Registration
You must register and pay fees to attend classes and earn credit. Registration is held each semester on dates published in the academic calendar (see inside front cover for the Fairbanks campus). For special programs, short courses, seminars, and other classes that are not part of the regular academic calendar, registration is as needed.
Details about the procedure and schedules for registering are published online and in separate publications at each campus and branch campus. Registration instructions for the Fairbanks campus are provided in the UAF Class Schedule, published in April for the upcoming fall semester and in November for the upcoming spring semester. The same information is available online at www.uaf.edu.
All degree and certificate students are required to have an advisor. Your advisor will help you determine the best options, alternatives and sequences of classes to take. Your advisor’s signature is needed to enter the registration process. Non-degree students may also see an advisor, and it is recommended for those taking 9 or more credits in a semester or for those who have accumulated 30 or more UAF credits. Academic advising is available at several campuses. See Services and Resources, page 54, for more information.
Test results are required for first-time degree or certificate students, transfer students with fewer than 30 acceptable credits, or students planning to take 100-level written communication or mathematics courses. Results from American College Testing Program (ACT) or the Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT) or, for associate degree or certificate students, the ASSET or COMPASS test must be on file with the Office of Admissions before you can register. Contact the UAF Testing Office for further information.
Course prerequisites indicate the previous preparation that a student must have in order to enroll in a course. An instructor has the right to drop from the course any student not meeting the prerequisites. Under special circumstances, an instructor may allow a student who does not meet the prerequisites to enter a class.
Undergraduates only. The credit-no-credit option encourages students to explore areas of interest not necessarily related to their major. This option may be used for one undesignated elective each semester. The deadline for electing the credit-no-credit option is the third Friday after the first day of instruction for the semester. The instructor does not know your status in the course, and you complete the course the same way as other students in the class. Credit for the course is awarded if your performance is at the C grade or higher; if your performance falls below that level, the course will not appear on your academic record. In either case, the course will not be included in any GPA calculations. If credit is granted, a CR grade will be entered for the course.
Under the credit-no-credit option, students may take undesignated elective courses or courses to meet the minimum credit requirements for the degree. Major or minor requirements and those specified as foundation courses are not allowed.
Students who want to enroll in one or more courses for informational purposes only may register as an auditor if space is available in the class. You pay the standard credit fees for the course, but the credits are not included in the computation of study load for full-time/part-time determination or for overload status.
The requirement, acceptance and review of work, and lab privileges are at the discretion of the instructor. No grades are given and no credit is awarded. Audited courses do not apply toward degree requirements, and they will not transfer to other institutions.
You should indicate your desire to audit a course at the time of registration on your registration form. Students who want to change from audit to credit must request the change before the deadline to add a course. Requests made after the third Friday after the first day of instruction must be approved by the instructor of the course. All changes must be made before the deadline for student-initiated withdrawals.
Instructors set the requirements under which an AU grade is to be recorded, and they must submit AU for auditors who satisfy the requirements. Auditors not receiving an AU grade receive a W grade. If you have audited a class, you cannot request local credit by exam for that class for a period of at least one year.
Adding, Dropping and Withdrawing from Classes
Students (except non-degree students) who wish to add, drop or withdraw from a class must have their academic advisor sign the appropriate form after the last day of late registration. Instructors’ signatures are not required for a drop or withdrawal. The registrar’s office will notify the instructor of any drops or withdrawals. Information about the add/drop process can be found in the current class schedule or from the registrar’s office. Adds, drops and withdrawals are not final until the student has completed the appropriate procedure, paid any additional fees that are due and turned in all necessary paperwork to the registrar’s office.
You may add classes to your schedule until the end of the published late registration period. If you are on a wait list for a class and have kept up with class activity, you may be allowed to register for the class as vacancies occur, and with instructor approval, until the fourth Friday after the first day of instruction.
You may drop a class through the third Friday after the first day of instruction. Dropped classes do not appear on your academic record.
Students are expected to begin attending classes on the first day of instruction. Some departments, in trying to find space for students on wait lists, may require that you attend the first class session or notify the department in advance that you cannot attend the first class. If you miss the first class without notifying the department, you may be dropped from the course, and the space may be assigned to a student on the wait list.
At the Fairbanks campus, the class schedule provides information on which courses use the registration drop policy. After the first class session, the names of the students who are to be dropped from classes are forwarded by the department head to the registrar’s office so the courses can be removed from students’ enrollment files.
Because of the high demand for composition (ENGL 111X, 211X, 213X, 313 or 414) and basic speech (COMM 131X or 141X) courses, students who fail to attend the first two class meetings will be dropped even if they registered in advance and paid their fees. If space becomes available in a class from which you have been dropped by the department, you will have to follow the add/drop procedure to re-enroll.
If you withdraw from a class after the third Friday after the first day of instruction, a grade of W will appear on your academic record. The W grade does not affect your GPA. The last day you can withdraw from a class is the ninth Friday after the first day of instruction. For specific dates, see the academic calendar.
Withdrawing from All of your Classes
Students who wish to withdraw from all of their classes must obtain a total withdrawal form from the registrar’s office. A student-initiated total withdrawal is subject to the same deadlines as withdrawal from a class. For specific dates, see the academic calendar.
Withdrawing after the Student-initiated Deadline
Withdrawals after the last day for student-initiated withdrawals are allowed only in exceptional cases. Approval is not automatic, and students need to provide evidence to support their request. Acceptable non-academic reasons might include documented family emergency, major employment change, documented medical condition, or disciplinary sanctions. Escaping an unsatisfactory grade is not an acceptable reason for seeking a late withdrawal.
- Late Withdrawal from a Class — Students requesting late withdrawal must supply documentation in support of their request to the dean of the college or school in which the class is offered. Students must also obtain an add/drop form from the registrar’s office and have the class instructor, department head, and academic advisor sign the form before presenting it to the dean.
- Late Withdrawal from All of Your Classes — Late withdrawal from all classes requires a total withdrawal form available from the registrar’s office. The student’s academic advisor must sign the form, and the student must then present to the dean of the appropriate college or school documentation in support of the reasons for withdrawing.
Faculty-initiated Drop or Withdrawal
Class instructors have the right to drop students who do not meet the course prerequisites or who have not participated substantially in the course. Faculty-initiated drops submitted through the third Friday after the first day of instruction will be treated as a dropped class and will not appear on any student transcript. The faculty-initiated withdrawal may occur up to the ninth Friday after the first day of instruction. A grade of W will appear on the student’s academic record.
The add/drop process may be used to change from credit status to audit status for a class. Following the third Friday after the first day of instruction, all registrations for audit, including changes from credit to audit, must be approved by the instructor of the course being audited. You may not change from credit to audit after the last day for student-initiated withdrawals.
All students are expected to begin attending classes on the first day of instruction. In order to identify potentially available spaces in courses, departments may require that you attend the first class session or notify the department in advance that you cannot attend the first class. Students who miss the first class without notifying the department may be dropped from the course and the space may be assigned to a student on the waiting list.
At the Fairbanks campus, the class schedule provides information on which courses use the registration drop policy. After the first class session, the department head sends the names of the students who are to be dropped from classes to the registrar’s office. The course can then be removed from the students’ enrollment files. If space becomes available in a class from which you have been dropped in this way, you will have to follow the add/drop procedure to add the course.