Registration & Enrollment

Official Enrollment in On-Campus Courses

Students must enroll in courses during the official registration or pre-registration period for each semester. After the official registration period ends, students may not enroll in a course without petitioning, or withdraw from a course without either petitioning or formally withdrawing from the University. Petitioning, more commonly referred to as Add/Drop, must be initiated by the student. Students who want to make a change in course selection, changes in status from credit to hearer or vice versa, or changes in number of credit hours for a particular course, must contact the LLM Program, complete and sign the form (if necessary), and receive approval from the Director of the LLM Program. For information about deadlines and fees relating to enrollment changes, see the University Registrar website.

Students must either complete all courses for which they are registered or properly drop the course. This includes courses in which they are registered as a “hearer.”

In individual cases where an admitted applicant requests deferral of enrollment, the Admissions Committee may decide to defer enrollment for a year without reviewing the application in the subsequent year. There is a presumption against deferral of enrollment. Enrollment will not be deferred for more than one year.

Required Attendance at Class

Attendance is required except when there is good cause for a student’s absence. The instructors for each course administer the attendance policy for their courses. The instructors determine the number and nature of absences from each course that may cause sanctions to be imposed, as well as the sanctions which will be imposed, up to and including dismissal from the course. If instructors intend to attach a formal sanction (grade reduction or dismissal from the course) to inadequate attendance, they must announce to the class in writing at the beginning of the course what the rules governing attendance in that course will be, with appropriate provision for notice to late enrollers. Students who are in danger of accumulating excessive absences must be given notice by the instructor in advance of the absence that will give rise to a significant sanction (major grade reduction or dismissal from the course).

Course-Load Rules

Enrollment in at least nine (9) credits in the fall and winter semester and four (4) credits in the summer session is considered full-time enrollment for graduate students. The maximum number of credits permitted by the Graduate School for a semester is sixteen (16) and nine (9) for a summer session. Students normally should not take the maximum possible course load as this would be extremely demanding. In very unusual cases, students may take more than the normal maximum course load with the approval of the Director of the LLM Program and the Graduate School.