The OISS Danforth Campus location is at Alumni House (6510 Wallace Drive), just across Forsyth from the DUC, in an area called the South 40. The Medical School Campus location is at the McDonnell Medical Sciences Building (4565 McKinley Ave).

All compliance-based questions related to immigration status, work authorization, travel signatures, etc. should be directed to OISS. F-I and J-1 students use MyOISS to request and access immigration documents and to maintain immigration status while under sponsorship of WashU.

Browse OISS’s website for extensive information and resources, including Visa & Immigration Basics, Traveling, Maintaining Status, Employment & Taxes, and more.

Get to know your OISS advisor, and pay attention to email communications from OISS, as these will contain important information.

OISE is located in the Women’s Building, Suite 102 (above the Card Center and Parking & Transportation office).

OISE focuses on community building and engagement, providing a welcoming environment through programming, advocacy, and cultural enrichment. They support all international students across WashU’s schools, including undergraduates and graduate students.

OISE manages the International Student Medical Assistance Fund. This fund is designed to support students on F-1 and J-1 visas who may encounter unexpected medical expenses during their academic program in the U.S. See more information at the link above, and contact the Director of OISE with questions or to request use of this funding.

Sign up for OISE’s newsletter via this form, or email oise@wustl.edu to be added to their mailing list.

Arts & Sciences English Language Program (ELP) Courses

The English Language Program (ELP) offers courses, support, and assessment in academic and professional English language. ELP is housed in the School of Continuing & Professional Studies (CAPS).

ELP administers English language proficiency assessments for incoming graduate students that some programs might require (separate from TOEFL/IELTS). ELP uses these assessments to identify the level of English language support needed and to make course recommendations. On the ELP website, you can explore ELP Courses and options for individual support.

The Office of Graduate Studies (OGS) encourages students to discuss these course recommendations with their advisor or Director of Graduate Studies (DGS) and make an effort to complete their ELP courses in a timely manner. Reach out to your department’s administrative coordinator for more information about your program’s policies.

The OGS will cover the tuition for up to 6 credit units of English Language Program courses for full-time Arts & Sciences international graduate students who seek to improve their academic writing and speaking skills in English. If a student wishes to take additional ELP courses, they will need to obtain department approval and to cover the tuition with their own funds.

For questions about your program’s policies, reach out to your department’s administrative coordinator. For questions about your course recommendations, assessments, or ELP courses, schedule an appointment with the ELP Director. On this page, scroll to the ELP Director section and click on “Meet with Katie.”

The Center for Diversity and Inclusion fosters belonging for all. Together, we inspire students to build a positive sense of belonging on campus. Scroll down on the CDI's website and select "Graduate and Professional" and "International" under "Narrow by student type" to see more resources.

The CDI manages WashU's Bias Report and Support System (BRSS), through which students, faculty, staff, and community members who have experienced or witnessed incidents of bias, prejudice, or discrimination involving a student can report their experiences. The BRSS team will support students who have witnessed or been the target of bias-related incidents, refer community members to appropriate university and local resources, and more. Reports can be made through the online form (make sure to select BRSS from the drop-down menu) or by calling 314-935-7535 during business hours (8:30am-5pm Monday through Friday).

Looking for coffee or food on the Danforth campus? Check out locations and hours of on-campus dining options.

Looking for coffee or food on the Medical campus? Check out locations and hours of on-campus dining options. There are many food options near campus on Euclid as well.

Many of WashU’s on-campus options now include mobile ordering on the Grubhub app. Download the app and connect to WashU’s campus (if you download the app while on campus, this process should occur automatically). You can then connect your Grubhub account to Bear Bucks if you would like.

Bear Bucks is an optional cashless account accessed through your student ID card. Using Bear Bucks allows you to make tax-free purchases at on-campus dining locations. You can add funds to your Bear Bucks account here and check out a comprehensive list of every merchant on campus who accepts Bear Bucks.

St. Louis is known for our toasted ravioli (deep-fried ravioli, affectionately called “t-ravs”), St. Louis-style pizza (thin-crust, square-cut pizza using Provel cheese – you’ll either love or hate this), and gooey butter cake (an extra buttery, gooey dessert, true to the name).

