Course Registration

How Does Real-Time Registration for Continuing Students Work?

Real-time registration means that students will know instantly whether they are officially registered in a course section. Instructor rosters will update immediately, as will registration numbers on the schedule of classes. 

Beginning in Fall 2025, once each class year's registration period opens, it will remain open until the end of the first week of the semester (save for a brief pause shortly after the initial registration opener) for students to continue to adjust their schedules or take advantage of any granted waitlist permissions. This means for Fall registration students should anticipate that they may receive waitlist permissions during the summer. 

The Registrar's Calendar details all the dates and deadlines for registration!

Registration Overview

For class registration each semester, students should take the following steps to set themselves up for success. Detailed help guides for how to complete each of these processes can be found on Bowdoin's Workday for Students page.

1. Complete your Onboarding tasks.
   1. Each semester, students are asked to review their personal information and privacy choices to either confirm that this information is still correct or make updates. When Onboarding is made available to students, a hold is placed on each student's record that prevents them from registering until the Onboarding tasks are complete.
2. Review the course section schedule and build saved schedules.
   1. Students should build saved schedules in advance of meeting with their advisors. Saved schedules allow students to put together potential schedules in advance of registration to ensure that class times don't overlap and ensure that students can troubleshoot any potential issues in advance, such as class prerequisites that they may not have. 
   2. Holds that prevent registration will not prevent students from building saved schedules.
3. Take proactive steps for a smooth registration.
   
   1. If a prerequisite override is needed for a class, students should submit requests in advance of registration using Workday.
   2. Review student holds and take the steps needed to resolve them in order to register on time.
4. Meet with an Academic Advisor.
   1. Students must meet with their Academic Advisors before registration each semester, both to confirm their semester schedules and to check in on their progress and how things are going at Bowdoin generally. This is a great time to ask questions students may have about policies or plans students have for the future, both at Bowdoin and after graduation.
   2. Students' Academic Advisors will need to lift the students' advising holds after the meetings to allow students to register at their scheduled time. 
5. In the 24-48 hours before students' scheduled registration date and time:
   1. Students should re-check their holds to ensure that they have resolved any holds that could keep them from registering.
   2. Re-check saved schedules. 
      1. Have any preferred sections filled? Plan and adjust now for changes that may have impacted saved schedules.
      2. Have all needed prerequisite overrides been requested? Have all requested prerequisite overrides been approved? Have any been denied or sent back for more information? Update any requests or adjust schedules as needed.
6. On the day students register:
   1. Set an alarm and be logged in to Workday, via Okta, by five minutes before the registration time. 
   2. Watch the computer/phone system clock, and when the clock indicates the hour that registration opens, register from a saved schedule(s) or for individual courses. 
7. After registering:
   1. Registration will stay open through the first week of the semester to accept waitlist permissions, drop sections, and add sections with open seats or waitlists.
      1. Registration activity will pause briefly after continuing students register to allow for administrative operations, such as waitlist reviews. 
      2. During the second week of the semester, students will be able to add sections with the permission of the instructor.