Information for Transfer Students (students who earned 18 or more college credits after graduating from high school).
Information for First-Year Students (students who earned fewer than 18 credits after graduating from high school).
Transfer Students
If you earned 18 or more college credits after graduating from high school, you are considered a Transfer Student. Otherwise, you are considered a first-year student and should review the information in the First-Year section below.
Transfer students SHOULD NOT schedule an appointment using the links on this page. You will receive an email from are12@psu.edu titled, "Welcome to Penn State Berks: Transfer Student Information," with instructions and next steps for advising and scheduling. The email will be sent shortly after you accept your offer of admission and to both your PSU email and personal email on file from your application. You will need to contact the specific advisor listed in that email to review your transfer courses and discuss courses you should enroll in for your first semester at Berks. Any questions can be directed to Aubrey Edwards (are12@psu.edu).
First-Year Students
If you have earned fewer than 18 college credits after graduating from high school, you are considered a first-year student.
Prepare for your advising meeting
This initial advising meeting is an opportunity for you to talk one-on-one with an academic adviser about your academic interests and goals and to outline your initial steps to reach them.
The more prepared you are, the more the advising appointment can focus on you and your individual goals.
- Complete and be able to discuss your NSO Tasklist. The transfer credit worksheet and the educational planning survey are important parts of the orientation advising meeting.
- Complete the content shared at the University welcome and in the Canvas modules.
- Complete the Course Planning Guide (part of the Canvas content) to build your tentative first-semester schedule in your LionPATH Enrollment Shopping Cart prior to your advising appointment.
- Complete your pre-registration activity guide and major preferences guide in LionPATH.
What to expect during the advising meeting
During the academic advising meeting, you should expect to discuss your academic goals and interests—including how they relate to your academic journey at Penn State in general and your first-semester schedule in particular. This meeting is your final step to enroll in first-semester courses.
We hope that you will continue to engage with academic advisers throughout your academic career and that this will represent the first of many interactions.
Schedule Your Appointment Now!
During your advising appointment you will be scheduling your classes. The sooner you schedule your classes, the more options you will have. Reach out for help if you have trouble finding a time that works.
How to schedule your appointment
Please watch this brief video about how to schedule your advising appointment.
When you click a scheduling button, you will be prompted to log in to Penn State’s WebAccess if you are not already logged in. If you have not done so already, you will need to Enroll in Two-Factor Authentication. Instructions are linked on the WebAccess page.
Please note all meetings are in Eastern Time (GMT-5). Please join the Zoom meeting promptly at the start of your appointment time. That is, if your appointment is from 9 a.m. – 10 a.m. (Eastern Time, GMT-5), you need to join the meeting by 9 a.m. (Eastern Time, GMT-5).
You must check your Penn State email for the advising appointment confirmation. This confirmation email will contain the day, time (in EDT), and Zoom URL you will use to meet with your orientation adviser. If any changes are made to your scheduled appointment, new information will be sent to your Penn State email. Please check your Penn State email often, including immediately prior to your orientation advising appointment.
Think about your academic goals and select the area toward which you are most strongly leaning. Your selection of this interest does not lock you in as decided or declared. It will just help make sure you work with an adviser who is most familiar with your interest area. If you are unsure of your interests, please choose Undecided. All advisers are prepared to work with students who are deciding among several interest areas. Please do not schedule more than one appointment.
If you have trouble scheduling an advising appointment, please contact the Berks Academic Advising Center at 610-396-6280 or bkadvisingcenter@psu.edu.