Waitlist
A student who cannot get a seat in a full section can join its waitlist. When a seat opens, the first student in line is told so and has a limited time to take it.
Joining
Students join from the planning dialog on their degree audit: a full section offers Join waitlist instead of Plan Course. Staff can add a student through the API (POST /registration/waitlists).
A join is refused when:
- The section has open seats. The student should simply plan and register for it.
- The section's waitlist is full. Set the limit with Waitlist Capacity on the section.
0, which is what every imported section carries, means no limit. Only a positive number is enforced. - The student's registration window has not opened yet (see Registration Windows), or the student has a hold that blocks everything.
There are no global waitlist settings, priority rules or per-section on/off switches. Every section can be waitlisted once it is full, and the line is first come, first served.
When a seat opens
Any change that frees a seat offers it to the next student still Waiting. That includes a drop, a withdrawal, a cancelled registration request, a cancellation cascade, and an offer-holder leaving the list. That student's entry becomes Notified and the offer lasts 48 hours.
An offer is a notice, not a reserved seat
The seat is not held for the notified student. Anyone may take it first, and the student is told that seats are first come, first served. No email is sent. The student sees the offer under My Waitlists on their degree audit.
An offer that lapses is marked Expired the next time a seat in that section opens, and the seat goes to the next student in line. The student screens stop showing a lapsed offer as live straight away, before the entry is marked.
When the student enrolls in the section, their entry closes as Enrolled. A student who leaves the list, or whom staff remove, is Removed.
A total withdrawal removes the student from every waitlist. The seats it frees are offered the next time a seat in each section opens, not at the moment of approval.
Waitlist statuses
| Status | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Waiting | In line |
| Notified | Offered a seat; the offer expires 48 hours after it was made |
| Expired | The offer lapsed without the student enrolling |
| Enrolled | The student enrolled in the section |
| Removed | The student left the list or was removed by staff |
The place in line shown to students and staff counts only the entries still open, so it closes up as others leave.
The staff screen
Registration > Waitlists (REGISTRATION.WAITLISTS) lists entries by term, section, student and status, and lets staff remove a student from a list or promote one.
Promote puts the section in the student's registration transaction for the term, creating a draft transaction when the student has none open (the campus asked for is used only then). The message names the transaction; validate and submit it from Registration > All Transactions. Promoting grants nothing by itself: the cart is validated and approved like any other, so a section that is still full needs a capacity override.
The entry stays on the list until the enrollment is written, and is then closed as Enrolled -- so cancelling the transaction leaves the student in line. Promote is refused when the student's transaction for the term has already been submitted (decide that one first) or the section is already in it.
A student who enrolls some other way -- including through the nightly Colleague import -- is taken off the list the next time a seat in the section is offered, so a seat is never offered to someone who already holds one.