combination of factors including year and program of study.
Waitlists are used for several reasons: a) to prioritize some groups of students (e.g. degrees with high need for a specific course), b) to ensure prerequisites are met before enrollment, and c) to ensure there is fair access to a high demand course.
Two rules apply to most waitlists:
- Your waitlist position is not relevant to your chances of enrolling in a course. Waitlist position is based on when one adds the course to their schedule. This does not provide fair access or allow prioritization of students who need specific courses.
- There are exceptions and limitations to all prioritization schemes. For example, priority may not be given to someone who has recently added/changed degrees and now needs a specific course.
Many Sam Fox courses are the same size from semester to semester. It may help to review course enrollment in prior semesters and the current size of the waitlist to get some idea of chances of enrollment. Go to the course in WebSTAC, expand the “Details” for the course, and select the “History” and then a specific semester to be able to look at enrollments of prior semesters. There are other factors that influence the size, like having a new/different instructor and the capacity of the assigned room.