College of Arts and Sciences > Undergraduate Students

Registration Tips

You can find the course offerings for the current and upcoming semester here: http://www.neu.edu/registrar/schedules.html

Be careful what you register for! The registration system will not block you from registering for a class when you do not meet the prerequisites. You must make sure that you meet all the Prerequisite Requirements before registering for a class or you risk being dropped from the class by the professor or department. You can view course prerequisites here.

The registration system will block you from registering for a course that is restricted to certain majors or to a certain class year. If you try to register for a course that is restricted, you will receive a “Major ‘to’ Restriction” or a “Year ‘to’ Restriction” error. The only way to register for these courses is to contact the department that is offering the course. For example, if you are trying to register for a restricted History class, you must contact the History department. The Academic Advisors in the Dean’s office will not be able to assist you in overriding the restriction. You can find the contact information for the different Arts and Sciences departments here.

If you're having trouble trying to determine what you should register for in an upcoming term, follow the steps listed below. Set aside an hour so you can give yourself ample opportunity to understand your options and make your decisions.

Resources
Download and print the following tools. (It's very helpful to print them out so you can take notes when you need to. You also have the option of opening each item in a different Tab in your browser. To open a new tab in Internet Explorer or Firefox on a PC, press the "Ctrl" and the "T" keys simultaneously. For Safari or Firefox on the Mac, press the Command key (looks like a clover) and the "T" key simultaneously.)
1. Schedule grid(s)
  1. Grid without lab sequences (easier to use)
  2. Grid with lab sequences (for science, music and art students)
2. MyPaws Degree Audit
  1. You will find this on your MyNeu. Once you log in, click on the "Self-Service" tab and then click on the Degree Audit link. Run an audit for your major and then print it out or keep it open and open a new tab in your browser for the next web site. From the first page of the Degree Audit system, you could also choose the "Explore Options" button to select an audit for a minor or second major.
Review your Degree Audit
1. There is a lot of information to absorb in your audit, so take your time. The first thing you want to do is identify the requirements which are not complete. These sections are notated by a " - " in the left margin, as shown here for the Social Science Level 1 requirement:
  
  Each of the courses in this list are eligible to complete the requirement. You can click on any course number to get a course description for the course so you can find out if it interests you.
  1. Please pay careful attention to the prerequisites!
    The registration system will not stop you from registering for a class when you don't have the prerequisites. However the professor or department may remove you from the class or ask you to leave during the first week of classes.
Course Listings
Go to http://www.neu.edu/registrar/schedules.html to view the course listings for an upcoming semester. (There are many sections to this page, so be sure to navigate carefully.)
1. First, choose the appropriate term
2. Next, choose a listing that would be most helpful to you.
  1. CAS Core
    The CAS Core is for students who started before September 2007 or started in September 2007 or January 2008 as a transfer student with 32 or more semester hours of transfer credit.
  2. NU Core
    The NU Core is for students starting in September 2007 or later as a freshman or a freshman transfer student with 31 or fewer semester hours of transfer credit.
  3. Main Listings
    You can view the entire course listing by clicking on Main Listings.
    1. Note: If you are looking for Introductory Foreign Language courses, they are listed under the World Language Center
  4. Find-A-Class
    You can also look at the listings by Day/Time/Sequence, Professor, Honors Program, or University-Wide Writing Requirement.
Find Courses
Compare your remaining requirements from your Degree Audit to the course offerings in the upcoming terms.
1. You should already have the Course Offerings loaded in your web browser from step 3. Make yourself familiar with how to navigate the different listings and how they relate to the classes you need to take.
2. If you're looking for a core requirement, use the core listings (Double check which core list to use. The CAS Core is different than the NU Core, and which list you follow depends on the year you started at Northeastern. Review step 2, section b.)
3. There are often multiple courses that you can use to fulfill a specific requirement, especially when it comes to your core requirements. Unfortunately, not every class listed on your Degree Audit is offered every term. Please keep this in mind when you are planning for future terms. The course description lists which terms a class is usually offered, so you can review that to help you in your decision making. Ultimately, the course offerings decision is made by the department offering the class. So as an example, if you have a question about a course offered by the Communication Studies department, call the Communication Studies department. (For department listings, click here.)
Make a list of your choices
1. Use the following course as an example.
2. When you look at the course offerings pages, there are a few important bits of information.
  1. Sequence
    The first important bit of information is the Sequence, abbreviated here as Seq. In this example, it is Seq D. You will find what Seq D means by looking at the Schedule Grids listed in step 1. When assembling your schedule, be sure to check for time conflicts. The registration system will not, under any circumstances, allow an overlap between classes. (Although the occasional Seq 99 will sneak through even with a time conflict, so double check everything!)
  2. Key Number
    The second important bit of information is the Key number. It is a 5 digit number that is unique to this class at this specific time with that professor. This is the number you will type into the registration system to register for your class.
  3. Open and Closed Sections
    The last thing to look at, is the colored box to the left of the Key number. If it's green, then the class had an opening as of 8 am this morning. If it's red, then the class is full.
    Caution! The online course listings are updated once per day and are accurate only as of 8:00 am. It is possible for the online listings to show that a class is open even though the class has recently filled up. If, when you are registering, you receive an error telling you that a class is full or "Closed," the error message is correct, and the online listing is unfortunately out of date.
3. For your list of preferred courses, you should make a list of 6 to 8 courses for the Fall or Spring semesters, and a list of 3 or 4 classes for the Summer "Mini-mesters."
  Please be careful to not register for two courses to fulfill a requirement that is satisfied with one course.
4. You will need to write down the course number and Key number for each class. When you have this information handy when you go to register, the actual time you spend in the registration system will only be about 5 minutes.
Registration
When it comes time to register, log into your MyNeu, click the "Self-Service" tab, and then on course registration. When the new window opens, choose the correct term for registration, making sure to choose the option for Undergraduate Day Programs.

Points to keep in mind.
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