Waitlist FAQs.

• Option 1: The course has a waitlist. Courses that have “Class Closed” in the notes section on MyBU Student are closed because the course is full and there is an active waitlist.  If you have not filled out a waitlist form (available on our forms page) for the particular course, you should do so as soon as possible.
• Option 2: There are reserved seats. If the course does not say “Class Closed”, it is likely that the remaining seats are reserved—you should still fill out a waitlist form (available on our forms page) if you are unable to register for the course.

Waitlist seat offers begin two weeks after registration opens– after that date, if seats look available in a closed section, that typically means that we are offering seats to students on the waitlist.  Students are offered seats based on waitlist priority.  If you have not received an offer, it means that we are not able to offer you a seat at this time.  If we are able to offer you a seat, we will send an offer to your BU email account.

Waitlist priority is calculated based on your course requirements, your expected graduation date and the time and date that you submitted your waitlist form. If we are able to offer you a seat, we will send an offer to your BU email account.  If you receive an offer, you will have 48 hours to respond.  If you do not accept the offer within 48 hours, you will be removed from the waitlist and the offer will go to the next person on the list.

No, you should not contact the professor or the department—they do not manage the waitlist. The registrar’s office uses waitlist data to work with departments to evaluate potential need for additional seats or sections of courses.

Waitlist seat offers begin two weeks after registration opens.  After that date, our ability to offer seats will depend on registration movement and any seat increases.  We are unable to anticipate when registered students will drop a course, so it is not possible to estimate when seats will become available.  If we determine that additional seats or sections should be offered, seats will be offered at that time—this is an ongoing process and does not have a specified time frame.

You should not submit multiple waitlist forms for the same course section.  Later entries will lower your priority on the waitlist.  If you are unsure if you have submitted a waitlist for a course, check your confirmation email– it has the course that you entered when you filled out the waitlist form.

We cannot guarantee seats in a particular course but graduation dates are factored in to the waitlist priority calculation. The registrar’s office also takes this into consideration when discussing potential seat additions with departments.  If you are not offered a seat, we will discuss options with you and your department or certificate administrators when we get closer to the start of the semester.

We recommend that you register for alternate course options while waiting to see if you will get in to a preferred course.

Accepting a seat offer will not impact your standing on other course waitlists. For example, you will still have the same priority for the B1 section of a course regardless of your enrollment in the A1 section.

• Make sure that you are actually unable to register for the course, check to see what the notes section for the class instructs you to do when you look up the class in Class Search in MyBU Student.
• If you are an MPH certificate student, check that your certificates are listed correctly in MyBU Student (Dashboard/Academics/Programs). Other parts of MyBU Student may only show your Functional Certificates, so it is important to look under Academics/Programs to see all of your certificates. If your certificates are not accurately reflected, please submit a Certificate Declaration or Change Form (available on our forms page) as soon as possible.
• Make sure that your expected graduation date is reflected correctly in MyBU Student (Dashboard/Academics/Programs).  Your expected graduation date should show up under “Expected Grad Term” (Fall = January graduation; Spring = May graduation; Summer = August graduation).  If your graduation date is inaccurate, submit a graduation application (available on our forms page) if the application is available.  If the graduation application is not open yet for your intended graduation date, email us at sphregr@bu.edu with your UID and your intended grad date so that we can update your record.

You can contact us at sphregr@bu.edu — please include your BUID in your email.  You can also call us at 617-358-3434 or via Zoom Virtual hours located on our contact information page.