Q: How does pre-registration work?
Go to the Howdy portal, click the tab for the current semester, click on Registration and your sign-up time will be listed. During your assigned registration period, you may register for a maximum of 17 hours for the fall and spring semesters and six hours for each summer term. If you miss it or do not complete your pre-registration during your assigned 48 hours, you will have to wait for open registration.
Q: How can I find my registration time?
Registration times are listed in the Howdy portal under the My Record tab.
Q: What should I do before registration starts (besides deciding what classes to take and what sections to sign up for)?
You should check the Howdy portal to make sure you do not have registration blocks. These need to be resolved before you can register. You also should accept the Lab Safety Acknowledgement in the portal if you are taking any classes that require it. Make sure to have alternatives in mind in case the sections you select are full when your registration time opens.
Q: What should I do if the class I want is full?
First, you should have alternatives in mind. You should keep close watch on the class you wish to see if seats open up. Other students will be changing their schedules as well, so seats can open. Also some departments will stage the release of seats through the registration period. You also may be able to submit a force request to the department teaching the class.
Q: How do I submit force requests?
We collect information about procedures for force requests and list them. The page is updated as we learn new information. Note that each department controls its own classes so you will need to contact the department teaching a class about force requests and prerequisite overrides. Procedures will vary from department to department.
Q: I tried registering for a class but got an error message. What do I do?
There are a number of possible causes:
- The class might be full. See the number of "remaining" seats in the course listing. If it is zero or negative, the class is full. You may be able to submit a force request in this case.
- The class might be restricted either to honors or to specific majors. See the information under the Restrictions/Details link for the class. Note that during regular sessions, classes with section numbers in the 200's are honors sections. You need to be honors eligible to enroll in these classes or need to obtain an override (through a force request).
- The class may require that you accept the Lab Safety Acknowledgement. This is done in the Howdy portal. Be careful to select the link that actually allows you to set the Lab Safety Acknowledgement rather than the link that points to help information. This only needs to be once per semester. Note that in addition to most science classes, ENGR 111, ENGR 112 and CSCE 462 are among the classes needing the Lab Safety Acknowledgement.
- The class may require that you have specific prerequisites or co-requisites (which can be taken with or before the class). For example, CHEM 101 and CHEM 111 list each other as co-requisites. This means that you have to sign up for both of them at the same time.
- Your prerequisite classes may not have been recognized by the registration system. This is especially likely if you have credits that are transferring "by title" (i.e., without a corresponding university course number listed on your transcript) or if you have credit for an equivalent class (e.g., MATH 171 instead of MATH 151). Contact the department teaching the class to request a prerequisite override.
- You may be listed as being a "lower division" student and may be trying to register for a CSCE 300 or above class. These classes require upper division standing. Place a force request with us for the class.
- There might be a time conflict. Sometimes the evening testing sessions conflict. Sometimes the ending time of a section is identical to the starting time of another section. Send an email to undergraduate advising to determine what can be done in these cases. Please include your name and UIN.
Q: Can you register me for classes during preregistration?
No, the registration system is not available to us until open registration.
Q: When are CSCE force requests evaluated?
We start evaluating force requests when we reach open enrollment and continue until the add/drop week. If the force request is for a class that requires upper division standing, we start to evaluate those after the semester's grades are posted.
Q: How do I request to go over hours in registration?
Undergraduates are allowed to register for up to 17 hours during preregistration and up to 19 hours during open registration. Requests to go over that number can be made by filling out an overload request form and bringing it to us for approval (after the preregistration period has ended). The form then needs to go to the dean's office for their approval. Because multiple manual steps are required in processing these forms, it is highly unlikely that they can be completed in time to allow additional hours during the short duration preregistration time slots. Additionally, we may determine that it is appropriate to delay approval of a form in order to be fair to other students seeking to register for a class that's in high demand.