Registration Errors

The course section you want to register for is offered through UW Continuum College/Professional and Continuing Education. Please contact their registration office for assistance by phone 206-543-2310 or email c2reg@uw.edu.

You can only add a course using Register.UW until the end of the third week of the quarter. If you see this message and you need to add a course or register for the quarter for the first time, you need to ask your instructor to complete and submit the Late Add Petition form.

This message means that you are trying to add two sections of a course that are the same type (like two Lecture sections or two quiz/lab sections). This is only allowed in rare cases, such as some Special Topics courses. In order to register for a course that has a lecture and a quiz/lab section, you must add a section of each type.

Courses with Lab and/or Quiz sections require you to register for the Lab or Quiz section at the same time you register for the Lecture section.

Courses with Lab and/or Quiz sections require you to register for the Lecture section at the same time you register for the Lab or Quiz section.

Undergraduate students are limited to 19 credits during Registration Periods I and II. You can add additional credits during Registration Period III and the Late Add Period. The limit is 30 credits per quarter.

Please reach out to the department offering this course. If they want to allow you to register for more than the maximum credits allowed for the course, they will need to register you or give you an entry code to register yourself.

You cannot register using Register.UW for two courses that meet at the same time or for courses with overlapping meeting times.

If you want to replace a course that you have already registered for, you must use Register.UW to drop the course and add the new one at the same time. If you want to register for two courses that have overlapping meeting times, you have to register for one of the courses first, and then submit the Time Conflict section of the Registration Transaction Form [PDF] and email the completed form to the Office of the University Registrar at regoff@uw.edu so they can add the second course for you.

If you make too many adds, drops, and changes using Register.UW in a quarter, you use up all of your registration transactions in the database. Email the Registrar Student Services team at regoff@uw.edu to ask them to remove old entries.

If this happens again during the same quarter, you will have to see an academic adviser. They will email regoff@uw.edu if they approve more transactions for you.

When a student makes excessive registration attempts over a short period of time, Register.UW will lock that student out for 24 hours.

This is due to concerns about Registration Tampering and Abuse.

The system lockout is automatic and cannot be undone by the Office of the University Registrar or anyone else. You must wait 24 hours until Register.UW removes the lockout.

Tampering and Abuse
A student who tampers or attempts to tamper with the registration records of another student, including but not limited to dropping courses and adding courses, may be subject to disciplinary sanctions as defined in the Student Conduct Code (WAC 478-121).

Registration Abuse

• The registration system is provided for the sole express purpose for students to register themselves into sections. Any use of the registration system other than for this purpose is considered abuse of the system. Such abuse includes, but is not limited to, buying or selling one’s seat in a class, or otherwise registering for a section that one has no intention of taking.
• To help conserve University resources and ensure the registration system is available to all, students are locked out of Web Registration after a specific number of excessive submission attempts and/or transactions are made per day. This threshold is sufficient for students’ regular use and should not interfere with typical use. The use of robots and other automated tools to submit registration requests is expressly forbidden.
  • If you are having trouble adding a particular course on your registration page, please make sure you are reviewing any error messages you are receiving for the course and address those errors first prior to repeatedly clicking the “Update Schedule” button, as excessive clicking behavior will also result in being locked out of the registration system.

  System Abuse
  Because use of scripts, robots, or other automated queries can adversely impact University network and computing resources and interfere with equal access to registration, such automated querying of registration-related resources is expressly forbidden. Violators may have their access to University network and computing resources terminated and may be subject to action by the University under applicable law, regulation, or policy, including but not limited to, discipline under any applicable University conduct code.

The University tries to make sure students have up-to-date information on section availability. But certain systems can have a delay during peak registration times. This can mean that a webpage shows a section as open, but by the time you actually try to register, the section may already have closed. This is not because of errors, but because of the large number of transactions that happen every minute.

You can check the University time schedule or MyPlan for other open sections of this course.

The University tries to make sure students have up-to-date information on section availability. But certain systems can have a delay during peak registration times. This can mean a webpage shows a section as open, but by the time you actually try to register, the section may already have closed. This is not because of errors, but because of the large number of transactions that occur every minute.

If you are using Notify, please be aware that the system is incredibly popular. Many students are receiving the same notification as you are. Even if you respond right away after receiving a notification of an opening, someone else may already have beaten you to the open seat.

Some course sections restrict registration by class standing and/or major. This can be for one registration period or for all of them. You can see these registration restrictions in the notes for the course section in the Time Schedule.

Some courses require you to have completed prerequisites before you can register for them. A course with a prerequisite will have the word “Prerequisite” in the title bar in the Time Schedule, or it will be noted in the course view in MyPlan.

You can add a course section if you are currently registered for, but have not completed, the prerequisite. However, some departments will drop you from the course needing the prerequisite if you do not satisfactorily complete the prerequisite. This will happen by the third calendar day of the quarter. Courses where this will happen will have the words “Prerequisites (cancellation in effect)” in the title bar in the Time Schedule.

