Registration FAQs

When registration opens, log in to Yale Course Search and add courses to the registration worksheet. You may enroll course-by-course in real time. Enrolling in a course using the registration worksheet provides access to the Canvas course site and the course will appear overnight on your Degree Audit as an in-progress course. Courses added to the Canvas worksheet provide temporary access to the Canvas course site, but you will not be enrolled in the course(s).

You can also watch How Yale College Students Register for Courses

The registration worksheet does not open until the registration period begins and will reopen for Add/Drop period.

If you are a Yale College student who has taken time away you will be able to register once registration opens for your official class year.

Black check mark means successfully enrolled.
Green check mark means that the instructor has approved the request but you still need to accept the seat to be officially registered for the class..
Worksheet means you have added to your worksheet but have not successfully enrolled.
Alert means there is an issue preventing successful registration.

See the Understanding Registration Error Messages chart.

Some common actions which may resolve this issue:

Make sure the class is not full. You will not be able to enroll in a course in which there is not space.
Scroll to the top to see if there is an error message flagging the reason. Consult the Understanding Registration Error Messages for solutions corresponding to the error.
Scroll to the bottom to check for prompts to confirm or make changes.
Check the number of credits in which you are already enrolled (at the top of the worksheet). Yale College students are not able to enroll for more than 5.5 credits without a compelling academic reason.
If the course has a discussion or lab section you must enroll in both the course and the section before finalizing enrollment. Course sections have numbers (e.g. 1401-01) while discussion/lab sections have letters (e.g. 1401-0A).
If the course requires instructor permission and the instructor has granted permission, you must click the blue “confirm changes” button to finalize registration.

Your adviser, DUS, and residential college dean will be able to review your schedule at all times by using the Degree Audit or Student Profile Advising System. While a formal approval is not required, you are expected to meet with and consult your adviser(s).

When you have successfully enrolled in courses using the registration worksheet, your adviser can see the courses you have selected through the Yale Degree Audit.

Registration Worksheet: Yale College students officially enroll in courses by using a registration worksheet within Yale Course Search. While the registration system is open, students may add and remove courses one-by-one in real time. When a student has enrolled in a course using the registration worksheet, they will appear on the Canvas roster with a “Student” status.

Canvas Worksheet: All current students at the university who are eligible to enroll in courses may use the Canvas worksheet within Yale Course Search to gain access to a canvas course site. When a student has added a course to their Canvas worksheet, they will appear on the Canvas roster with a “Visitor” status.

Registration opens based on students’ official class year. Yale College students who have taken any time away from Yale may begin registration activities once registration opens for their official class year.

Yes. The registration worksheet shows the courses that you are actively enrolled in or are in the process of enrolling. The Canvas worksheet shows courses that you are considering enrolling in, but it is not part of the registration process, it is for exploring course information. You can have different courses on the two worksheets or some of the same courses.

If you are officially enrolled in the course, you will have “Student” status on the instructor’s Canvas roster. If you are not officially enrolled, but have the course on your Canvas worksheet, you will have “Visitor” status on the instructor’s Canvas roster.

Canvas updates every two hours.

Canvas worksheets provide access to Canvas course sites until the Add/drop period closes.

The registration worksheet allows you to enroll to the maximum course credits allowed by Academic Regulations, which for Yale College students is 5.5 course credits. If you need to enroll in more than 5.5 course credits, you need to speak with your Residential College Dean.

If you add additional credits to your worksheet, you will not be enrolled in the courses without permission and will not see a black checkmark which indicates enrollment in the course.

This may be a technical issue. Please reach out to registrar@yale.edu for assistance. Be sure to include your SID and a full screen shot showing the entire registration worksheet and any error messages to help with troubleshooting.

Up to 5 courses may be added to the Canvas worksheet.

If the course is set up for “Instructor Permission” through the registration system, you will find notice of this under Registration Notes. In this case, there is an envelope icon that allows you to send an email request to enroll. The instructor will respond within the registration system.

Some courses however, have other application or preregistration requirements. Review the Class Notes or Course Description in Yale Course Search and the expanded course description in Canvas.

You will have the opportunity to make changes to your registration worksheet during the add/drop period. Between the registration and add/drop periods, you may add and remove courses from the Canvas worksheet in Yale Course Search.

Until your permission request is approved, you cannot officially enroll in the course. Until that time, you may add the course to your Canvas worksheet to gain temporary access to the Canvas course site.

The registration period takes place prior to the term of enrollment and is intended to be a gauge of student interest in course enrollment and to provide advance notification of permission to enroll in courses that have limited enrollments. It allows departments to manage demand for enrollment, the number of discussion/lab sections and teaching fellows needed, and the size of the room needed.

The add/drop period takes place shortly before the start of classes and runs for about eight days. The add/drop period is for refinement of the student course schedule and culminates with a final schedule.

Yes, courses you have successfully added to your registration worksheet are considered official enrollment and will appear on your Yale College transcript and other university systems (e.g., Yale Degree Audit).

