Waitlist Policies for Mathematical Sciences Courses (21-xxx)
Our goal is to register as many students as possible in as fair a manner as possible.
General waitlist policies
- Reservations:
- For 100- and 200-level courses, reservations will be honored during registration week, and first-year registration in July. Otherwise, students are registered on a first-come, first-served basis.
- For 21-300+ courses, priority will be given to those who need the course to fulfill a degree requirement, then additional majors and minors.
- Typically, we cap our recitations at 25 or 30. We do this for pedagogical reasons and also to manage the workload of our teaching assistants.
- This cap is often dependent on the rooms assigned by the Registrar’s Office, as sometimes the cap is enforced by room capacity.
- If there are still students on the waitlist after we reach the max, we will try to add more students when reasonable. See the “Registration exceptions” section.
Registration without having the prerequisite(s)
Students must fulfill one of these criteria:
- If a student is awaiting the posting of prerequisite credit (e.g. for a summer course they are taking at another institution), their advisor may add them to the waitlist. However the student will NOT be registered until the credit is posted. The student will maintain their spot on the waitlist. If a seat becomes available for them, we will hold it until the first day of class. If the credit isn’t posted by then, the seat will be given to the next person on the waitlist.
- If a student is missing a prerequisite, the student must have the permission of the instructor. The instructor must be aware of all missing prerequisites. Complete to request an exception. Students will be registered/waitlisted in the course throughout registration week. We cannot guarantee that this will occur at the moment when the student is eligible to register. This also does not guarantee a seat in a course or priority on the waitlist.
Registration exceptions
Overriding the waitlist and/or exceeding the enrollment cap can only be done in exceptional circumstances. Specifically, all of these conditions must be met and confirmed with the waitlist coordinator by the student’s advisor:
- There must be an open seat in both the lecture room and the recitation room (if applicable).
- It must be essential that the student must take this specific course in this specific semester in order to make academic progress as per the established curriculum posted in the undergraduate catalog. In cases where this requirement is not met, we will do our best to help students maintain academic progress. But we cannot offer any guarantees.
- The student must have exhausted all other alternatives for taking this course. Is this the only section that works with the core courses on your schedule (or other sections of core courses that are open)?
We cannot make this exception if a student wants a specific math section in order to take an elective course of any sort when other options are available to them. - There may be circumstances beyond the student’s control. Examples include needing to participate in varsity athletics practice, being an external transfer and not being able to register with your cohort, or an exceptional personal circumstance.
Exceptional circumstances do not include students who are returning from a suspension or leave of absence but wait too long to complete the return paperwork, or students who decide to switch sections.
If an exception is granted, the student will be added to the section with the fewest number of students on the waitlist, as our goal is to register as many students as possible.
Please let us know about these cases as early as possible. These situations can be very nuanced. We encourage advisors to reach out to us if there is any uncertainty.