Class Waitlists

Waitlists Overview

When a class is full, departments may offer a waitlist to allow non-enrolled students to get in line for the next available seat. When a student drops the class, the first eligible student on the waitlist is automatically enrolled in their place.

  • When a student is on a waitlist, they are not considered enrolled in the class; however, they do appear on the class roster and have access to the online class materials until the waitlist cancellation date.
  • Departments should allow the waitlist process to automatically enroll a student in the order the student was placed on the waitlist (automatic) or by the established departmental priorities determined in the waitlist logic (resequenced). The Office of the Registrar strongly discourages departments from overriding an individual student's waitlist order/priority unless there are extenuating circumstances.

Student-Facing Information 

How They Work

There are two types of waitlists:

  • Automatic waitlists are first-come, first-served. When a seat becomes available in the class, the person who's been on the waitlist the longest is automatically enrolled if they meet the eligibility criteria.

  • Resequenced waitlists use a priority system to determine who is automatically enrolled when a seat becomes available. Priorities are established by the department and are usually based on the student's class standing and/or major.

Waitlist Eligibility Criteria

If a student is at the top of the waitlist and a seat becomes available in the class, they have to meet the following criteria for the registration system to enroll them from the waitlist:

  • The student has no holds that prevent registration.
  • The student is not enrolled in a different section of the same class (or the student has set up drop if enrolled for that section).
  • The student is not enrolled in a class that has a time conflict with the waitlisted class (or they have set up drop if enrolled for the conflicting class).
  • The student meets the requirements of the class, such as taking prior sequences or taking co-requisites.

If the student is automatically enrolled from the waitlist, they will receive an email confirmation within 24 hours. If a seat becomes available but the student does not meet one or more of the criteria above, the registration system will skip that student and enroll the first student who does.

FAQs

Priorities are established by the department offering the class and are usually based on the student's class standing and/or major. Additional or alternate priorities may be set by the department.

They can follow the instructions on our Waitlist for a Closed Class page.

Automatic waitlist enrollment ends on the second Wednesday of the semester in fall and spring; summer waitlist deadlines vary (see the academic calendar). If a seat becomes available after that date but before waitlists are canceled, the student will be directed to contact the department offering the class to see if their policies allow them to manually enroll students from the waitlist.

After the third Friday of the semester, waitlists are canceled. If a student is still not enrolled in the class at this point, they will lose access to online materials and be removed from the class roster. However, students in this situation may be eligible to use course reservation the next time the course is offered.

A seat must be open in both the lecture and the selected recitation or lab in order for the student to be enrolled from the waitlist. 

Waitlist Calendar