Start-of-the-Semester Information for Students-Fall 2012

FIRST-YEAR STUDENT COURSE REGISTRATION
TRANSFER STUDENT COURSE REGISTRATION
COURSE REGISTRATION FOR RETURNING STUDENTS
ENROLLMENT FORM DEADLINE
COURSE SCHEDULE, CLASS LOCATIONS & COURSE INFORMATION
ADD/DROP COURSE REGISTRATION
CREDIT/D/FAIL GRADING OPTION
QUESTIONS?

FIRST-YEAR STUDENT COURSE REGISTRATION

First-year students will register for courses in three steps:

  1. First-Year Seminar Registration: Students will meet individually with their advisors on Monday, 27 August 2012, between noon and 2:45 p.m. to submit their requests for a first-year seminar using an online form. Students must pay attention to when other courses are scheduled when choosing first-year seminars, and not choose seminars that meet at the same time as other courses for which they will try to register on Tuesday. Once a student is in a seminar, the seminar cannot be dropped until Wednesday during Phase II registration.

    Late afternoon or early evening on Monday, students will receive email notification of the seminars in which they are enrolled. Students who do not get into a seminar will be notified as well. Enrollment numbers will be updated on the Office of the Registrar web site, so students will know if any seminars have spaces available.

  2. First-Year Student Course Registration (Phase I): On Tuesday, 28 August 2012, first-year students will meet individually with their advisors between 8:00 a.m. and noon to complete their course registration cards. Students who were enrolled in a seminar on Monday will request three courses plus alternates; students who did not get into a seminar will request four courses plus alternates. A student who was not enrolled in a first-year seminar on Monday may request a seminar on Tuesday, provided there are seminars with spaces available. Students must bring their registration cards to the Office of the Registrar in Moulton Union by the 12:45 p.m. deadline. During this phase of the registration process, students may enroll in no more than four full-credit courses and as many half-credit courses as they wish. First-year students must also have submitted the online Enrollment Form before 12:45 p.m. on Tuesday.

  3. Phase II Registration for First Years: First-year students will receive their schedules in their Smith Union mailboxes by late morning on Wednesday, 29 August 2012. Phase II registration for first-year students will take place in Room 101 of Kanbar Hall from 12:30 p.m. until 3:00 p.m. On a first-come, first-served basis, people from the Office of the Registrar will help first-year students make adjustments to their schedules. Deans from the Dean of Student Affairs office and some faculty advisors will be available at Phase II to advise students.

TRANSFER STUDENT COURSE REGISTRATION

New transfer students will register for courses on Monday afternoon, 27 August 2012, in the Office of the Registrar, after they have participated in an advising meeting with a Dean.

COURSE REGISTRATION FOR RETURNING STUDENTS

Any student who has not yet registered for courses should do so immediately upon returning to campus by using an add/drop card (available in the lobby outside the Office of the Registrar in Moulton Union). The Office of the Registrar will begin processing add/drop cards on the first day of classes. If a student's initial course registration is received after 5:00 p.m. on Wednesday, 5 September 2012, a late fee of $20 will be billed to his/her account.

All students may adjust their course schedules by participating in the add/drop registration process.

ENROLLMENT FORM DEADLINE

First-year students must submit their enrollment forms by 12:45 p.m. on Tuesday, 28 August 2012. ALL students must submit their Enrollment Forms by 5:00 p.m. on Wednesday, 5 September 2012. Directions and the form are online; the form may only be submitted from a computer on campus. This form allows students to update important address and parent information. It also verifies who is on campus. Any student who does not submit the Enrollment Form by the deadline will be dropped from all classes because we will assume s/he is not on campus. 

COURSE SCHEDULE, CLASS LOCATIONS & COURSE INFORMATION

A student may view his/her course schedule and the meeting locations of classes by logging into the Student Information side of Bearings. Added classes will not appear (and dropped courses will not disappear) in a schedule in Bearings until the add/drop card has been submitted to the Office of the Registrar and processed. Updates are made to Bearings every night. A student who stops attending a course but fails to submit an add/drop card to the Office of the Registrar to drop the course will still be officially enrolled in the course and risks receiving an F grade for the course. A student who attends a course all semester but never submitted an add/drop card to add the course to his/her schedule risks receiving no grade for the course.

Students must attend the first class meetings of all courses. (Classes begin on Thursday, 30 August 2012.) When a course was "Closed until add/drop" after Phase I registration or was full before the first day, instructors have the option of dropping students who do not attend the first class meeting in order to accommodate students from a waiting list.

The Bowdoin College Catalogue is available online. The Office of the Registrar no longer distributes paper copies of the Catalogue. 

A complete Schedule of Course Offerings is available online. There is also a separate Schedule of Course Offerings for First-Year Students. Keep in mind that paper copies of these schedules may be out of date since schedule information frequently changes. The schedules are updated overnight when changes have been made.

Courses may be searched in the Course Finder side of Bearings. There is also a report online that lists courses by the times they meet.

Enrollment numbers for all classes may be found on the Office of the Registrar web site and in the Course Finder side of Bearings.

There is a weekly calendar worksheet available (in PDF and Word formats) to help with schedule planning.

ADD/DROP COURSE REGISTRATION

The Office of the Registrar will begin processing add/drop cards on the first day of classes.

All students may add classes to their schedules through the first two weeks of the semester—until 5:00 p.m. on Wednesday, 12 September 2012. Returning students have until 12 September 2012 to drop a course; students new to Bowdoin have until 11 October 2012. (New students are students for whom the Fall 2012 semester is their first semester.) Add/drop cards are available in the lobby outside the Office of the Registrar on the first floor of the Moulton Union. To add a course, students must acquire the signatures of the instructor and the advisor; drops require only the signature of the advisor. Students adding an independent study or honors project must have signatures from the project director and advisor. Students who are switching labs need only the lab instructor's signature—not an advisor's nor the course instructor's signature.

See complete add/drop instructions online.

Unlike the Phase I and Phase II course registration periods (during which an instructor's signature will only override course prerequisites), an instructor's signature during add/drop registration will override course prerequisites, course restrictions, enrollment limits, and time conflicts. 

CREDIT/D/FAIL GRADING OPTION

Students may change the grading option for a course from graded to Credit/D/Fail (or vice versa) until Thursday, 11 October 2012, by using an add/drop card. Signatures are not needed to make this change. It is important that students read the entire Credit/D/Fail policy to ensure full understanding of the circumstances under which the Credit/D/Fail grading option may be elected for a course. Note that students with class year 2012 or greater may not elect to take their first-year seminars and courses taken to satisfy division or distribution requirements with the Credit/D/Fail grading option.

QUESTIONS?

The Office of the Registrar is located on the first floor of the Moulton Union.
Stop by or contact us if you have questions.
Office Number: x3521
Office Fax: x3338
Office Email: registrar@bowdoin.edu