Before You Use Waitlists--Read This Guide!

Starting with Fall 2018 registration, the large majority of SAIC courses will offer a waitlist option when all seats in a class have been filled. By adding yourself to a waitlist, you are authorizing PeopleSoft to automatically enroll you in the class, should a spot become available.

Waitlist Basics

• Open to all students (graduate, post-baccalaureate, undergraduate)
• 15 spots per waitlist
• You can sign up for a maximum of two three-credit course waitlists (or one waitlist for a six-credit course)
• Do not sign up for a waitlist until you have confirmed that you have satisfied any prerequisites that may be required for the class or received a permission number waiving those prerequisites (these waivers are primarily issued to graduate students with equivalent prior experience to what the prereq course would provide undergrads)
• Classes requiring a portfolio review by the department/instructor will not have a waitlist
• Classes with a co-requisite will not have a waitlist
• If you have holds on your account that impact registration, you will not be able to sign up for a waitlist at all
• All waitlists end/close one day before the Add/Drop period ends

I. BEFORE REGISTRATION

Undergraduate Students: Check in with Academic Advising.

All undergraduate students are encouraged to connect with an academic advisor at least once a year, even after required advising appointments have ended. Your advisor can help you shape your academic plan and goals, and help you prepare for registration in a variety of ways. Advising has also prepared a Guide to Registering for Classes, and you should review and familiarize yourself with this general process.

Graduate Students: Check in with your department's Graduate Coordinator or Program Director.

Graduate students can connect with their department's Graduate Coordinator or Program Director if you have questions about your degree pathway/progress. These faculty may also refer you to other offices/resources as appropriate.

Take care of any holds which impact registration.

Before your registration day and time, identify and resolve any holds. You can see these by logging in to PeopleSoft Self-Service and looking at the “Holds” box on the upper right side of the page.

II. WHEN REGISTERING

Enroll in open courses first to ensure you are fully enrolled in the number of classes you want.

You should enroll in the appropriate number of courses as soon as possible during registration. Even if you are enrolling in classes which are not all your first choices, doing so ensures you’ll end up with the credits you need to stay on track for graduation. This also makes it much easier for you to use the wait list process to make changes to your schedule later.

Determine what waitlists you wish to sign up for.

You can enroll on up to “six credits” of waitlists. Since most classes at SAIC are three credits, you will usually be able to take a spot on up to two different waitlists. You will need to prioritize which courses are most important for you to try to get into.

Make sure you have the prerequisites.

It is essential to confirm you have either completed or are currently enrolled in any prerequisite for a course before you add yourself to its waitlist (or try to enroll into any course with open seats). This is because the system will allow you to sign up for a waitlist even if you do not have the prereq, but it cannot actually enroll you if a spot opens up without that prerequisite. If that happens, the system will move on to try and enroll the next person on the list.

Graduate Students: Graduate students who wish to enroll in upper-level undergraduate courses that have prerequisite requirements will need to contact the relevant faculty member to share their qualifications and request a “permission number” from them in advance of signing up for the course waitlist. This permission number is entered into the system and acts as a substitute for the missing prerequisite.

It’s important to obtain this permission number in advance because once you have signed up for the waitlist, you cannot add a permission number later. The only option at that point is to drop from the waitlist and add yourself again, this time using the permission number.

Decide if you should set your waitlist spot up as a “future swap.”

Generally, the “swap” function of PeopleSoft allows you to exchange your seat in one class for an open seat in another. You can also do this with a waitlist, telling the system you are okay with a “future swap” of an enrolled class for a new class, if your spot in that waitlist comes up. However, you can only make this choice (swap or no swap) once, when you first add yourself to the waitlist—and you cannot go back and change it later. This is why you should fully enroll in open, available seats before signing up for waitlists, so you can set up the automatic “swap” from one to the other.

Sign up for the waitlist(s)!

We’ve prepared simple instructions with screenshots to guide you through the actual sign-up steps.

Click here to view the step-by-step instructions.

III. AFTER REGISTRATION

Watch your email for enrollment and other waitlist-related notifications.

If you are enrolled from a waitlist automatically, you’ll receive an email notification, and you should keep a close eye on your email at all times. You do not need to take further action until classes start.

Change in plans?

You can remove yourself from a waitlist at any time, should your plans change or you are no longer interested in that course. Once you are enrolled in a class from the waitlist, standard SAIC add/drop policies apply, and you can drop the class before the add/drop deadline.

IV. WHEN SCHOOL STARTS

Attend classes you are officially enrolled in.

Even if you are hoping for a “future swap,” attending the courses you are fully enrolled in must be your priority during Add/Drop.

To the best of your ability, also attend classes you are waitlisted for.

During Add/Drop, faculty have a choice in how they manage their waitlists. Many faculty will just let the wait list run automatically as they have been, but others will use student attendance to decide which students from the waitlist should receive seats that become available. In these cases, students who attend class will receive priority for seats, even if their position on the wait list is lower than some students who did not actually attend.

When you first attend a class you are wait-listing, check in with the faculty member, introduce yourself as someone on the waitlist, and participate as instructed. If the faculty is managing the process using attendance as a consideration, they will agree to sign a paper Add/Drop form when it’s appropriate for you to receive an available seat in the course. Turning in the paper Add/Drop form will move you from the waitlist and enroll you in the available seat, regardless of your previous position.

Finalize your enrollment.

Even if you are hoping for a “future swap,” attending the courses you are fully enrolled in must be your priority during Add/Drop. All waitlists close a day before Add/Drop ends, so you if you are wait-listing a class but do not get in, you need to make any final adjustments to your schedule in the final day after the lists close.

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THE IMPORTANCE OF ATTENDANCE

Regardless of how a faculty manages the waitlist during Add/Drop, attending the course can only help your chance of securing a seat. More importantly, you will also be on track regarding the course work you will eventually be responsible for if you are enrolled from the waitlist.

You should ideally attend all courses you are enrolled in as well as any you hope to enroll in (waitlisted) during the first two weeks of the semester. Absences during Add/Drop count, including in courses where you are not (yet) officially enrolled. You should use good judgement in attending all course options as much as possible until your schedule is finalized. Whether a class has an automatic waitlist, a faculty-managed waitlist, or no waitlist at all, attendance (and participation) matter and are your responsibility.

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