Outside of these signature food items, St. Louis has a fantastic dining scene with all different types of cuisine for all budgets. We especially recommend checking out the restaurants on South Grand, which hosts a diverse array of international dining options. The Loop and the Central West End (CWE) also have a lot of popular restaurants and dining options. Both neighborhoods are close to WashU and fun to walk around in. Many graduate students live and hang out in these neighborhoods.

St. Louis has several major sports teams, and tickets to sporting events are often less expensive here than they are in other cities. Plus, there are plenty of sports bars all over St. Louis if you want to watch the games, including Ballpark Village, which is right by Busch Stadium (where the Cardinals play).

The St. Louis Cardinals baseball team plays home games at Busch Stadium. The St. Louis Blues hockey team plays home games at Enterprise Center. The St. Louis CITY soccer club plays home games at CITYPARK.

While we no longer have an NFL team (National Football League) – and yes, many St. Louisians are still upset about this – we do still have American football through the St. Louis Battlehawks, who play in the XFL league.

St. Louis has so many museums and galleries to explore. We especially recommend the St. Louis Art Museum and Missouri History Museum, which are both free and near the Danforth campus in Forest Park. We also suggest checking out the City Museum; while not free, the City Museum is a truly unique attraction – an artist-built playground featuring artifacts from all over the world.

St. Louis has a vibrant theater scene, including the Grand Center Arts District, which Forbes has called “America’s most exciting emerging arts district.” The Fabulous Fox Theatre is in the heart of this arts district and hosts numerous world-class shows and concerts. OGS often partners with The Sheldon Concert Hall to bring graduate students to performances. If you’re here in the summer, we especially recommend catching a show at The Muny, an outdoor theater in Forest Park where the last nine rows (over 1400 seats) are always free.

The St. Louis area hosts dozens of parks. If you’re at WashU, you will certainly experience Forest Park, which is (fun fact!) twice the size of Central Park in New York City. The zoo, art museum, history museum, Muny outdoor theater, planetarium, and other attractions are located in Forest Park.

Other beloved city parks include Tower Grove Park, which frequently hosts farmers’ markets and other events, and Francis Park, which includes a beer garden in partnership with a local brewery.

WashU’s Gephardt Institute for Civic and Community Engagement has put together a guide called New in the Lou, which is designed to help students become engaged members of the St. Louis community. Even though international students cannot vote in local, state, or national elections, there are so many other ways to approach civic engagement in St. Louis, and Gephardt can help you explore those options. Gephardt hosts a weekly dinner series, Civic Café, where students share a meal together and learn more about different topics, as well as other programming that Graduate Students can join in for. In addition, the Gephardt Institute's St. Louis Impact Fund is designed to catalyze and support mutually beneficial relationships between Washington University students and community organizations aiming to advance efforts critical to community needs. Graduate students are encouraged to apply!

GradWell is the Office of Graduate Studies’ holistic programming to support graduate student wellbeing in Arts & Sciences. Part of GradWell programming includes monthly social and community-building gatherings. GradWell events are designed to be inclusive and welcoming. Check out the events calendar for upcoming events.

The Graduate Center (TGC) is a place for all graduate and professional students at WashU to develop, gather, and connect. While the Office of Graduate Studies in A&S focuses specifically on Arts & Sciences graduate students, The Graduate Center works to support graduate and professional students across WashU’s eight schools.

Visit The Graduate Center at the lower level of the Ann W. Olin Women’s Building in Suite 005. You can also reserve study rooms and meeting rooms in The Graduate Center’s space.

Check out the news and events page or TGC Monthly Calendar for upcoming events.

The Graduate Center oversees many university-wide graduate student groups, including groups such as the Africa United Graduate Association, Black Graduate Student Association, Chinese Students and Scholars Association, Korean Graduate Student Association, Latino Graduate Student Alliance, and more.

The Graduate Center also oversees two different graduate student governing bodies: the Graduate Professional Council (GPC), Graduate Student Senate (GSS) and Graduate & Professional Student Council (GPSC). GPC is the university-wide governing body for all graduate and professional students at WashU, with representatives from all eight of WashU’s schools. GSS represents all PhD students at WashU, including representatives from Arts & Sciences, McKelvey Engineering, Brown School, Olin Business School, and the School of Medicine. GPSC is the unified student government for all graduate and professional students at WashU, formed by merging the Graduate Professional Council and the Graduate Student Senate, they organize key events and advocates on issues such as housing, stipends, funding, and access to academic resources in administrative meetings. All three organizations often offer social, academic, and professional programming. Look out for their email communications, and email gpc@wustl.edu, gss@wustl.edu or gpsc@wustl.edu for more information.

