About Waitlists
When the capacity of a course fills you must add yourself to the waitlist as a way to ‘get in line’ to register. After a course fills, and a waitlist has formed, the only way into the course is by way of the waitlist, even if the registration system is showing a space available in the course. You can’t ‘jump the line.’
Adding a course to your waitlist does not count towards the minimum number of credits you need on your schedule to be considered full time (12 credits). There isn’t a limit to the number of courses you can have on your waitlist.
Waitlisting Sophomore Priority Courses
“Sophomore Priority” in the schedule means students will be allowed to register for a course in the following order: sophomores, first-year students, seniors, juniors. A senior or junior wanting to register for such a course will be automatically waitlisted for it and will be admitted at the instructor’s discretion after priority registration has ended.
Registering from a Waitlist – How Waitlists Work with Workday
Waitlists are handled in a two phase process within Workday. There is an Invitation to Register phase and a Direct Registration phase.
Invitation to Register: If a space opens up during the priority registration window you will be sent an invitation to register through Workday. You have 24 hours to respond to the invitation.
Direct Registration: The Monday after priority registration ends, the Registrar’s Office will begin taking requests from instructors to register students for their classes. The Registrar’s Office will manually register students for courses once a request is received from an instructor. Students will receive an email outside of Workday once they have been manually registered for a class. Students have 48 hours to resolve any schedule conflicts with their registration. After 48 hours if conflicts have not been resolved and the student has NOT been in contact with the Registrar’s Office, the Registrar’s Office will undo the registration.
Check your Workday notifications and email regularly.
See How Waitlists work at Carleton or the video above for more information on both processes and deadlines.
Waitlist FAQs
Can I waitlist for a course that’s scheduled at the same time as a course that’s already on my schedule?
Yes, you may waitlist for a course that meets at the same time as a course already on your schedule. You may not be registered for two courses that meet at the same time or have overlapping meeting times.
What if I receive a permission, but am not interested in taking the seat?
If you receive a Workday notification granting you permission to register for the course, you can either decline the invitation to register or ignore the invitation and do nothing. After 24 hours the invitation to register will be rescinded. If you receive an email indicating that you have been registered for the course from the Registrar’s office, you can drop the course through Workday or contact the Registrar’s Office with any questions. See our guide Drop or ‘Late’ Drop from a Class for more information.
What happens if I don’t register on time?
You can add yourself back on the Waitlist by reregistering for the course. In some cases, the instructor can re-grant permissions by emailing waitlist@carleton.edu again. However, in cases where there are more students waiting to receive permission to add a course from the waitlist, the instructor may no longer have enough space in the course and may deny re-granting the permission.
Am I allowed to receive permission to add a course late in the week of drop/add?
You may, however, an instructor can withhold permission if they feel you have missed too much of the course. This most frequently happens if you missed the first lab meeting of a course.
I’ve registered for the course; when will I have access to the course in Moodle?
Prior to the start of the term, faculty have the option to hide their course Moodle so if it’s before the start of the term and you don’t see a course on your Moodle, but it’s on your schedule in Workday, don’t panic it’s likely just hidden. If you know the course on Moodle is live, please note it may take an hour or two before your schedule and Moodle sync.