Course Wait List FAQs

If you encounter a closed course during registration, you may add yourself to a list of students waiting to be notified if and when a seat becomes available. Students can add themselves to the wait list of a closed course through the regular Registration and Add/Drop processes. Seats may become available at the last minute if a registered student drops the class. If a seat becomes available and you are next on the wait list, you will automatically receive an email notification and will have 24 hours to add yourself to the course. If you do not register, you will lose your spot on the wait list and the open seat will be offered to the next person on the list.

You will automatically receive an email notification at your Bank Street email address.

Students who receive email notification of an available seat will have exactly 24 hours register for the open seat. If you do not register within 24 hours, the system will automatically drop you from the wait list and will offer the available seat to the next student in line. Because this is an automated process, you cannot reclaim your position on the wait list. However, anyone who is dropped from the wait list may add themselves back to the bottom of the wait list during registration periods.

You will be notified of seat availability in the order you add yourself to the wait list. To see what your position is on the wait list, please log on to your my.bankstreet account and review your ranking under “Wait Status.” For example, if you are third on a wait list, three people need to drop the class for you to be offered a seat.

If you are first or second on a wait list, you are allowed to sit in on the first class so that, if a seat becomes available, they will not have missed the first class. However, you are not required to sit in and you do not lose your spot on the wait list if you do not sit in. If you choose to sit in on a class, this does not mean you are registered for the class. Students who sit in on a class but do not receive email notification of an available seat must stop attending the class after its first session

Wait lists for most classes and IMPs are only in effect until 12:00 AM the day of the second class meeting. For 1-credit courses and IMP2s, no registration is allowed after 12:00 AM the day of the first class meeting. All wait lists for 1-credit courses and IMP2s will be dissolved after the class/IMP has met once. Thus, if you are on a wait list and you do not receive an email notifying you of an available seat prior to the above deadlines, enough students did not drop the class in order for you to register.

Seats that become available in a course must be offered to the students on the wait list in the order of their turn. Instructors may not give permission for a specific student to jump the wait list line and join the class. For further information, contact the Registrar’s Office.