General Restriction/Seat Management Policies

For the most part, registration restrictions for Informatics classes follow this model:

• Period 1 - All classes reserved for Informatics majors, with only a few notable exceptions:

  • Class within certain under subscribed tracks (ex. Cultural Heritage Informatics) may have restrictions and prerequisites removed in order to attract more students.

  • Some classes may have seats set aside for First Year Interest Group participants (FIG) and/or the Bridging Discipline Program (BDP).

• Period 2 - Existing class seat reservation rules expanded to include Informatics minors

  • Some classes may only allow Minors to join the waitlist in order to keep some seats reserved for unregistered Majors – for instance, newly-admitted Majors who may not register until their orientation.

  • For certain courses that are only required for Majors (like I 372), Minors may only be able to join the waitlist at this time.

• Period 3 and beyond - All restrictions lifted to allow outside students to add Informatics classes or join the waitlist.

  • As per the university’s registration schedule, continuing students generally aren’t able to access registration until day 2 of period 3 registration. Therefore, unregistered newly-admitted Majors should be advised to register as soon as possible on day 1 to get ahead of competition from outside students.

Undergraduates Registering for Graduate Courses

University policy requires that undergraduate students obtain permission from their home adivsing office before registering for any graduate-level courses. Such permissions are granted simply by adding the class to the list of “Approved Graduate Uniques” on the Student Registration Information (RR) screen in *NRRECS. Deans offices may use their discretion in awarding such permissions so long as the following three minimum criteria are met:

1. Student is of upper-division standing and meets the prerequisites for the course.

2. Student has earned a mimimum GPA of 3.0.

3. Student has obtained consent from the course instructor.

Aside from these permission requirements, Undergraduate students face three key disadvantages when trying to enroll in graduate INF courses:

• Undergraduate registration times generally begin after graduate students have already started registering.

• Any graduating undergraduate student who intends to continue on as a graduate student will be classified as a new graduate student in the first semester of the next academic year. As such, their first registration access will not begin until period 2.

• The vast majority of INF courses are restricted to Master’s/PhD students in Information Studies through the first two registration periods in any given registration cycle.

General Informatics Majors

For Informatics students in a terminal degree program (i.e. not a 4+1 integrated Master’s program), the process is as follows:

1. Student should consult with their undergradute advisor to confirm they meet the minimum requirements for enrollment in a graduate course.

   • upper-division standing

   • minimum 3.0 GPA

   • instructor consent

2. Once approved, the advisor should add the unique to the student’s RR screen in NRRECS. (see example image in the 4+1 details below)

3. Advise the student to wait until period 3 registration before attempting to add their requested class. Despite their being a member of our school, master’s students ability to complete their degrees in a timely fashion will always be our top priority when it comes to any INF class.

4+1 Integrated BA/BSI-MSIS Registration

Instructions below assume that a student has already been accepted into the 4+1 program and have had one of the following major/advising code applied to their record via the VP screen in *NRRECS:

Registering for graduate courses in year 4 (transitional year still classified as an undergrad):  

1. Student consults with undergraduate advisor about MSIS course selection. 

   • They're expected to take 6 credit hours of graduate work in fall and another 6 in spring. (12 hrs is the absolute maximum they can take while they're still classified as an undergrad.) 

   • INF 380E PERSPECTIVES ON INFORMATION is required of all MSIS students in their first semester, so 4+1 students will always be guaranteed a seat at this time. 

2. For each graduate course the student plans to take, the undergrad advisor must add the unique number to their approved list on *NRRECS > RR  like so...  

Open

3. With regard to registration, 4+1 students are generally treated the same as any other MSIS student, so no prior instructor authorization is required.  As long as the unique number appears on the student's approved list in *NRRECS > RR, the student should then be able to register for the class or join the waitlist the same as everyone else.  Iff they run into any trouble there, they (or the ug advisor) should check in with the iSchool Grad Office for guidance/troubleshooting.  

4. Once the student's schedule is more or less settled and no further graduate-level adds/drops are expected, they will then need to submit a Reservation of Work for Graduate Credit form for each graduate-level course they intend to later count toward the MSIS portion of their 4+1 track.   

   • The form, along with a review of its associated rules is published here: 

Registering for graduate courses in year 5 (newly classified graduate student): 

 By the time fall registration comes around, any 4+1 students entering their 5^th year should have already been admitted as a graduate student for the next academic year.  Consequently, they will have to wait until Period 2 in the summer to register along with other newly admitted graduate students.  Our graduate student services office will reach out to them in advance in an effort to mitigate that competitive disadvantage by reserving seats in advance.   

From this point forward, their registration will work the same as any other MSIS student.