Undergraduate Program

Policies and Procedures

Declaring a Major in Chemistry

You must declare your major by the beginning of your junior year. You declare your major in Axess, and the declaration is then approved by the department. Monitor Axess for this approval. Once approved, pickup your student folder from your previous/freshman advisor, and bring the folder to the Chemistry Undergraduate Advising Office (Mudd 121A, x3-1525).

Selecting an Advisor

Every chemistry major must select an advisor by the end of April of the second year. If you are doing research, or have received a fellowship to do research over the summer, your research advisor automatically becomes your academic advisor also. If you are not doing research, you may ask any faculty member in the department to serve as your advisor. Phone or email the faculty member to set a meeting time to discuss his/her being your academic advisor. After this meeting, advise the chemistry Undergraduate Advising Office (Mudd 121A, x3-1525) of the name of your academic advisor. Be sure to meet regularly with your advisor to keep him/her informed of your progress, achievements, career interests, etc. Take the initiative in arranging these meetings if necessary. Remember, your advisor needs to know something about you to be able to write that recommendation you need come senior year.

Transferring Credits

Credit earned at another institution, whether during summer school or full-time attendance, can be used to meet various Stanford requirements: a) the unit requirement for graduation, b) the general University requirements (writing, distribution, language), and c) the major department requirements. Approval procedures for transfer credit depend on the type of requirement to be fulfilled.

a) Graduation Requirements

All transfer credit to be applied toward the University graduation requirement of 180 units must be approved by the Registrar's Office. In petitioning for approval, students should note the guidelines outlined under "Transfer Credit" in the Stanford Bulletin.

b) General University Requirements

Whether a transferred course may also satisfy general University requirements is determined case-by-case by the Registrar and the appropriate department. The Registrar will notify the student in writing which credits meet general University requirements when the units are transferred to Stanford.

c) Department Requirements

Whether transferred courses approved by the Registrar for graduation credit also satisfy department requirements is determined by the department. Courses that meet the Chemistry Department major requirements for chemistry, physics, and mathematics must be approved by the chair of the Chemistry Department Undergraduate Study Committee. The student should bring to the transfer credit interview in Chemistry i) an official transcript for the transferred courses, ii) a course catalog or syllabus describing the transferred courses, and iii) a statement from the Stanford math or physics department, respectively, about the Stanford equivalency of any math or physics transfer courses (or you can have that department email the statement to the chair of the Chemistry Undergraduate Study Committee or to the Chemistry Undergraduate Advising Office at roger.kuhn@stanford.edu). Performance, course content, and course units are important considerations. It is the student's responsibility to obtain all necessary approvals for transfer credits meeting departmental requirements for the major.

Summer School - Chemistry students planning to take coursework at another institution during the summer are strongly encouraged to determine in advance whether the courses meet chemistry requirements. Show the summer catalog describing the courses to be taken to the chair of the Chemistry Undergraduate Study Committee. Because of the Stanford quarter system and the integrated core program in chemistry, courses at other institutions aren't always equivalent to Stanford chemistry courses in content and units. Be sure to have the transfer credits approved officially after you actually take the course.

For further information on transfer credit, see the Stanford Bulletin.