General FAQs

Why is there a “Meeting Required” hold on my registration?

If you are a graduate student in the Department of Linguistics, each semester you must be advised about available and required courses by a Linguistics faculty member of your choice prior to registration. After you have been advised,  will be notified by the faculty member with whom you consulted and will lift the advising hold, allowing you to register.

My advising hold was lifted, so why can’t I register?

Most likely, the enrollment appointment, which is set by the Registrar for each student indicating a registration date and time, has not occurred yet. The date and time set for your registration will be shown under “Enrollment Appointment” on your registration screen. Another reason a student cannot register is that a hold was placed by another department, such as the Bursar, Registrar, or other academic department that prevents registration. Ethan cannot lift a hold placed by a department other than Linguistics. 

I’m on the waitlist. Can the instructor enroll me in the class anyway? 

The registration system will roll students into a class from the waitlist if an opening occurs. If there is room capacity in a course and the instructor gives you permission to enroll beyond the set maximum enrollment limit, and permission is forwarded to Ethan, he can register you up until the drop deadline. If the room capacity is at its limit, you cannot be enrolled due to fire code restrictions.

Due to extenuating circumstances, I cannot complete the work in a particular class on time. Can I get an 'Incomplete' grade in that class?

Linguistics policy regarding incompletes is based on the policy of the College of Arts and Sciences. If you have completed most of the work in the class and currently have a passing grade, you can request that your instructor enter a grade of 'incomplete' for you rather than a letter grade. Please note that you must request the incomplete from the instructor before the end of the semester; otherwise, the instructor will have to enter whatever letter grade you have earned as of your last submitted assignment. If the instructor agrees that you are eligible to receive an incomplete in the course, you and the instructor must then make a clear, documented agreement about what work remains to be submitted, with deadlines for submission of that work (an email agreement is fine, if you retain the email). You have a year from the end of the current semester to finish the work, but the instructor may impose a shorter timeline. It is important to bear in mind that most instructors will be unable to teach or re-teach the course material to you during the incomplete-completion period. The idea of an incomplete is that you have learned the course material sufficiently well to complete the work but simply need some more time in which to do that. You should be in close communication with the instructor to make sure you have what you need to complete the work, e.g., continued access to the course website/submission portal.