Find more information about these groups and browse any upcoming events on WUGO (Washington University Group Organizer). On the organizations page, you can select “Graduate Center” from the “Categories” drop-down menu to see these university-wide graduate groups.

The A&S Graduate Student Association (GSA) is a new governing body just for Arts & Sciences graduate students, including Masters and PhD students as well as students in DBBS. While University-wide student groups are run in collaboration with The Graduate Center, GSA is run in collaboration with the A&S Office of Graduate Studies. Each school has its own graduate student governing body, and this is ours.

Opportunities and programming from GSA will automatically be sent to your WashU email as an A&S graduate student.

DBBS has many additional organizations and campus groups to join: see here for more information. DBBS’s Student Advisory Committee (SAC) includes an international student committee.

Grad Peer Circles is the Office of Graduate Studies’ peer mentoring program, which supports peer mentoring within A&S departments as well as across A&S programs. If you’re interested in learning more about Grad Peer Circles, serving as a peer mentor, or being connected with a peer mentor as a mentee, email artscigrads@wustl.edu.

Follow the Office of Graduate Studies on Instagram @washu_gradartsci to keep up with events on campus, the Meet the OGS video series, graduate student highlights, and more. OGS regularly shares events from campus partners and opportunities to get involved.

The Office of Graduate Studies has created mentoring agreements as a way to promote a stronger and more uniform culture of mentoring for A&S graduate students. The agreements allow faculty and graduate students to come to a shared understanding of how they will collaborate and interact with each other, promoting greater transparency around common concerns in the mentor/mentee relationship. Working with a faculty mentor or advisor to complete this agreement will help you get on the same page with each other, which can alleviate potential conflict throughout your program.

The agreements, as well as an FAQ, can be found under “Mentoring Resources” here. Use the Humanities agreement or Natural Sciences and Social Sciences agreement depending on your discipline.

If you believe a grade you have received – whether referring to a single assignment or to the course grade as a whole – is inappropriate, arbitrary, or assigned for non-academic reasons, you have the right to discuss any grade(s) with the instructor and to request a change of grade(s). It is important to file grade appeals as soon as possible after the grade is assigned.

You can find more information about graduate grade appeals on OGS’s policies and procedures page. You are welcome to speak with your advisor or with a member of OGS’s academic affairs team (artscigrads@wustl.edu) to discuss the possibility of appealing a grade.

OGS maintains student grievance guidelines and procedures for graduate students to follow if they feel they have legitimate complaints regarding academic matters or an interaction with a faculty member, staff member, or fellow students. The procedures ask that the student first seek resolution from their faculty advisor, then from their Director of Graduate Studies, then from the Chair of their degree program. If the complaint remains unresolved, the student can engage the Office of Graduate Studies (artscigrads@wustl.edu) to work toward a resolution. Read the grievance guidelines for more information.

If the complaint is related to bias, prejudice, or discrimination, consider reporting the allegation using the Bias Report and Support System (BRSS). If the allegation is related to sexual or gender-based harassment or discrimination, consider engaging the Relationship and Sexual Violence Prevention (RSVP) Center and/or the Gender Equity and Title IX Compliance Office (GETIXCO), in addition to BRSS. Keep in mind that the RSVP Center is a confidential resource, while GETIXCO might or might not be able to guarantee confidentiality.

The Office of International Student Engagement (OISE) manages the International Student Medical Assistance Fund. This fund is designed to support students on F-1 and J-1 visas who may encounter unexpected medical expenses during their academic program in the U.S. See more information at the link above, and contact the Director of OISE with questions or to request use of this funding.

WashU has a mandatory health insurance program. Students on an F-1 or J-1 visa are automatically enrolled in the University Student Health Insurance Plan (through UnitedHealthcare) and are not allowed to waive out of the plan unless they are on a U.S.-based employer plan through a U.S.-based insurance company.

