Course Registration

This guide explains how to plan your courses and register for classes.

You register from your Degree Audit. You plan the courses you need, then submit a term's plan as a registration request. Your primary advisor approves it, and the courses are added to your schedule.

Before You Register

1. Check for holds. Go to My Holds to see anything that blocks registration.
2. Meet with your advisor to discuss your plan.
3. Review your degree audit to see which requirements are still open.
4. Know when your registration opens. Some terms open on different days for different groups of students (seniors first, for example). If yours has not opened yet, the Planned Courses panel shows Registration opens and the date. You can plan before then, but you cannot submit until that day.

Planning a Course

1. Open Degree Audit.
2. Find a requirement that is not yet met and click Plan.
3. If the requirement can be met by several courses, choose one under Matching Courses.
4. Under Available Sections, choose a section. Each shows its term, schedule, instructor, seats, campus and credits.
5. The dialog checks the section for you:
   • Prerequisites: whether you have them. A prerequisite you have only planned for an earlier term is accepted and listed.
   • Corequisites: courses you must take in the same term. You are reminded if one is not planned yet. This never stops you.
   • Schedule conflicts with your current classes.
   • Credit limit: your credits for the term after adding this course.
   • Course sequencing: lower-division courses that must be finished by a certain point.
   • Repeat: whether you may take this course again.
6. If the section lets you choose your credits (for example a directed study offered for 1 to 3 credits), pick the number of credits.
7. Click Plan Course.

The course appears in the Planned Courses panel, and a seat is reserved for you.

Some problems only staff can clear

If a prerequisite is not met, a sequencing deadline has passed, or you may not repeat the course, the dialog says so and does not let you plan it. Talk to your advisor or the Registrar's Office. They can approve an exception.

Repeating a course

You cannot register again for a course you have passed, or one you are taking now, unless the course may be repeated for credit. A course also has a limit on how many times it can be taken. The dialog tells you when you have reached it.

If you passed a course with a grade below the minimum your program requires (a D where a C- is needed), you may take it again.

Full Sections and the Waitlist

If a section is full, the dialog offers Join waitlist instead of Plan Course.

• Your place in line appears under My Waitlists on your degree audit.
• When a seat opens, you are offered it for 48 hours. The waitlist shows Seat open with the deadline.
• The seat is not held for you. Seats are first come, first served, so plan and register for the section as soon as you see the offer. No email is sent.
• If you do not act in time, the offer passes to the next student.
• To leave a waitlist, click Leave waitlist.

You cannot join the waitlist of a section that still has open seats, or before your registration opens.

Submitting Your Registration

1. In Planned Courses, find the term.
2. Click Register Planned Courses beside the term.
3. Confirm. Your planned courses for that term become one registration request and show Waiting for Approval.

Your primary advisor reviews the request. When it is approved, every course is added to your schedule together. If one course cannot be added (for example its section filled up), none are added and the request comes back to you with the reason.

To withdraw a request before it is decided, click Cancel Request. Your courses return to Planned.

Taking more than the normal load (overload)

The normal load is 17.5 credits a term for undergraduates. If your term would go over it, a Credit overload dialog asks Why do you need to take an overload this term? Give your reason and click Request overload.

An overload needs two approvals: your advisor first, then the registrar. Above the overload maximum, the request is refused and you need to remove a course.

Following your request

My Transactions lists your registration requests and where each one is. Open a request to see its Notes. You, your advisor and the registrar can all add notes, and everyone reads the same thread. If your request is rejected or an exception is approved, the reason appears there too.

Notes are permanent

Once you add a note, it cannot be edited or deleted. Write it as you would an email to the Registrar's Office.

Dropping or Withdrawing

You drop a course from My Schedule with Drop / Withdraw. What happens depends on the date:

When	Result
On or before the term's drop deadline	Drop. The course does not appear on your transcript
After the drop deadline, up to the withdrawal deadline	Withdrawal. A W appears on your transcript. It does not affect your GPA
After the withdrawal deadline	You cannot drop the course yourself. Contact the Registrar's Office

The dialog tells you which one it will be, and shows both deadlines, before you confirm. You can give a reason.

At some institutions your advisor must approve a drop or a withdrawal. Then the button reads Send for approval, and the course stays on your schedule until your advisor decides.

When a course comes off your schedule, you and your advisors receive an email listing what changed and your remaining schedule. Before dropping, consider your credit load: financial aid, housing, visa status and athletic eligibility can depend on it. A W may also count as an attempt toward a course's repeat limit.

Registration Messages

Message	Meaning	What to do
Registration Blocked (hold)	A hold on your account blocks registration	See My Holds
Prerequisite not met	You have not completed a required course, or not with the minimum grade	Complete it first, or ask your advisor about an exception
Corequisite reminder	A course you must take in the same term is not planned	Plan it for the same term
Schedule conflict	The section overlaps another class	Choose a different section
Section full	No seats left	Join the waitlist or choose another section
Above the normal load	The term would need an overload	Give a reason when you submit
Over the maximum even with an overload	Too many credits for the term	Remove a course
Registration opens on ...	Your registration window has not opened	Wait until that day; you can keep planning
Cannot be taken again	Repeat limit, or already passed	Contact the Registrar's Office

Related Topics

• My Schedule
• Degree Audit
• Holds