How to elect courses, navigate course priorities and prerequisites, and request syllabi and Instructor Permission
Courses per Term
Students take three classes per term. If necessary, exchange students can request to drop down to a two-course load once during their Dartmouth careers. A two-course load requires approval from their home school and relevant Dartmouth offices.
Choose a Variety of Classes
10-week terms are fast-paced, and it is easy to get behind; therefore, it is best to take a variety of classes.
Keep the Workload Balanced
The nature of some classes can be more time-consuming than others, or require different types of skills to complete classwork. Keep a balance between the types of classes you take, this will make your course load and time at Dartmouth more manageable.
Keep the Organization, Regulations, and Courses Catalog (ORC) handy for reference on courses and regualtions.
Review the Registrar's website for Courses@Dartmouth for comprehensive instructions on course registration.
Using the ORC or Timetable, review courses offered by the departments and programs. Note that exchange students may only register for undergraduate level courses. This includes 3 undergraduate courses offered by the Tuck School of Business.
Note: Instructor Permission (IP) can be necessary to register for a course that has pre-requisites, course priorities, or is at full enrollment. It is very common for exchange students to request Instructor Permission. Read the Tips & Templates section below for more information on requesting and obtaining IP.
To register, you will log into Courses@Dartmouth. You will receive full access to Courses@Dartmouth 60 days before your first term at Dartmouth begins and can register according to the course election schedule.
Note: Instructor Permission (IP) can be necessary to register for a course that has pre-requisites, course priorities, or is at full enrollment. It is very common for exchange students to request Instructor Permission. Read the Tips & Templates section below for more information on requesting and obtaining IP.
Every limited enrollment course has a priority listing, available on DartHub under "Course Enrollment Priorities" in the Undergraduate Main Menu. After course election, if more students elected a course than there are seats available, the priority listing is used to determine the order in which students are enrolled in the course. The term "random" in the priority listing indicates students are selected at random, without regard to class or major.
All exchange students are listed in Banner by the Registrar as "Undergraduates" or "UG". Your class year at your home institution is not listed. This means that you are not affiliated with a particular class year, so you will not have priority in course registration as an upperclassman, but you are no more disadvantaged than first years, sophomores, or non-majors.
Many classes do not have priority selection and select students randomly. Core or topic classes for a major often do have priority selection categories, especially in popular departments.
If you wish to apply to a course that has prerequisites, uses course priorities, or is at full enrollment, we recommend that you write to the professor of the course to explain that you are an exchange student and request "Instructor Permission" to elect the course.
Most exchange students need to request IP. The Dartmouth course enrollment system does not contain records of the classes you have taken at your home school. So, you may need to explain your background in the academic subject when requesting IP.
Here is a sample message you can use:
Dear Professor X,
My name is A Student and I am an exchange student from X University here for the X term. I am writing to request Instructor Permission for X class. I am a X major and have taken several X courses at my home university, such as X, Y, Z. One of the main reasons I came to Dartmouth on this exchange was because of courses like this, I am so fascinated by X and would appreciate the opportunity to take this course. Please let me know if this is possible.
Sincerely, A Student
If you need detailed course information beyond the description found in the course catalog, you can request course syllabi from the department. While upcoming syllabi are not typically available until the start of the term, a previous version can be helpful.
While some departments include copies of syllabi on their website, usually students have to contact the relevant department administrator to request a copy. The administrator's information can be found on the department's website under the "People" tab. Write them an email explaining that you are an inbound exchange student and are requesting a copy of the most recent syllabi for X course in order to earn course approval from your home school.
It is not always possible to get into your first choice of class. In preparation for the possibility that you are not able to get into all of your preferred courses, we recommend that you consider a few alternative courses of interest to you or that may be useful in counting toward your major or minor at your home institution.