Registration FAQ

If you can forward to Lori Harris an email from the professor/department of the other class, saying that you’ll be taking their class asynchronously and don’t need to attend it at the scheduled time, we’ll override the time conflict. Be sure to include in the email your name, PID, and exactly what DAMES class section you wish to add.

Only the Turkish classes and VIET 101 are expected to be remote.

One way is to look at our fall courses page, where crosslists are listed in a separate section from the courses DAMES offers.

The reserve message means there’s a restriction on the course (like seniors only or Japanese majors only) that you don’t qualify for.  Some of our courses do have restrictions. However, in many cases (FYS courses are an exception; they are always first-years-only) there’s a point where those restrictions will be lifted, and all remaining seats will then be made available to anyone who wants them, starting with the people on the waitlist. (You can waitlist a course during the second wave even if it has a restriction that won’t let you actually enroll in it.)  To find out when that might happen, see next question.

New features have recently been added to ConnectCarolina that will help you with this.

When you do a search in ConnectCarolina and find the class, the section number is a link.  Click through and you’ll be on the Class Detail page. Scroll down that page to the Class Availability section, and you’ll see a breakdown of seats: how many were reserved for different groups and who those groups were, how many were open to anyone, and for each group how many of the seats have been taken and how many are left. In the Reserved Seats column, the abbreviated name of the reserve group has hover text that explains it more clearly.

Below this in the Notes section on the same page there may be a note explaining when reserved seats will be released.

Check your schedule to see if you have a time conflict. ConnectCarolina will let you waitlist even if you have a time conflict or don’t meet restrictions on the class, but these things get checked when you have the chance to get in off the waitlist.

If the course has recitation sections, another possible problem is that there are seats open in some recitations, but not the one you chose. If you’re willing to make a different recitation choice in order to get into the class, look at which recitations are open and try swapping to one of them. If you see another open recitation that you’d be willing to take, but can’t change your request on ConnectCarolina without losing your place on the waitlist, contact Lori Harris for help (include your PID).

We purposely don’t offer waitlisting in our language courses that have multiple sections, because we want people to be realistic and choose from the sections that are actually still available, rather than pinning their hopes on a waitlist. However, if the open sections really don’t work for you, please see our further advice about getting into full sections.

Also, our First-Year Seminar classes don’t have waitlists; this is a universal First-Year Seminar policy.

We’re sorry. We offer as much waitlist capacity as we are permitted to, but University policy limits the size of waitlists. If the waitlist is full, all you can do is check back for a chance to join it if a spot opens up.

It may be too late.  Waitlisting is only allowed up to a certain date before each semester.  To know what that date is, look at the academic calendar on the Registrar’s website for that semester, and you’ll find a date that says it’s the last date students can add themselves to waitlists.  Once that deadline has passed, existing waitlists will continue to function, but nobody new can join a waitlist.

Alternatively, it could be too early–remember you can’t waitlist during the first wave of registration.

We don’t actually use permission numbers, so you don’t need one.  Here’s what is really going on. Starting on the first day of class, we may use the department-permission requirement to block enrollment in some classes that are full. That’s because we anticipate having extra people show up wanting to add, but people already in the class may drop; if someone drops and there’s an open seat, we want that seat to go to the person who’s been attending the class for a couple of days already, not to the person who happened to see it first on ConnectCarolina.

For classes where we do this, the only way to try to get in is to come to the class itself, which you are welcome to do.

First, watch ConnectCarolina for an opening. Everyone else is also dropping, adding, and generally tinkering with their schedules, so at any moment of the day or night, someone might give up a spot that you can then have.  Check back often (or better yet, use the UNC Class Checker app that notifies you when a vacancy appears) if you really want to get in.

All of our non-FYS culture courses have seats reserved for DAMES majors.  If our majors don’t use all those seats, we’ll release them for others, and they’ll go first to the people (if any) on the waitlist. So waitlisting is a great plan. There should be a note on the class telling you when we plan to release any extra seats.

Secondly, come to the first day of the class (if the class is remote, see below).  The instructor may or may not have room or be willing to take extra people, but you are welcome to show up and ask.

Maybe, maybe not. The instructor may be delighted with your enthusiasm and eager to let you add their class.  Or they may be too busy and overwhelmed with a deluge of emails to even get back to you. Or they may be open to possibly taking a few extra people, but feel that they want to see who actually shows up to the first class meeting before deciding.  In almost all cases, instructors would rather have someone who has taken the trouble to show up to the first day (and also thereby not missed a session) than someone who keeps sending them pleading emails but doesn’t actually show up.

If there are open sections of the class you want, try to enroll in an available section if you are willing to take that section. Please don’t enroll in a section you won’t really take; that doesn’t improve your chances of getting into the section you want, and it shuts out other people who might be trying to get into the section you don’t want.

If you are asking to get into a full section while there are still open sections, we’ll only consider granting such a request if you genuinely have a demonstrable conflict with another class. Also, such requests will not be considered at all until the term actually starts.

Check ConnectCarolina often. Everyone else is also dropping, adding, and generally tinkering with their schedules, so at any moment of the day or night, someone might give up a spot that you can then have.  Check back often if you really want to get in.

Certainly.  Chinese, Japanese, Korean, and Vietnamese 101 have some seats reserved for FY and some open to continuing students.  Any FY seats that haven’t been used will be made available to everyone when open enrollment resumes on August 7.

(FLAS recipients, if you need help getting into a language class, email Lori Harris with your PID, enrollment request, and which center your FLAS is from. Act early for maximum choice of sections.)

Arabic, Hebrew, Hindi-Urdu, Persian, and Turkish 101 classes have no restrictions.

Definitely come to the first day.  It’s fine to come to any section you want, even if it seems to be full. The instructor will pass around a sheet to collect the information of anyone who’s there hoping to add. Signing up on this sheet does NOT mean that you’ll definitely get to add, but you may keep attending the class during the first week until you hear from the department either way about your request.

Here’s what is really going on.  Starting from the first day of class, if we know there will be extra people seeking to add, we use the “department-consent” thing in ConnectCarolina to shut down enrollment and ensure that people can only add through the department. The reason for this is that if someone does drop the class and a seat is open, we want that seat to go to someone who’s been attending the class, not to whoever randomly sees it first.  Once classes have started, the best way to get into a class is to go to it. (Don’t email us to ask for permission numbers; we don’t really use those.)

Definitely not. Decisions about enrollment in language classes are made centrally by the department; the individual instructor does not have the authority to decide if you can add.

For courses above 101: If all sections are full, we’ll do whatever it takes to make more room. We are committed to offering enough seats for everyone from the previous level who wants to continue, but can’t guarantee everyone the section time they prefer.

Exceptions to that rule: Chinese above 408 or 313, and Japanese above 306.  At these levels, we’ll accommodate everyone we possibly can, and there’s usually room for all, but if demand exceeds supply, our majors will have priority.

We’ll make a decision as soon as possible. We’re eager to see the situation stabilize, and we also realize that anyone we say no to needs time to make other plans. We’ll notify you by email, as soon as possible and definitely by the weekend.

Email Lori Harris for help. Include your PID.