Registration FAQs

Undergraduate students must meet with their academic advisor in order to receive registration clearance prior to enrolling in classes for the term.

An overview on how to register for classes using schedule builder.

An overview on how to register for classes using the class search feature.

For many courses, students can place themselves on a waitlist once the course reaches capacity. By placing yourself on the waitlist, you assume responsibility for potentially being enrolled in a class.

Students can waitlist for up to 10 credit hours. Make sure adding yourself to a course waitlist does not push you over the 19.5 credit limit.

• When adding the class during registration, check the box “Waitlist if class is full” and continue the enrollment process. If the class has a waitlist, you will be notified of your position on the waitlist after you have completed registration.
• You cannot add yourself to a waitlist of a course if you are already enrolled in another section of the same course. The registration system recognizes that you are already enrolled in the course. You cannot be doubly enrolled in a course by selecting multiple sections.

• Students are moved off the waitlist and enrolled into the class by an automated process if space becomes available.  Students are enrolled in the class according to their position on the waitlist. Moving off of the waitlist is not guaranteed.
• Students can communicate with the course instructor to express their interest in joining the class and likelihood of available seats to be added off of the waitlist.
• Students will not be enrolled off of a waitlist if the course conflicts with another course they are already enrolled in.

Students will be notified via their umbc.edu email address.

• Waitlisting a class does not guarantee a seat in the course.
• Waitlisted classes do not count towards full-time enrollment. You will want to make sure you are enrolled in enough credits (12) to be full-time without waitlisted classes.
• Waitlists are deactivated during the schedule adjustment period. After this happens, students will not automatically be enrolled, but can manually enroll themselves if a seat becomes available.

A multi-component course is a course that has multiple required sections. These can include lectures and discussions, seminars, labs, or exam periods. All course components are mandatory and must be open to register for the course.

Often certain lectures will be associated with specific lab, discussion, or seminar times. Read the course information thoroughly to see what sections need to be taken together.

A multiple meeting pattern means that different course components may meet at different times and in different rooms. For example, one time period may be reserved for exams. Additional rooms may be reserved for exams to allow sufficient space for testing. If multiple rooms are listed, professors will indicate which location students should report to.

The course registration is full. You will need to register for a different section of the course, add yourself to the waitlist, or find an alternative course.

You may not have completed the required prerequisite class for the course. Most courses require proof of pre-requisite completion in the case of a course being completed outside of UMBC.  If you believe that you have completed the prerequisite, request an override from the course instructor. If you are not sure who to contact, reach out to the course’s academic department.

All of the unreserved seats in a course may be full. If you have recently declared a major or minor, please check that your myUMBC profile has been updated.