Registration Advising
How to choose courses and navigate registration
Selecting Your Courses
Step-by-step how to choose courses that will help you graduate.
Registration FAQ
Common registration questions in Biochemistry
Your Registration Guide
A comprehensive resource put together by the Registrar
Selecting Your Courses
Start planning for your registration well in advance. Use Carleton Central to create draft worksheets to prepare for multiple scenarios each term. Pay close attention to error messages which will help you identify possible issues before your actual registration time ticket opens.
We recommend that you:
- Go through each requirement listed on your audit
- Compare those requirements to the Undergraduate Calendar
- Check the course offerings to see if courses not yet fulfilled are being offered
- Once you register in courses, run your audit again to see if the courses appear where you expected them to, and to confirm they will count toward your degree.
1. Your Academic Audit
The first step to checking your required courses is to run your academic audit. Your audit will show you which courses are still required to complete your degree. Run your audit regularly throughout your degree as this is a personalized tool to make sure you are on track to graduate.
Run a Planned Courses audit to determine whether your course selections will meet your degree requirements. You can even assign hypothetical grades to determine how your GPA would change.
Run a What-If audit if you are considering changing your major, minor, or specialization. This type of audit will show you how your completed courses would count in the new program.
2. The Undergraduate Calendar
You need to complete the program requirements as listed in the Undergraduate Calendar. The Undergraduate Calendar has all the rules and regulations that govern your degree requirements.
Be sure to review the correct calendar year which corresponds with the year you entered your degree. Your calendar year can be found on your audit. Find past calendar years in the Calendar Archives.
If you are planning to switch programs, try to follow the program requirements of the program you want to switch into, but be aware that you may not be given access into some courses until you officially switch programs.
The B.Sc. Regulations tab explains which courses will count for the following program requirements:
- Science Continuation Courses
- Science Faculty Electives
- Advanced Science Faculty Electives
- Approved Courses Outside the Faculties of Science and Engineering and Design
- Free Electives
3. Course Offerings
Not all courses listed in the Calendar are offered each year. Review the list of courses that are being offered in the summer or fall and winter semesters in the Public Class Schedule or on Carleton Central.
Map out your courses for future terms through to graduation. Courses are often offered in the same semesters each year, so make note of your degree requirements and if the course is generally a fall term course or a winter term course. Consider required prerequisites when you plot out the order in which you will complete your required courses. Please keep in mind that courses do change terms on occasion, so allowing for flexibility in your mapped out plan is essential.
Undergraduate Research Courses for Credit require a confirmed supervisor prior to registration.
Honours Capstone Courses required advanced planning – begin planning in fall term of 3rd year.
First Year Students
First Year Students can refer to the First Year Course Selection Guides. Please see the New Undergraduate Students page and this short video on the guides.
4. Run Your Audit After Registering
Once you have registered, check your audit again. All of the courses you have chosen should be in one of the line items. There should be nothing in the section at the end of the audit called “Courses set aside”. If there are, you have registered in a course that will not help you towards completing your degree and you should review your program requirements again or contact an advisor.
Registration FAQ
Summer Term Registration opens in March
Fall & Winter Term Registration opens in July
Check your personalized time ticket to identify when you will be able to start registering for your courses. Plan to register for courses as soon as possible after your time ticket allows.
Common questions during registration answered below:
- Why is my registration blocked?
- How do I request “permission of the Institute”?
- The course I want is full – what can I do?
- Overrides – everything you need to know!
Still can’t find answers? Email us!
Emails must be sent from your Carleton email account (cmail) and contain your student number.
Why is my registration blocked?
Biochemistry Registration Priority: Biochemistry courses have limited registration. Priority registration goes to students for whom the course is mandatory in their current degree program. Students in programs which list the course as an option can submit a Registration Override Request (see below) if they are not able to immediately register.
Prerequisites and Year Standing: The Institute of Biochemistry enforces all course prerequisites and program requirements as outlined in the Undergraduate Calendar. Registration in any given course is dependent on satisfying all prerequisites and meeting the necessary year standing requirements.
If you are unable to register in a course required to graduate at the end of the current academic year, please submit a Registration Override Request immediately. Although access to a course cannot be guaranteed, our team will work with you to help you map out a pathway forward.
How do I request “Permission of the Institute”?
Select upper-year Biochemistry courses list “Permission of the Institute” as an allowable prerequisite.
This permission may be granted to students with a CGPA of 10.0 or higher who demonstrate that they have gained the required prerequisite knowledge through other means (e.g. work experience, coursework, lab experience).
To request Permission of the Institute, submit a Registration Override Request (see below) and explain specifically how your past experience replaces the listed course prerequisite. The Institute will evaluate your rationale and make a decision. All decisions are final.
The course I want is full – what can I do?
If on a waitlist, check your Carleton email regularly (at least once or twice per day) – if you are offered a seat from a waitlist, you will only have 24 hours to register in the course, before you lose the seat and it gets offered to the next person on the list.
For courses that do not have a waitlist, please monitor Carleton Central frequently throughout the registration period because a space may become available as students add and drop courses, especially closer to September/January.
- Overrides submitted for full courses will be cancelled.
Overrides – everything you need to know!
If you would like to register for a course but are restricted, you can submit an override.
Provide a detailed rationale for WHY you want/need to take the course as our decisions are based on available space, year in degree program, and rationale.
- Submitting a request does not guarantee your registration in a course.
- Approval to take a course via override does not guarantee there will be space in the course at the time of registration.
- Decisions are final.
Override still pending? All overrides are reviewed beginning 2 weeks after the last time ticket opens. We aim to review all overrides before August 1. Note that some overrides may remain pending through to September. In these cases, we are actively monitoring your request against remaining space in the course.