Waitlisting in WebAdvisor - Admissions & Records

Don’t wait until the first day of the term to get into a class that’s full! Put yourself on the waitlist and be first in line to fill a vacated spot!

Waitlisting is an upgrade to WebAdvisor that allows you to electronically "wait in line" for the next available space. As vacancies become available, you will be registered into the selected class and notified by email. No need to check back every day to see if a spot has opened.

Students are added to the class from the waitlist in the order they were added on the waitlist. Students who have errors preventing registration will not be added into a class from the waitlist even if space is available in the class.

WebAdvisor checks for schedule conflicts for waitlisted courses, so don’t waitlist for a class that meets at the same time or overlaps with a class for which you're already registered. WebAdvisor also checks for completed prerequisites, so don’t waitlist for a class until you are ready to take the class.

You also can't be added into a class from the waitlist if you're already registered in another section of the same class, or if adding you into the waitlisted class will give you a unit overload.

Be sure to attend the first class session if you are on a waitlist. If you do not attend the first class session, the instructor may decide not to add you to the class from the waitlist.

Students who decide not to take a class they have waitlisted should be certain to drop themselves from the waitlist, as they will be subject to any fees and grades for courses in which they are registered from the waitlist.

After the last day to add without the instructor’s signature, the faculty control who is registered from the waitlist.  Students are no longer automatically added into classes from the waitlist after that time, even if space is available in the class.  To add a waitlisted class after the last day to add without the instructor’s signature students will need to submit an Add/Drop Form (PDF) with the instructor’s signature to the Admissions and Records Office on the Fremont campus or the Student Services Center on the Newark campus.

Dropped from a Waitlist

Below are the reasons why students on a waitlist do not get registered and are thus dropped from waitlists.

1. The course in question places you in unit overload for the term of registration. This means that if you were registered into the specific course from a waitlist, you would exceed the maximum number of units allowed for summer term which is 8.5 units, 17.5 units for fall / spring (unit overload).
2. The course in question conflicts with one or more courses currently on your schedule (course conflict).
3. You have exceeded the number of times you may take the course in question. You may have received too many substandard grades or W’s for the course (course repetition).
4. You are trying to register for the course before you are eligible to do so (before your registration appointment or date for your student type).

If you have been dropped from a waitlist because of a unit overload situation, you will need to meet with a counselor to receive clearance authorization. Keep in mind that this option is highly unlikely during the summer term as classes are conducted in a condensed 6-week format. K-12 students will not be cleared to take a unit overload as this authorization will have already been determined by their K-12 institution.

If the waitlisted course conflicts with your schedule, you can complete a Petition to Enroll in Overlapping Classes form (PDF), but you must contact the instructor of the course that you would miss to make arrangements for how you would make up the lost time.

Lastly, if you have exceeded the number of times you can take a course, you will need to submit a Student Petition for Academic Action (PDF) to the Academic Dean for the area that supervises the subject in question.

Each of these three scenarios takes time and does not guarantee you registration into the class. For these reasons, we cannot hold a space on a Waitlist for students that need to receive clearance. Our priority is to enroll all qualified students first.

In summary, please remember to routinely monitor your WebAdvisor account to drop classes you do not plan to attend and remove yourself from waitlists once you have secured your desired schedule. Sitting on a waitlist when you are ineligible to register prevents the automated waitlist process from functioning properly and other qualified students lose the opportunity to register. Be advised that you will be dropped from waitlists when you are ineligible because of one of the above stated reasons.

Try My Preferred Classes too! Now you can save your classes using in WebAdvisor as soon as the Class Schedule is published online or when you receive it in the mail!