Registration FAQs

All WR 120, WR 151, WR 152, and WR 153 sections have individual topics, which vary widely. Please consult our course catalog to find out the topic of each section and read more about it.

If you try to enroll in a full WR class in MyBU, you’ll get an option to sign up for the waitlist if there are still wait list spots available. There are 10 waitlist spots available for each class. Follow the instructions provided by CAS Advising in their Registration Tips & Tricks Waitlists section. Once you have signed up, you’ll see all the sections you are on the waitlist for on your dashboard and also see what your current position is on the waitlist.

Please note, students are enrolled off the waitlist as long as they have met the following requirements: 

• No time conflicts with the waitlisted course
• Meet any restrictions/reserved seats
• Would not be enrolled in over 20 academic units.

If you don’t meet all the eligibility requirements above, the waitlist will skip over you and not register you.

If you wish to enroll and stay in a different course, be sure to drop the waitlist course. You can do so through the Drop a class feature explained here. Otherwise, if you get into the waitlist class, the waitlist may automatically drop you from the other class you are registered for.

Once you sign up for a waitlist, you will see all of your wait-listed class on your MyBU dashboard and your position number on the waitlist for each class. Position number is determined only by the order students signed up for the waitlist. If a seat opens in the class, the waitlist will auto enroll the student in the first waitlist position as long as that student meets all the requirements for the class.

If the student in the first position does not qualify to register for the class, the system immediately moves on to the next student on the waitlist until it finds a student that is eligible to register. Then it will register that student. The next time a seat opens, the system will start the process again beginning with the student in position 1.

PLEASE NOTE: Being on a waitlist does not guarantee you a seat in a class that semester. You should always register for a back-up class in case you do not get into your waitlist class.

IMPORTANT: The waitlist will skip over you and not register you if you have any of the following eligibility problems:

• You have a registration hold on your student account. See your dashboard for information about the hold and how to remove it. Once the hold is removed, the waitlist will stop skipping you.
• You are registered for another class with a conflicting class time (and you didn’t select to drop that conflicting class when you added yourself to the waitlist). Unfortunately, if you didn’t select the option to drop the conflicting class when you added yourself to the waitlist, there is no way to do it retroactively without losing your waitlist position. The only way to fix it is to drop yourself from the waitlist and then sign up again selecting that you want to drop the conflicting class. This will result in you getting moved to the bottom of the waitlist.

Sign up for the waitlist for the class in MyBU as soon as possible if there are open waitlist spots. See the answers above for instructions. You may be able to get into the class through the waitlist if other students drop the class.

If you have an extenuating circumstance, you may also submit an over-enrollment petition to join a full class. Interest in a particular topic or instructor is not considered to be an extenuating circumstance. Both the Writing Program and the instructor of the full class need to approve your petition. Some instructors choose not to take any extra students. If you are approved, a Writing Program administrator will add you to the class.

CAS Advising explains how to do common MyBU registration tasks here: Registration Tips & Tricks. If you still need assistance, please contact your advisor or BU college’s advising office.

Depending on the kind of transfer credit you have been awarded, you may need to register for a different level WR course. Read more about transfer credit here.

If you are an international student with an English proficiency test score on record with BU (such as TOEFL), you will need to take the Multilingual Writer Placement on Blackboard before registering for ANY of the WR courses or for CAS CC 101. Read more about the placement here.