Strategies for Advance Registration

  • Address any registration holds (i.e. financial, immunizations, Title IX training) that might prevent you from leveraging advance registration opportunities.
  • Check myUMBC profile to confirm the earliest date &  time for registration. As a reminder, registration appointments are prioritized based on the number of earned credit hours. For example, undergraduate students with 90+ earned credits will register before students with fewer than 90 earned credit hours.
  • Contact your academic advisor to secure an advising appointment early.
  • Review degree progress and plan ahead. Check myUMBC profile “degree card” to access the following academic planning tools available 24/7:
  • Note any questions to review with an academic advisor

Your Academic Advisor is here to help you as you finalize plans for the upcoming semester and beyond. Confer with your Academic Advisor to:

  • Review and confirm course choices
  • Discuss complex scheduling challenges
  • Verify that the advisor has provided registration authorization in the system at the conclusion of the advising session

Note: Students can locate their advisor contact information in their myUMBC profile. Students that are undeclared, transitioning from one major to another, or in need of additional advising assistance can contact the Office of Academic of Pre-professional Advising 

  • Be flexible. Some courses such as special topics courses taught by senior faculty or field experts are in high demand and fill quickly.  There are generally viable alternatives for all degree requirements and sufficient seats to support enrollment.  For example, in Fall 2022, 2,206 seats were offered in computer science 400-level courses. By the start of the fall semester, students were enrolled in 1,798 seats in these courses, leaving 408 remaining available seats.
  • Maximize degree progress by building in courses that fulfill general education and university requirements (i.e. 45 upper-level credits, writing intensive requirement, 120 credits minimum graduation requirement)  whenever possible.
  • Maximize degree options by considering adding a minor or certificate.
  • Use the waitlist to indicate interest in enrolling in a course should space become available. The university regularly monitors the waitlist to assess course demand and when possible may add additional sections or additional seats in an existing section. For example, additional sections of SCI 101L: Quantitative Reasoning: Measurement and Skills Lab were added to the Fall 2023 Schedule to address science w/ lab demand.
  • Choose waitlist options strategically to avoid time conflicts or credit load issues that might prohibit the registration system from moving the student from the waitlist to an available seat.
  • Monitor waitlist status and be ready to select alternative courses if it appears unlikely that a seat may become available. Students are encouraged to solidify their schedules prior to the start of classes.
  • Leverage the over 400 course options available online and in-person during the mini sessions to get ahead or stay on track for timely graduation.
  • Use a mini session to focus on a challenging subject area, or to complete an elective course of interest.