The default school setting for an undergraduate student is “Yale College”. To search other schools go to the Advanced Search filters and change the third filter down from “Yale College” to “Any Schools” or select a specific school of interest from the list.

Several professional schools register on a different timeline than Yale College and the Graduate School. For schools that register later than Yale College, undergraduates are not able to add those courses to the registration worksheet. In this case, YC students should submit a Request to Enroll in a Yale Professional School Course* form at any time during registration, however, they might not hear whether they are accepted into the course and whether it will count for a full credit until the add/drop period. If approved, the University Registrar’s Office will award appropriate course credit.

*Courses in the School of Management instead require a SOM form found on the SOM website.

Instructors are not able to to see your position on the waitlist and do not have the ability to adjust students’ position on the waitlist.

Discussion and lab section selection takes place during the registration period. You must select both a lecture (or seminar) and the discussion section/lab to be enrolled in the course.

Your Degree Audit will list all of the courses in which you are officially enrolled for the next term in the “In-Progress and Preregistered” section at the bottom. Note: if changes were recently made, click the refresh icon in the upper left corner of the audit.

If there is a course missing from that list, return to your registration worksheet in YCS to troubleshoot.

Yale College students begin officially enrolling on a course-by-course basis as soon as registration opens. You will be able to see course schedules in Yale Degree Audit and the Student Profile Advising System. As an advisor, you have access to these systems.

If a student is officially enrolled in your course, they will appear on your Canvas roster with a “Student” status. Persons on your roster with a “Visitor” status are not officially enrolled.

The Faculty Grade Submission system (FGS) is the official enrollment roster.

If permission has been requested, you will receive a daily email notification that contains the name of the courses, the Yale College student(s), and brief instructions. You may at any time log in to Yale Course Search and select the “Courses I Manage” option to review and grant pending permission requests from Yale College students.

Start with the Yale College Advising Resources website.

Canvas is not the official record of enrollment. Course demand statistics and Canvas rosters update at different times of the day, and when registration is open to students, they may add and remove courses from both their registration worksheet (official enrollment) and their Canvas worksheet as often as they would like. When registration is closed, fluctuations in rosters and course demand statistics should mostly cease with the exception of administrative changes.

No. Canvas is the learning management system and it has no impact on formal instructor permission or course enrollment.

If instructor permission is required in order to enroll in your course, students must submit the permission request through their Yale Course Search registration worksheet. If you grant permission to the student, they will then be able to enroll and gain automatic access to your Canvas course site.

Guides are available for managing course enrollments and reviewing and granting permissions requests.

Advise the student they are not enrolled in your class. If the add/drop period is over, instruct the student to speak with their Residential College Dean without delay.

Registration FAQs

I am a Yale College student, how do I enroll in courses?

I see a registration worksheet in Yale Course Search, but I cannot add or drop classes, why?

What do the icons on my registration worksheet mean?

I am getting an error in my registration worksheet, how do I resolve it?

I am trying to put a class on my Registration worksheet, but I can’t enroll, why?

Do I need to have an adviser or DUS approve my schedule?

I am a Yale College student, how does my adviser know in which courses I am enrolled?

What is the difference between a registration worksheet and a Canvas worksheet?

Registration opened for my class year but I can’t add any courses to my worksheet.

Can I have the same course on both my Registration worksheet and my Canvas worksheet?

How long does it take to gain access to a Canvas course site when I place it on my Canvas worksheet or enroll in it using my registration worksheet?

How long will I have access to Canvas course sites if I place a course on my Canvas worksheet?

How many courses can I add to my Yale College registration worksheet?

I am having trouble dropping a class from my worksheet, why can’t I drop this class?

How many courses can I add to my Canvas worksheet?

I am a Yale College student, how do I know if a course requires an application or request to enroll?

I am a Yale College student. What if the registration period has ended, but I want to make a change to my registration worksheet in Yale Course Search?

I am waiting for a response to my permission request, can I access the Canvas course site?

What is the difference between the Yale College Registration period and the Add/Drop period?

Will courses in which I enroll during the registration period appear on my transcript?

I am a Yale College student, how do I search for classes in the Professional or Graduate School in YCS?

How do I enroll in professional school courses in the registration system?

Can my instructor adjust my position on the waitlist?

I am a Yale College student, when do I select the discussion section or lab section that is the counterpart to the lecture course?

What is the best way to check that I successfully enrolled in my classes this term?

I am an adviser to Yale College students, how and when can I see my advisee’s schedule?

I am an instructor, how do I know if a student is enrolled in my course?

I am teaching a Yale College course. If Instructor Permission Required was formally placed on my course, how will I know if Yale College students have requested permission and how do I grant permission?

I am waiting for a response to my permission request, can I access the Canvas course site?

Whom should I contact about advising and placement?

I am an instructor, why is the number of students on my Canvas roster different than the Course Demand Statistics?

Will adding a student to my Canvas site grant them enrollment permission?

I am an instructor and a Yale College student has been attending my class from the beginning but doesn’t seem to be on the roster. There is space for them in class. How do I add them?