Central Washington University

Class Waitlist

What is a Class Waitlist?

A student gets on the class waitlist at the time they attempt to enroll in a course that is full or has reserves by checking the “OK to Wait List” check box that will be displayed when enrolling in a class. Students should be aware that the system will automatically enroll them in a course for which they have wait listed once a seat becomes available and if they are eligible to enroll. The waitlist will stop enrolling students on the third day of the quarter.

Waitlist Policy

The guidelines for waitlists at CWU.

A student can be moved from the waitlist to enrolled status in one of three ways
- Obtain signed permission on an add/drop form from the instructor.
- Have permission coded into the system by the instructor, in which case a student must resubmit the course for enrollment via MyCWU to complete the process.
- System intervention: An automated nightly process will automatically move students from the WL to enrollment, but only if the student is eligible.
The wait list process will be run once each night. Notification will be sent to the CWU e-mail account each time the process is run for those who are moved to enrolled status. This will be a general notification alerting students to check their online schedule for details.
Students will not be automatically enrolled from the waitlist for the following reason:
- They have a time conflict.
- They are enrolled in another section of the course.
- They would exceed their maximum term units.
- They do not meet requirements of the course (e.g., reserved for majors only).
- They have a registration hold.
- They are attempting to register for a non-repeatable class for the third time.
- The class is full.

More Information

If the waitlist is full, the “OK to Wait List” check box will not appear as an option.
Students may not waitlist for more than 15 credits at a time.
Students are told of their waitlist positions at the time they are placed on a wait list during their enrollment. They can also view their position at any time by reviewing their online schedule.
Students can waitlist for multiple sections of the same course. However, once the student is enrolled in an available section, he/she is automatically dropped from the waitlist for the other sections. The only exception to this would be for courses that are repeatable for credit in the same term.
If a lecture course has a zero credit lab, students cannot waitlist the same lecture section or the same lab section more than once. For example, a student could not wait list CHEM 111-01 lecture with more than one CHEM 111 lab section.
Once a waitlist is started for a class and a seat opens up, a student who is not on the waitlist will not be able to enroll. However, if all students on the waitlist are ineligible for enrollment, then the class status will change to Open and the next eligible student may enroll.

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