Full-time eligible graduate students in Arts & Sciences-funded programs on the Danforth campus will receive a health fee subsidy provided by the Office of Graduate Studies. The subsidy pays for a large portion of the premium for the Student Health Insurance Plan and student health fees.  Note that it is not a 100% subsidy: you will still pay for part of the insurance premium and student health fee. These fees will be billed to your student account. If you are eligible for a subsidy, do not worry if the full insurance premium and student health fee are posted to your account; the subsidies are typically added later, and you can wait to make the payment until the subsidies are posted.

If you are not sure whether you are eligible to receive the health subsidies, you can ask the Director of Graduate Studies in your department or email artscigrads@wustl.edu.

If you are in a program housed on the Medical Campus, contact your program administrator for information on health fee coverage.

There is a required student health and wellness fee for all full-time, degree-seeking students on the Danforth Campus. The fee covers membership to the Sumers Recreation Center, health education/prevention efforts, and other benefits including no-cost counseling visits.

The fee is billed to your student account each semester. If you are eligible for health fee subsidies, the subsidy will cover a large portion of the student health and wellness fee.

Habif Health and Wellness Center provides medical, mental health, and health promotion services for all non-DBBS graduate students in Arts & Sciences.

Use Habif’s online booking system to make an appointment related to the treatment of illness or injury, preventative health care, or counseling and psychological services. You can also call Habif at 314-935-6666.

The School of Medicine’s Student Health Services provides medical and mental health services for all DBBS students.

Call 314-362-3523 to schedule an appointment, and find more information about appointments here.

The Center for Counseling and Psychological Services (CCPS) at Habif Health and Wellness Center offers therapeutic services, outreach, and prevention programs. Therapy appointments with CCPS can occur in-person or via Zoom. You can access a certain number of therapy appointments per academic year at no charge; contact CCPS for more information.

Student Health Counseling at the School of Medicine works with students to resolve personal and interpersonal difficulties. Services include individual, group, and couples’ counseling, crisis counseling, and referrals. DBBS students can also access Bree Health for on-demand mental health support.

CCPS’s Group Therapy Services typically include a Dissertation Support Group, designed to support PhD students who are struggling emotionally, relationally, or academically in their dissertation writing process. Dr. Karolyn Senter runs this group, and Dr. Kristin Miserocchi is the support groups coordinator; you can reach out to them with questions.

TimelyCare is a telehealth app with licensed physicians and counselors who are available 24/7 for virtual medical and mental health visits through the app’s video conferencing platform. This is a great option for graduate students, who often commute to campus, to receive health care at home. This is also a great option when there are longer waiting times for appointments at Habif.

TimelyCare is free for all students who pay the student health and wellness fee (including graduate students who receive health fee subsidies). Make sure to register for the TimelyCare app using your WashU email account.

Sumers Recreation Center is the gym and fitness facility on the Danforth campus. All students who pay the student health and wellness fee (including graduate students who receive health fee subsidies) have access to Sumers Rec at no cost. Use your student ID card to swipe into the Rec’s facilities.

In addition to operating as a traditional gym with cardio machines and weightlifting equipment, Sumers Rec has a wide variety of options to support your fitness and wellbeing, including group exercise classes (called BearFIT classes), relaxation chairs, and cooking classes.

Read through the OISS webpage on housing in St. Louis for international students.

Quadrangle Housing manages several off-campus apartments near the University, owned by WashU. You can browse properties for graduate students, faculty, and staff and explore their resources for international students.

Apartment Referral Services (ARS) includes various off-campus housing options. Keep in mind that ARS is a referral service: the housing options on ARS are owned by private landlords or companies, not by WashU. ARS also includes lists of people looking for roommates.

Parallel Properties rents a variety of apartments to both WashU and non-WashU students, all located between the Danforth and Medical Campuses.

The Graduate Student Senate published four off-campus housing blogs in 2021, in which graduate students wrote about their experiences living in neighborhoods near the Danforth campus. The four featured neighborhoods are Skinker-Debaliviere, Maplewood, University City, and Richmond Heights. Check these out if you want to get a sense of what it’s like to live in these neighborhoods as a graduate students.

Follow the steps to apply for your I-20 or DS-2019.

All new international students must complete immigration check-in through the MyOISS platform within 10 days of arriving in the U.S.

To travel outside of the U.S. and re-enter in F-1 or J-1 immigration status, you must have a travel signature that is less than 12 months old on your I-20 or DS-2019. You can request a travel signature via MyOISS. Find more information about travel, required documents, and requesting a signature on the OISS website.

