Office of the University Registrar

For information on how to use Workday, please view the user guides on the Workday Student Resources page..

Prior to registration, students are urged to check whether they have a hold on their account. Students may not participate in the registration/course enrollment process until all "holds" are resolved.

• There are several reasons why an account might have a hold. These include:
• Outstanding financial obligations to the university.
• Health center issues, including proof of health insurance or immunizations.
• Failure to declare a major by the end of your sophomore year.
• International Students and Scholars Office check-in for international students.

Students can see whether they have a hold on their account by logging into Workday. Students may then contact the office that placed the hold. Once the situation has been resolved, the hold will be removed from the student’s account electronically.

To add a class, students should log into Workday. Please refer to the Workday Student Resources page. 

Students may also print out the Add/Drop Form or other registration forms from the registrar’s website, obtain the signature of the instructor and email the signed registration form to registrar@brandeis.edu from your Brandeis email account. Forms will be processed within one business day. Forms that are unreadable, incomplete or submitted after the end of the registration period will not be processed.

The same registration deadlines apply to all courses that use the manual process and to those courses registered for using Workday.

If a class is full, students have the option of adding their names to a waitlist. Being on a waitlist does not automatically enroll you in the course.

Please note that:

• Being on the waitlist does not count against your maximum credit limit. You may place your name on multiple waitlists.
• You must meet all eligibility requirements (permission and/or prerequisites), as well as not being enrolled or waitlisted for any course that overlaps in time (an existing time conflict will prevent you from going on a waitlist).
• Being on the waitlist does not automatically enroll you in the class should a seat become available. 
• When a seat opens up a notification is sent to the first student on the list. Students will have 24 hours to respond before the seat is offered to the next person.

While Workday is to be used for all online registration activity, there are some transactions that require a paper form. Students may print out the Add/Drop form or other registration forms from the registrar’s website, obtain the signature of the instructor and email the completed form to registrar@brandeis.edu during the registration period.

Individual Instruction Courses for Undergraduates

• 92- and 93-level courses (Internships), 98-level courses (Independent Study), EL 94a (Experiential Learning) and PEER 94a (Undergraduate Peer Assistantship) all have specific forms that must be completed by the student. Eligibility overrides will not be accepted for enrollment in these courses.
• 95-level courses (Directed Research), 97-level courses (Senior Essays) and 96- and 99-level courses (Senior Thesis) can be added with an eligibility override request in Workday.

Time Conflicts

Students are unable to register themselves in Sage for courses with overlapping meeting times. Instead, students must submit a signed time conflict form (pdf) indicating that the instructors of both courses are mindful of the conflict, that neither objects and that no irregularities or conflicts will arise in the administration of final examinations. Students are accountable for all materials covered in class, whether or not they are in attendance.

Special Note on CHEM and BIOL Labs

In order to accommodate students with time conflicts, it may be necessary to reassign students without course conflicts to another lab section.

Graduate Students Enrolling in Undergraduate Courses for Credit

Graduate students who wish to enroll in an undergraduate (numbered under 100) course for credit must register using the Add/Drop Form.  If a student wants an undergraduate course to be taken for credit toward their graduate degree program, then a petition to receive graduate credit (pdf) is also required.

Graduate Students Auditing a Course

The privilege of auditing courses without a fee is extended to all regularly enrolled full-time graduate students, with the exception of special students. No course may be audited without the permission of the instructor and the student’s program chair. Students should print the Add/Drop form, obtain the appropriate signatures and bring the form to the registrar’s office.

Undergraduate Students Enrolling in Graduate Courses

Undergraduate students who wish to enroll in a graduate (numbered 200 and above) course must register using the Add/Drop Form.

For students entering Brandeis beginning fall 2019, all candidates for a bachelor's degree, regardless of the subsequent date of entrance to Brandeis, must satisfactorily complete a major, a first year experience and writing requirement, a world languages sequence, a group of courses designed to provide a strong foundation in general education. One course may be used to fulfill a core requirement, excepting University Writing Seminars, quantitative reasoning, writing intensive, oral communication, and digital literacy courses, with the pass/fail grading. No more than one course (and never the final one) in the language sequence may be taken pass/fail if the language is being offered in satisfaction of the world languages sequence.

For complete details of the Brandeis Core requirements, please see the University Bulletin.

Undergraduate Requirements Prior to Fall 2019

For students entering Brandeis prior to fall 2019, students will follow a curriculum that features requirements in foreign language, writing, oral communication, quantitative reasoning, non-Western and comparative studies and a program of general foundation courses. For complete details of the general university requirements, please see the University Bulletin.

Students may repeat a course once for the purpose of demonstrating a higher level of mastery. Students may only earn credit once per course (unless the course is explicitly defined as allowing repetition for credit).

As defined by the department, students may not repeat a course for credit at a lower level, when they have successfully completed a higher level course in the same sequence with a grade of C or higher.

Students who receive grades below a C for the original course and for the repeated course may petition to be allowed a second repeat attempt. Petitions will be heard by the Executive Council of the Committee on Academic Standing and require the consent and support of the department and instructor offering the course.

This policy applies to courses repeated when the second or final attempt is taken in fall 2019 or later. It does not apply to repeated courses taken prior to fall 2019; these courses are governed by the prior policy.

For complete details of the undergraduate repeat policy, please see the University Bulletin.

Advanced Placement exams, International Baccalaureate exams, French Baccalaureate and A-Level Exams, college courses taken while in high school, or summer courses taken outside of Brandeis, may be used for placement purposes, general degree requirements (for example, school distribution, foreign language) and major/minor requirements as allowed by individual departments and programs. Courses transferred for purpose have no numeric credit value and will not count toward the 128 credits required for graduation. Students may request transfer of courses from these sources through the registrar’s office.

