You are here: American University School of International Service Graduate Advising Frequently Asked Questions

Registration

All internships (both non/0-credit and for-credit) require additional registration processes and are not registered in Eagle Service. Non-credit internships are used solely to fulfill the Professional Experience requirement. Internships for academic credit can fulfill the Professional Experience requirement and may be counted towards academic program requirements (e.g. elective). All students registering internships for academic credit are required to participate in an online internship course.

Registration deadlines are listed on the University Academic Calendar and are also sent to students in the Graduate Advising weekly bulletin. Tuition charged for for-credit internships is the same as the normal tuition rate. There is no cost for non-credit internships.

Find out more about internship registration.

Students do not register themselves for practica in Eagle Service. The SIS Practicum program includes an application process in the semester before the practicum course is offered. The SIS Office of Experiential Education will register all students who are selected for and accept a placement in a practicum course. Additional registration information will be included in the student's practicum acceptance email.

Find out more about the SIS practicum.

SRPs, theses and independent studies require additional registration processes and are not registered in Eagle Service. While the basic registration process for these projects is the same, you will be asked to provide supplemental materials specific to each type of registration to both your academic advisor and faculty advisor(s) for the project.

Registration deadlines are listed on the University Academic Calendar and are also sent to students in the Graduate Advising weekly bulletin.

Find out more about SRP registration.

Current non-degree students registered for the current semester are pre-authorized to register for the subsequent semester via Eagle Service.

Non-degree students who were last registered in a previous semester should email sisgradadvising@american.edu in order to be authorized to register for a future semester.

All non-degree students who wish to take a course with a pre-requisite must receive written approval from the instructor and provide this documentation to the SIS Graduate Advising office prior to registration.

Requirements

In order to support students preparing for the Tool of Research (TOR) language exam, the College of Arts and Sciences (CAS) offers two TOR preparation course options: CAS-025 Reading Preparation for TOR (0 credit, a non-credit language coaching program, and CAS-600 Language Preparation for TOR (1 credit), a reduced-credit language course. For information on how to register for either of the CAS TOR preparation courses, please contact your academic advisor.

SIS graduate students are required to demonstrate that they have professional experience relevant to their degree program prior to graduation. Students may fulfill this requirement by either demonstrating that they have prior/current professional experience or previous internship experience, or by completing an internship during their MA program.

Students fulfilling the professional experience requirement based on an internship completed during their MA program must register the internship for either academic credit or no-credit for the semester in which the internship is completed.

Students fulfilling the Professional Experience requirement based on prior/current professional experience or internships completed prior to enrollment must submit to their advisor the Professional Experience Certification form.

Find out more about the Professional Experience requirement.

Students who wish to waive the pre-requisite for SIS-616 International Economics, SIS-731 Economic Development or SIS-620 Environmental Economics may take the SIS Economics Placement Exam.

Find out more about the Economics Placement Exam.

Students may transfer in up to 12 credits of relevant coursework taken as a non-degree student toward a graduate degree program at SIS. Non-degree students who intend to apply to a graduate program at a future date and wish to discuss potential programs and/or selecting courses towards a particular program of study should contact SIS Graduate Admissions at sisgrad@american.edu.

Eagle Service

Questions about the new course registration system? AU offers resources and general frequently asked questions as well as an online tutorial on how to plan and register for classes.

While students are able to plan their schedule in advance in Eagle Service, planning is not the same as registering for courses. Students will need to log back into Student Planning once their registration appointment time has arrived to register for their planned courses. Students cannot register until their assigned registration appointment time.

Current graduate students are assigned registration appointment times for spring and fall registration. Registration appointment times are not required for summer registration. PhD students register first, followed by degree-seeking graduate students by credits completed in descending order (e.g. students who have completed 30 credits will register before students who have completed 24). Non-degree and graduate certificate students register last. 

Registration appointment times are a student’s start time for priority registration – students will continue to be able to make registration changes through the end of the Add/Drop period. Students must log in to Student Planning to view their registration appointment time. Registration appointment times cannot be changed. 

Registration begins for new graduate students after continuing students have had an opportunity to register. Find out more about new student registration.