If you need additional time to complete your program, beyond the program end date on your I-20/DS-2019, you must submit an extension request via MyOISS. You will also request approval from your academic adviser as part of the form.

If you need an extension, OGS recommends submitting the request in MyOISS as early as possible. Extensions are not possible after your program date has passed, which means that missing this deadline can have serious repercussions.

WUPD offers several resources for personal safety, including:

• Self-Defense Programs
• Free personal safety devices (i.e., safety alarms and whistles to use in case of emergency)
• Bear Patrol (student workers who provide walking and golf cart escorts on campus from 8am-2pm)
• WashU SAFE app, which includes a Mobile Blue Light feature that helps you quickly call public safety if in a crisis on campus, while sending your exact location so that officers can immediately respond.

Check out WUPD’s full list of safety tips to help prevent yourself from being vulnerable to crime. We highlight just a few tips here:

•  Always lock your doors (apartment door, car door, etc.), even if you will only be gone for a short amount of time.
• Never prop open exterior doors.
• Do not leave valuables (e.g., laptop, phone, wallet, purse, etc.) unattended or out of your line of sight. Do not leave these items in your car, either.
• Travel and park on well-lit streets, and be aware of your surroundings.

It is important to be aware of ways to identify and prevent identity theft, especially if you have applied for and received a Social Security Number (SSN). Learn more about identity theft, its warning signs, and how to protect yourself via this US government site and WashU’s Office of Information Security page.

Scam calls and emails are extremely common. Don’t believe every call you get or email you receive. If something looks or sounds suspicious, consider whether it could be a scammer. Be incredibly cautious of anyone who contacts you asking for personal information.

OISS has a thorough guide on looking out for scams for international students. Read the guide to learn more about how you can avoid becoming a victim of scams, including IRS scams, employment scams, ransom scams, rental housing scams, and more.

Be aware that multilingual phishing, i.e., scamming or phishing attempts in your native language, are becoming more common. Learn more about this type of phishing and how to protect yourself here.

If you suspect you’ve received a scam or phishing email to your WashU email account, you can report it to WashU’s Information Security team by using the Phish Alert Button. Learn more about how to use the Phish Alert Button and other ways of reporting here.

Find information about on- and off-campus employment on the OISS website.

Some on-campus and all off-campus employment must be pre-authorized with assistance from OISS. Keep in mind that even volunteer work can require pre-authorization, as immigration laws interpret any kind of service that receives compensation (even just compensation in the form of experience) as work. When in doubt, contact your OISS adviser.

If you have any questions or doubt about work-related activities, please contact your OISS adviser. Working without authorization can severely affect your immigration status, so it is always best to ask.

The Center for Career Engagement promotes the use of FrogHire.ai for international students seeking job opportunities in the US. FrogHire is an internet extension that tells students if the company they are exploring has sponsored H1B visas in the past. See more information and access the resource here.

Check out the Center for Career Engagement’s guide on Resumes & Cover Letters to learn more about best practices for each document.

You can also schedule an appointment with a WashU career coach for resume/CV review.

When you schedule an appointment with a WashU career coach, you will be asked to choose a category corresponding to the CCE Career Communities. Each community has options for the appointment type. If you do not see an appointment type that matches your needs, please email careers@wustl.edu to get connected with a coach.

When you meet with a WashU career coach, you can discuss anything from exploring career paths to identifying your skills to crafting job materials (resumes, cover letters, CVs, etc.), to interviewing.

On the Center for Career Engagement’s appointment page, you can schedule various types of practice interviews with WashU coaches.

WashU also subscribes to Big Interview, which is an online tool for improving your interview skills through lessons and mock interviews.

Pivot 314 is a year-long program presented by The Graduate Center and the Skandalaris Center for Interdisciplinary Innovation and Entrepreneurship. The program is intended for mid-career PhD students to explore possible career pathways outside and alongside of the academy, through engagement with the St. Louis entrepreneurial community. Pivot 314 includes curated programming focused on professional development, strengthening leadership, and experiential learning through a 10-week paid internship with an early-stage startup in St. Louis. For the summer internship, international students must apply for and receive CPT. To ensure CPT approval, international students must select an internship that is aligned with their academic program/research.