Students can receive credit for courses through the Advanced Placement program offered by the College Board. Students who receive qualifying scores and wish to eventually apply for Brandeis course credit must contact the College Board and request that their scores be reported. For more on advanced placement, please refer to the University Bulletin.

To declare a major or minor, students should contact the undergraduate advising head of their intended major or minor. A worksheet to declare, drop or change a major or minor is available on the registrar's website. Students are encouraged to choose a major after meeting with a faculty adviser in the intended department by the end of their first year. Students who have not declared a major by the end of their sophomore year will have a registration hold placed on their Sage account, thereby blocking registration for the fall term of their junior year.

Students may receive credit toward their Brandeis degree through participation in educational programs abroad that have been approved by the Undergraduate Curriculum Committee on the recommendation of the Office of Academic Services. More than 250 programs in 69 countries have been approved for Brandeis students’ participation. For more on study abroad, contact the Office of Study Abroad.

Undergraduate Students

Full-time Brandeis undergraduate students enjoy cross-registration privileges with Babson College, Bentley University, Olin College, Wellesley College and with the undergraduate schools of arts and sciences at Boston College, Boston University and Tufts University. Learn more about undergraduate cross-registration.

Graduate Students

Graduate students should refer to their specific program information in the Bulletin regarding schools that participate in graduate cross-registration. Learn more about graduate cross-registration.

Acceptance of Rules and Regulations

By registering for classes, students acknowledge their acceptance of the rules and regulations as stated in the Brandeis Student Rights and Responsibilities Handbook and University Bulletin.

Class Schedule

To view all classes offered for an area of study, use the public display of the Schedule of Classes found on the registrar’s website. To search for particular classes that meet specific undergraduate requirements, use the Class Search link. Students may also search for classes by logging into Workday and searching for the "Find Course Sections Brandeis" report. 

Course Syllabi

To view a course syllabus, log into Moodle to browse the library of public syllabi.

Minimum/Maximum Course Load for Undergraduate Students

Undergraduate students must take at least three graded courses (12 credits) per term and seven graded courses (28 credits) per academic year. Undergraduate students may enroll in a total of 5 1/2 courses (22 credits) per term.

Students may petition to take up to 6 1/2 classes in a single semester. Typically, students must demonstrate a legitimate academic reason for taking the additional courses, have a minimum GPA of 3.000 or above, and have successfully completed five courses in a previous semester. Students enrolled in more than 22 credits will be assessed an additional tuition charge per credit based on rates published in the University Bulletin.

Minimum/Maximum Credit Limit for Graduate Students

Graduate students enrolled in full-time programs are required to be enrolled in at least 12 credits each term. Specific programs may require a minimum rate of work that is higher than 12 credits, please consult the individual program listing for that information. Students who cannot maintain this minimum rate of work may be withdrawn from the university or required to switch to a related part-time program if such exists.

Graduate students should consult with their individual programs for maximum credit limits within a given term.

Classes Requiring Signatures

Access to some classes is restricted by signature. Student will need to request a prerequisite override or permission to enroll in Workday.

Prerequisites/Corequisites

A prerequisite is a requirement that must be satisfied before enrolling in a particular course. Where a prerequisite is listed (shown with course descriptions in the University Bulletin), be sure you have met that prerequisite or the instructor may request that you are administratively dropped from the class. Students enrolling in a lecture course that requires a corequisite must enroll in both courses separately (i.e., taking a course with a lab).

Pass/Fail Grading Option for Undergraduate Students

Undergraduates who wish to elect the pass/fail grading option should complete the online form during the election period. Learn more.

Special Note for Graduate Students

Graduate students should pay particular attention to their enrollments and promptly register for independent studies, readings and research courses. Students who have completed course work must register for the appropriate CONT class (CONT 500a or CONT 450a).

Graduate students are expected to adhere to the deadlines found in the University Bulletin; this includes the option to audit a course.

Directory Information

Information in the student section of the Brandeis University online directory is taken from data supplied by students. Students may at any time update names, addresses and other personal data items. The request to change a primary (legal) name requires the presentation of two forms of identification, one of which is a picture ID. For security purposes, such changes may not be transacted over the telephone. Students can initiate the request to change a legal name in Workday using the "Change My Legal Name" task, and are required to upload the appropriate documentation as part of that process. Changes to other items of personal data may be requested through Workday.

Privacy Settings

The university designates the following categories of student information as public "directory information”; such information may be disclosed by the institution for any purpose, at its discretion.

The university makes student directory information available electronically (as an online directory). If you do not wish for your name to appear in the online directory you must restrict the release of directory information in Workday.

Current students may withhold disclosure of any category of information under the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act of 1974, and may use the "Manage My Privacy Settings" within Workday to restrict disclosure of directory information.

Changes to privacy settings may require up to 48 hours to take effect. Brandeis University assumes that failure on the part of any student to specifically request the withholding of public information indicates individual approval for disclosure.

Categories

Name / On-Campus Info / Online Directory

Names (primary, preferred, passport and degree names), campus email address, campus mailbox, campus mailstop, directory phone, campus address, residence hall address.

Of the information in this category, the online directory only displays primary or preferred name, campus email, campus mailbox/mailstop, directory phone and affiliation (undergraduate or graduate program).

Photo / Off-Campus Contact Info

All off-campus addresses, phone numbers and email information; date of birth; photograph and digital likeness.

Academic Information

Full-time / part-time status; class (freshman, sophomore, etc.); dates of attendance; majors and minors at Brandeis; previous institution(s) attended and major field of study, awards and honors and degree(s) conferred and date(s) conferred.

Athletic Information

Past and present participation in officially recognized sports and activities; physical factors (height, weight of athletes).