Registration Waitlisting for Students

A registration waitlist is an electronic list of students who are waiting to register for a filled course. Students may sign up for this when they attempt to register for a section that has reached its capacity. The first student on the Registration Waitlist is notified via email when a space becomes available. This student then has 24 hours to register for the section. If the student does not register for the section within the 24 hour time frame, he/she will be dropped from the registration waitlist for that section and the next student on the list will be notified. NOTE: During the first week of the term, the 24 hour time frame is reduced to 12 hours.

You may get on a registration waitlist when you attempt to register for a section that is full. When you receive a Registration Add Error stating ‘Closed – Waitlist Available,’ you may select ‘WAITLIST REQUEST’ from the drop down menu under Action and then click Submit Changes. The class for which you just signed up on the waitlist should now appear on your Current Schedule as a WAITLIST REQUEST.

The ‘C’ means the section has reached its enrollment capacity. You may sign up for the waitlist by clicking on ‘Add to Worksheet’ at the bottom of the page, entering the CRN for the section on your Registration Worksheet and then Submit Changes. You will receive a Registration Add Error that the class is full. You may then select the Waitlist action and Submit again. The class for which you just signed up on the waitlist should now appear on your Current Schedule as a WAITLIST REQUEST.

You will be able to recognize courses as Waitlist eligible by the ‘WL’ column, it will be populated with a ‘WL’ designation. See screen shot below: (Click to view larger sized image)

Green numbers indicate open seats, while red numbers indicate an active Waitlist. (Click to view larger sized image).

Waitlisting is a multi-step process. We have a one minute video tutorial available to walk you through the steps.

The waitlist system operates on a first in – first out basis, however the exact position of your placement on the waitlist is not available to you.

Prerequisites and restrictions are checked before you are allowed to join a waitlist, however possible time conflicts with the desired course, as well as link checking (for lecture/labs), are not checked, to allow for waitlist flexibility.

An email will be sent to your WWU email account, notifying you there is a space available. If you’ve forwarded your email, it will be forwarded to that email address. You also have the option of enabling text messaging for waitlist notifications.

Yes, follow this link for instructions: http://www.wwu.edu/registrar/waitlist_texting.shtml

Yes. The email forwarding method sometimes resulted in missed messages because they went into your Junk Mail folder. The direct opt-in method does not have this shortcoming. If you have both methods enabled, you will receive two text messages for each notification.

Instructions for opting in for direct waitlist text messaging

Instructions for disabling obsolete waitlist email message forwarding as text messages

You will have until the deadline noted on the email to register for the section, which is typically 24 hours from the time the email was sent. The exception is during the first week of class when the deadline is reduced to 12 hours from when the email was sent. If you do not register within that time frame, you will be dropped from the registration waitlist. If you miss your registration deadline but still wish to register for the class, you may sign up for the registration waitlist again.

In Web4U, Registration, Add/Drop Classes, select the drop down arrow under Action. If you are eligible to register for this class the option **Web Registered** will be displayed, select this option and click submit changes.
See screen shot below: (Click to view larger sized image)

You may sign up for as many registration waitlists as you choose. There is no limit. However, we strongly urge you to remove yourself from all waitlists once your registration has been finalized so that others may have an opportunity to register for available courses in a timely manner.

No, you must drop yourself to be removed from any registration waitlist.

Waitlisting is not available on Independent Study, Internships, Practica, Thesis, etc.

You are responsible to routinely check your email. If you miss the deadline, you must re-add yourself to the waitlist if you still wish to register for the course/section. No exceptions will be made to this rule.

At no time will you automatically be dropped from any waitlist. You can view all registered and waitlisted courses under your Web4U Student Detail Schedule or Add/Drop Classes Current Schedule.

You must register for both the lecture and a lab/discussion at the same time. If a full lab/discussion fits your schedule better, you may sign up for the waitlist for the full lab/discussion. When you are notified that a space is available in your preferred lab/discussion, you may ‘exchange’ it (drop the one you are registered for and add the one you want at the same time) with the lab/discussion you are already registered for.

No, you may only be on the waitlist for a CRN once at any point in time. If you are dropped from the waitlist or drop yourself from the waitlist, you may sign up for the waitlist again.

No. Only courses you are actually registered in show up on Blackboard or Canvas, therefore waitlisted courses will not show up on the ‘My Courses’ channel.