This message means you have entered an invalid entry code, or one that has already been used. You can only use an entry code one time. You may need to obtain a new entry code from the department offering the course.

If the department allows it, an undergraduate student can repeat a course once. You are considered to have already taken a course once if you took it and received a numerical grade, an I, CR/NC, or S/NS. If you dropped or withdrew from a course, or did not get a grade in it, it does not count as having taken it already for repeats. You should contact the department offering this course. They will determine if you can retake this course and will register you directly if you can.

It is before your registration date.
Find out more about registration periods and registration dates at the links below:

• Registration periods
• Registration dates and deadlines

There are restrictions on registering at another UW campus than the one you were admitted to (your home campus).

There are restrictions on registering at another UW campus than the one you were admitted to (your home campus).

You can only take a maximum of 15 credits per academic year (autumn quarter through summer quarter) on a campus other than your home campus. You can petition to waive this requirement by contacting the registration team at your home campus. However, even if the petition is granted, that does not mean the unit offering the course has to let you into the course if you do not meet all other requirements or the course section is full.

There are restrictions on registering at another UW campus than the one you were admitted to (your home campus).

If you are an admitted first-year undergraduate student, you must complete 25 credits on your home campus before you can register for a course at another campus. (Note that UW Professional and Continuing Education courses are not considered home campus courses.)

You can petition to waive this requirement by contacting the registration team at your home campus. However, even if the petition is granted, that does not mean the unit offering the course has to let you into the course if you do not meet all other requirements or the course section is full.

There are restrictions on registering at another UW campus than the one you were admitted to (your home campus).

If you have completed or are in the process of completing 45 or more credits, or are a post baccalaureate student, you cannot register for a course at another campus until you have completed 15 credits at your home campus.

You can petition to waive this requirement by contacting the registration team at your home campus. However, even if the petition is granted, that does not mean the unit offering the course has to let you into the course if you do not meet all other requirements or the course section is full.

You cannot register for this course right now because you are enrolled in a fee-based program through UW Continuum College or UW Professional and Continuing Education. Matriculated students in state-funded programs have priority for these courses during Registration Period I. You must wait until Registration Period II.

You cannot register for this section right now because you are enrolled in a fee-based program through UW Continuum College, or UW Professional and Continuing Education or because you are a non-matriculated or graduate non-matriculated student that registers through UWC2/UW PCE. Matriculated students have priority for these courses during Registration Period I and II. You must wait until Registration Period III.

You are a student who is enrolled in a self-sustaining program where registration is completed for you by your program or departmental adviser. Please contact your adviser directly to register. Contact information for all UW departments can be found in the UW Office Directory.

You are not eligible to register. The information below can help you understand why and what you need to do.

Undergraduate, Post baccalaureate, or Professional School students who were away from the University for more than one quarter (excluding summer quarter) or withdrew from one quarter and did not attend the next one cannot register. You must submit a Returning Student Request Form to become eligible to register again.

Graduate students who did not apply for on-leave status or maintain continuous enrollment by registering (excluding summer quarter) cannot register. If you want to resume studies in your previous graduate program, you must submit a reinstatement request to the Graduate School.

Alumni: Once you have graduated from the University, you will either need to enroll as a non-matriculated student through UWC2 Registration Services (206-543-2310 or c2reg@uw.edu) or apply for matriculated student status through the appropriate admissions office.

You cannot register this quarter because the Graduation Plan approved by your College/School has expired. Contact your academic adviser to either submit a graduation application or file a graduate plan extension request.

You cannot register this quarter because you have applied to graduate for a quarter that is earlier than the one you are trying to register for.
If you need to register for this quarter to complete your major, minor, or degree, you must contact your adviser so they can move your graduation application to another quarter.
If you are planning to graduate or have already graduated, but want to take more courses after graduation, you must enroll as a non-matriculated student. You do this through UW Continuum College/Professional and Continuing Education. Contact their registration office for assistance with registering for courses after graduation by phone 206-543-2310 or email c2reg@uw.edu.

You cannot drop this course section because you have already dropped one class this quarter. You can only drop one class each quarter using Register.UW. To drop more classes, you must use the Adviser-Assisted Drop process.

You cannot drop this course section because that would completely withdraw you from the quarter, and the deadline to do that on Register.UW has passed. You must use the Adviser-Assisted Drop process.

When a course has a Lab or Quiz section, you have to drop the Lab or Quiz section and the main Lecture section. You cannot drop one and keep the other.

If you are trying to change to a different Lab or Quiz section, but keep the Lecture section, you can do that one of two ways (depending on when in the quarter it is):

1. You can add the new Lab or Quiz section directly on Register.UW; or
2. You will need to complete a Registration Transaction Form [PDF] and email it to the Office of the University Registrar at regoff@uw.edu.

When a course has a Lab or Quiz section, you have to drop the Lab or Quiz section and the main Lecture section. You cannot drop one and keep the other.

You can only register for up to 20 credits of S/NS using Register.UW. To request an exception to the 20 credit S/NS change limit, send a request to petition@uw.edu. Learn more about requesting a Grading Option Change exception.