The Professional Development in Teaching Program presented by the Center for Teaching and Learning is designed to be the starting point for a career that includes teaching. The program is specifically targeted for graduate students and postdocs. The program emphasizes the practice of scholarly teaching, which is defined as teaching that draws on evidence-based classroom strategies suggested by current educational research and that prioritizes self-reflection and assessment.

The Skandalaris Center for Interdisciplinary Innovation and Entrepreneurship supports WashU entrepreneurship by inspiring the entrepreneurial mindset and empowering our community to explore and execute solutions to address the world’s problems and meet local needs through innovation. Check out their events and programs to get involved.   

As you explore various career paths, check in with yourself: what skills do you already have? What skills can your graduate program help you develop? What career paths exist that require those skills? What do some potential career paths look like for people with similar credentials and interests as you?

Spend some time with online career exploration resources, including Imagine PhD (primarily for humanities and social sciences), MyIDP (primarily for careers in the sciences), Versatile PhD (primarily for PhDs), and InterSECT Job Simulations (job simulation exercises for career transitions).

You can also connect with WashU alumni in careers of interest to you on the WashU Alumni LinkedIn page and WashU CNX, which is the university’s official online networking platform.

If you’re not sure where to start, we recommend starting with Imagine PhD, as it is user-friendly and includes assessments to help you determine your career interests and priorities.

Handshake is WashU’s career management platform. On Handshake, you can interview for jobs and internships on campus, find career tips and Q&As, stay connected with peers and job-related news, navigate upcoming employer events on campus, and register for career fairs and events put on by the Center for Career Engagement. We recommend setting up a profile so that you can stay up-to-date with all things career management at WashU.

On Handshake, there is an option to filter by employers who hire international students.

Learn more about Handshake and access how-to videos here.

The Center for Career Engagement hosts a wide variety of events and workshops that can be found on their website and on Handshake.

We recommend the Graduate/Professional Job Search Series (“Navigating the Job Search for Grad Students”), put on by the Center for Career Engagement and The Graduate Center. Visit The Graduate Center’s monthly calendar and filter by “Professional Development” to see scheduled job series events.

We also recommend the Center for Career Engagement’s regular career-related workshops for international students. Keep an eye out for these workshops, which OGS regularly features in our newsletters and communications.

The Center for Career Engagement hosts a career fair every year, typically in February. On Handshake’s events page, click on “Career fairs at your school” and look for the All Campus Internship & Job Fair. The employers tab of the career fair page will give you the option to filter by employers who accept OPT/CPT and/or employers who will sponsor or don’t require U.S. work visas.

The Office of Graduate Studies has created mentoring agreements as a way to promote a stronger and more uniform culture of mentoring for A&S graduate students. The main purpose of the mentoring agreements is for faculty and graduate students to come to a shared understanding of how they will collaborate and interact with each other, promoting greater transparency around common concerns in the mentor/mentee relationship.

Part of the Mentoring Agreement involves discussing the graduate student’s professional and career goals, as well as ways that the mentor can support these goals and skills the mentee can develop. This is a useful framework for graduate students to express their interests and goals and map out support structures to help achieve them.

The agreements, as well as an FAQ, can be found under “Mentoring Resources” here. Use the Humanities agreement or Natural Sciences and Social Sciences agreement depending on your discipline.

All full-time registered students are eligible for a U-Pass, which allows individuals to ride the MetroLink and MetroBus for free. Request your U-Pass here and learn more information here. Note that the U-Pass has to be renewed each semester, and you have to show a valid WashU ID along with your U-Pass.

There are two MetroLink stations located on/near the Danforth campus: the Big Bend station, located at the intersection of Big Bend and Forest Park Parkway (southeast corner), and the Skinker station, located at Forest Park Parkway and Skinker (southwest corner).

The Central West End MetroLink station is on the Medical campus. See more info about Metro transit here.

Tips: The MetroLink has two lines: the Red Line and the Blue Line. Before boarding, look at the red or blue signs on the train to ensure you are on the correct train and heading in the correct direction. Operators will announce upcoming stations, and you can review the map in your train car to see how many stops you have to ride. Once on board, you will be asked to show your valid U-Pass along with your WashU ID.

Download the Transit mobile app to explore your options and view a map featuring real-time arrival countdowns as well as bus and train schedules and locations.

The Danforth Campus Circulator shuttle provides shuttle service from the MetroLink stations to various locations around the Danforth Campus and the South 40.

