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Welcome to the Warren College Family and UCSD Triton Community!

 

Congratulations on your acceptance to UC San Diego, Warren College! Beginning early June, our office will be sending incoming students our monthly newsletter about Fall quarter enrollment, academic advising, and other important information and reminders.

In the meantime, carefully review the information and links on this page for academic information.

New Triton Advising (NTA) Opens June 22

After completing the NTA, new students can send questions to academic advisors using the 'Ask a Question' feature in the Virtual Advising Center (vac.ucsd.edu)

Important Dates

 

Please visit and bookmark this website: Important Advising Dates

Preparing for Your First Quarter Enrollment

Quarter System and Units

UCSD's academic calendar operates on the quarter system. Each quarter is 10 weeks.

  • Fall quarter: Late September – December
  • Winter quarter: Early January – March
  • Spring quarter: Late March – June
  • Summer quarter (optional): two sessions that are each five weeks long

Full time enrollment is 12 units each quarter. Most students take 12-16 units each quarter. 

Course Information

  • When you enroll in a course with a discussion section, you are committing to both the lecture and the discussion for the entire quarter.
  • The lecture (LE) is often a large group of 200+ students. The majority of courses will have a lecture and a discussion section. Not all courses have discussion sections.
  • The discussion (DI) section is a smaller group of students (40 or less). This is the interactive part of the course where:
    • assignments are given and collected
    • questions are answered
    • lecture material is reviewed and discussed

Placement Exams (First Year Students only)

  • Entry Level Writing Requirement (ELWR) - All incoming first-year students who do not have another way to fulfill ELWR prior to their matriculation at UC San Diego must complete the Writing Placement Process (WPP) in summer.
  • If you are an incoming first-year student for Fall 2026 and need Math for your major, you must take the Math Placement Exam by June 1 to be able to enroll in Fall classes. Learn more here and see the timeline you should follow.

Choosing Classes

A typical first quarter schedule consists of three or four courses, a total of 12-16 units. For example:

First Year Student Transfer Student

1. Lower-Division Major Course
for undeclared majors, choose a course to explore a prospective major

1. Major Course
see major department website for requirements

2. Major Course or University Requirement
a second major course, Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) course, Jane Teranes Climate Change Education (JTCCER) course.

 2. Major Course or University Requirement | a second major course, Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) course.

3. WCWP-010A or AWP-003 or AWP-04A* 
*AWP-04A may not be offered Fall quarter.

 3. WCWP-100

4. General-Education Course (GE)
a Program of Concentration (PofC) or Area Study course.

4. General-Education Course (GE)
an upper-division course, non-contiguous (UDNC) to the major discipline

Schedule Planning Tips

  • Be sure to have 1-2 back up classes that have open seats. 

  • We do not recommend waitlisting courses your first quarter, however if you choose to do so, please go here for more information. 

  • You must be enrolled in a minimum of 12 units to be a full-time student, wait-list classes do not count.

  • We recommend that first-year students do not enroll in upper-division courses (numbered 100+) in their first year. 

Resources