During registration and add/drop periods, students often wish to enroll in sections that have reached their enrollment capacity and are closed. The new Automated Waitlist Process provides an opportunity for students to enroll in closed sections as space becomes available. This new process will also provide the schools/colleges with information for making decisions concerning their course offerings for current as well as future semesters.

Beginning with fall 2008 registration, the new Automated Waitlist Process will allow students to place their names on a waitlist for closed sections in which they are eligible to enroll. When a space becomes available, an email is sent to the first student on the waitlist and they will have twenty-four hours to register for the course.

The waitlist is convenient and easy to use. Students follow the normal registration process on the web via their my.american.edu account. There is now an additional field on the Course Registration screen called “Waitlist”. The default for this field is NO. Students who wish to have their names added to the waitlist for closed sections should update this field to YES. Students will then receive confirmation that the course is closed and that they have been added to the waitlist. Your class schedule will confirm the status of these sections as “Waitlist”. 

If you attempt to register for a course that is closed and you do not change the waitlist field from No to YES and decide later that you wish to waitlist this section, you need only to go back to the Course Registration screen and change the waitlist flag from NO to YES and continue as if you were registering for the course. 

How Does the Waitlist Work?

• On a space available basis, active students on a waitlist are granted permission to register on a first on, first off basis.
  
• At 11:00 am daily, eligible students will receive an email from the University Registrar, sent to their AU email address alerting them that a space has become available in their waitlisted section.
  
• To claim this space, students must register for the waitlisted section prior to 11:00 am the following day.
  
• Should student fail to register for the waitlisted course within the twenty-four hour period, their waitlist status expires and the space becomes available for the next eligible student.
  
• Student eligibility and course registration eligibility rules, such as prerequisites, are always enforced.
  

For more information contact the Office of the Registrar at 202-885-2200 or email us at registrar@american.edu.