Pre-Registration 101

Pre-Registration

Here’s a quick overview of what you’ll be pre-registering for as a new student, when, and how

A standard Carleton course is 6 credits, and you’ll want to take three courses for a total of 18 credits. You can also take music lessons or ensembles, a PE activity course, or a dance ensemble, but these are in addition to those three 6-credit courses. Technically, you can register for up to 22 credits, but remember that your first term at college is going to be a big adjustment, so be realistic about the amount of time you’ll have for academics, activities, organizations, and socializing. 

You are required to take an A&I seminar this term, and the remaining two classes are up to you. You’ll be registered for your A&I seminar by the Registrar’s Office and you’ll register yourself for the rest of your schedule through Workday in mid- to late-August. Small groups of first year students register in randomly-assigned 24 hour windows (7:00 AM to 6:59 AM Central Daylight time), called “priority times”. Registration is done independently, with some limited coaching and oversight by the Registrar, and your choices will not be considered final until you meet with your academic adviser during New Student Week. Following that one-on-one meeting you’ll have the opportunity to make changes to your schedule.

Your registration priority day and time for fall term can be found by  accessing the Academics and Registration app in Workday. The My Registration Appointments box indicates your registration appointment. See View My Registration Appointments for more information. If this field is empty, keep checking back — these times are often assigned later in the summer. Carleton is on a three-term calendar; students are assigned priority times randomly and equally, so that each student has an early, a middle and a late registration priority time during the year. In addition, Carls register in order of seniority: seniors first, first-year students last. 

Because you won’t be meeting with your adviser until after you arrive on campus, you can skip the advising meeting confirmation step. However, you do need to enter your emergency contact information before you will be able to register. To avoid any unnecessary stress at registration time, we highly recommend you sign in to Workday and provide this information right now if you haven’t already done so. See Add an Emergency Contact to My Student Profile for more information. Don’t forget to verify that your AP or IB scores have been received by the college before attempting to register for upper-level courses! AP, IB, and other pre-Carleton work can be found through your Workday student profile under the Academics heading (left hand navigation menu) and then External Records (horizontal menu at the top of the page).

As a final note, if you will be without access to the internet for the entirety of your 24 hour registration period, please contact the Registrar’s Office from your Carleton email address to discuss your options. We will not reassign your registration time, but we will work with you to get you registered during your priority time.