Most SIS graduate students are not required to meet with advisor before registering. Students on academic probation and students who have applied and are eligible to graduate are required to meet with their advisor before registering for subsequent semesters. These students should receive a notification message indicating they require advisor authorization to register.

Note: If you see a notification message in Student Planning indicating that you require an advisor's authorization in order to register, please confirm your registration appointment time. Students may see this message prior to their registration appointment time, but it should be removed once their registration period has begun.

If the semester of registration does not appear automatically in a student’s Course Schedule in Eagle Service, students will need to either click on the right arrow (“>”) next to the semester title or click the plus sign (“[+]”)next to the semester title to add a new "Regular Term” to their plan so that they can plan and register for courses.

First, be sure to check that it is your scheduled registration time. You will be unable to register for a class before this time.

If you're still having issues, you may have a hold/stop on your account. Holds can be viewed in the myAU portal. Students without an address on file with the University will be prevented from registering until they have updated their contact information. All students are recommended to update their address information as applicable in their myAU Portal (“Contact Information” under the “Academics” tab) before registering. 

Other common holds include: 

  • Immunization Hold: Please contact Student Health Services 
  • Financial Hold (overdue library books, past-due account balances, etc.): Please contact AU Central

Students who attempt to plan multiple sections of a topics course (e.g. SIS-619, SIS-635, SIS-653) may receive a message indicating that the course is a duplicate, has already been planned, is in progress, has been added to the student’s schedule multiple times, or is already enrolled in another term. Students may disregard these messages for topics courses, as they are allowed to register for different sections of the same topics course (e.g. students may register for both SIS-619-001 and SIS- 619-002 during the same semester).

Students should receive notification of any course prerequisites or restrictions when they plan courses to their schedule. Students will not be prevented from planning a course for which they have not yet met the prerequisite or do not meet the restriction. However, students will be prevented from registering for any course for which they have not met the prerequisite or do not meet the restriction.

Prerequisite waivers cannot be viewed in Eagle Service. Instead, students may view their existing prerequisite waivers on their unofficial transcript, which may be found in the myAU portal under "Academics" - "View Unofficial Transcripts".

Students who pass the SIS Economics Placement Exam receive a prerequisite waiver to register for SIS-616 International Economics, SIS-731 Economic Development or SIS-620 Environmental Economics, not a blanket prerequisite waiver for any course that requires ECON-603 as a prerequisite. Students seeking to register for other courses that have ECON-603 as a prerequisite should contact the faculty member for permission to register. Find out more about the Economics Placement exam.

Please contact your Graduate Academic Advisor about any prerequisite questions.

If a course is closed or waitlisted, students will have the option to join the waitlist. Please note, skills institutes do not allow waitlists. Students are not added automatically to a waitlist for a course and must select to be added to the waitlist in Student Planning. 

Students may only be waitlisted for three courses total, and may not be on the waitlist for multiple sections of the same course (this does not include Topics course numbers, e.g. SIS-619). If you are on the waitlist for one section of a course (e.g. SIS-600) and you register for another section of the same course, you will be automatically removed from the waitlist for the original section. 

Once on the waitlist, students are granted permission to register as space becomes available in the course the order in which they joined the waitlist. If a space becomes available, the first student on the waitlist will be notified with an email to their AU email account from the University Registrar. Students will have 24 hours from when the email was sent to enroll in that section of the course. Unfortunately, if a student does not register within the allotted time frame, the student is removed from the waitlist and the open space becomes available for the next eligible student. Students who have difficulties registering for a course from a waitlist after having received notification of an available space should contact the Registrar’s office at 202-885-2022.

Express Advising

Express Advising meetings are 15 minutes in length and occur four times per year at the beginning of the fall and spring semesters (Add/Drop) and during the registration periods for upcoming semesters. Express Advising meetings should be used for immediate questions related to the registration period, and can occur in-person or by phone.

Appointments are 30 minutes in length and take place during all other times of the academic year. Appointments allow for in-depth advising conversations, including long-term course/degree planning, and can take place in-person, by phone, or by Skype.  

Express Advising meetings and Appointments are booked online and in advance. Book an appointment with an advisor.

In order to best use your time meeting with your advisor, students are encouraged to bring an updated copy of their advising worksheet and a list of prepared questions.