There are several MetroBus stops near WashU’s campuses. There are also a few routes designed specifically for the WashU community.

The following bus can be caught at the Mallinckrodt Bus Plaza on the Danforth campus or at the Central West End transit Center on the Medical campus:

• #1 Gold (connects Danforth and Medical campus and services residential neighborhoods between both campuses)

The following buses can be caught at the Mallinckrodt Bus Plaza on the Danforth campus:

• #2 Red (services neighborhoods north of campus, St. Louis Galleria mall, Brentwood Promenade (Trader Joes, Target, Micro Center) and Walmart)
• #5 Green (services 560 Music Center, north of campus neighborhoods, U-City Loop, and the Lewis Collaborative)

Download the Transit mobile app to explore your options and view a map featuring real-time arrival countdowns as well as bus and train schedules and locations.

Tips: As the bus approaches, signal to the operator that you want to board by raising your hand. Once on board, swipe your U-Pass through the card reader and show the driver your WashU ID. When approaching your destination, pull the cord or press the strip to indicate your desired stop.

The MetroLink Red Line goes to the airport. The closest stations to the Danforth campus with Red Line stops are Forest Park-DeBaliviere and Delmar Loop.

From the Medical campus, go to Central West End station and use the Red Line.

Whatever station you start from, make sure to get on a train marked as Westbound to Lambert Airport.

The Transit mobile app can help you plan your trip.

WashU has a shuttle system that is free for students with WashU IDs. You can use it to get around the Danforth campus or areas close to campus, such as the Delmar Loop, Skinker-DeBaliviere, Delmar-DivINe, and the Lewis Collaborative.

Use the TripShot app to track campus shuttles and plan your trip.

Check out resources, shuttles, and maps for the Medical campus.

The Campus2Home shuttle is available 7 days a week to provide a safe ride home from the Danforth campus to off-campus residences within specified boundaries.

Request a Campus2Home shuttle using the on-demand feature of the TripShot app.

Biking is a popular way to get around campus and surrounding neighborhoods. WashU has been recognized by the League of American Bicyclists as a Gold-level Bicycle Friendly University.

If you park your bike on the Danforth campus, you can register your bike with WUPD to help protect against theft and facilitate the recovery of lost or stolen bikes.

WUPD recommends using a Kryptonite U-lock with your bike, which can be purchased at the WUPD office (South 40) for $33.

When you park your bike, make sure to lock it to a bike rack only. Your bike can be impounded if it is locked to anything except a bike rack.

WashU has a student-owned and operated bike company called Bears Bikes, which offers bicycle rentals, repairs, and storage. They are located on the South 40 along the Gregg walkway (underneath Gregg House), closest to the clocktower.

Be on the lookout for self-service bike repair stations on campus, which include air pumps and other tools for performing minor repairs.

The Danforth campus has an Active Commuter Hub on the East End of campus on the lower level of Schnuck Pavilion. You can apply to become a member to access showers, cubby-style lockers, and/or Z-style lockers, for anywhere from $20-40. Undergraduate and graduate students can request a discount.

If you are planning to drive to the Danforth campus, a parking permit is required to park on campus, unless you park in visitor garages, which are paid hourly. All vehicles parked in non-visitor parking spots on WashU property must display an appropriate parking permit and be registered with Parking & Transportation Services.

See Graduate Permit Options via WashU Parking & Transportation. Options include a commuter permit (ParkSmart) to park at West Campus and take a shuttle to Danforth campus, a Daily Usage permit for occasional parkers, and a regular parking permit (Graduate Student Yellow).

Most “yellow” spaces on campus, including surface lots and garages, can be used for parking without a permit after 5 p.m. until 7 a.m. Monday through Friday, and from 5 p.m. Friday until 7 a.m. on Monday. Check signage to make sure.

If you do not have a permit but want to park on campus during business hours (7 a.m. to 5 p.m.), you can park in visitor parking at Danforth garages; you will pull a ticket at the garage entrance and pay by the hour when you exit.

For parking at the Medical campus, see here.

OISS has put together a driving guide about how to apply for a driver or non-driver license in Missouri, as well as how to purchase a vehicle in Missouri (including costs such as tax and insurance).

A non-driver license is a state photo identification card and can be used as a primary or secondary document for proof of identity, but this card will not permit you to drive.