Registration FAQ

A Standard Timetable (STT) is a planned course schedule that contains most of your first-year courses in a set timetable. It will include your Applied Science, Math, Chemistry and Physics courses. You may also be required to self-register for additional individual courses outside of your STT.

Please refer to the applicable registration page for your year level for additional information.

Please refer to the Registration Timeline for information about the dates of registration.

Engineering registration times are staggered throughout the registration period based on year level and sessional average (or admissions average for new-to-program students). These times are centrally set, and we are unable to adjust registration times for students.

There are a few reasons you may receive an error message when trying to register:

1. The course is full
   • If there are no seats remaining, you will be unable to register.
2. The remaining seats are restricted, and you do not meet the restrictions
   • If there are no general seats remaining, and you do not meet the restrictions on the restricted seats, you will not be able to register.
   • You can find information about what restrictions are on seats on the section page
3. You do not meet the course restrictions.
   • Is the course restricted to a certain year level, faculty, or program? Do you meet the prerequisite and corequisite requirements?
4. You are trying to register in a course that conflicts with another course you are registered in
   • Students are unable to register themselves in course conflicts. Please refer to Registration Requests for the Course Conflict Form.

If you receive an error message when trying to register and are unable to figure out why, please contact us for assistance.

When registering, you may encounter courses or sections with different registration statuses.

• Blocked:
  • a course that is blocked from registration means you are not able to register yourself for the course. This may happen once a course becomes full , or if the course is reserved for students who will be registered by their program. We recommend you check the section comments of the course to see if there is a registration procedure (such as emailing the program) or register on the waitlist if one is available. If a waitlist section is blocked, this usually means there are still seats available in a section.
  • If a waitlist section is blocked, it usually means there are still seats available in a section.
• Restricted:
  • a course marked restricted means that the remaining seats in the section are only available to students who meet certain eligibility criteria. You can find the restrictions on the section page under the Seat Summary. Please note that you will only be able to register for restricted sections if you match the restrictions 
• Full:
  • A section marked full means there are no seats remaining. If your desired course section is full, you will need to find an alternative section. If there are no available seats in any of the course section, we recommend you register on the waitlist, or continue to self-monitor the section to register when a seat becomes available.

Registering in two overlapping courses is called a Course Conflict. You will only be able to register yourself in one of the overlapping courses. To be registered in the other course, you must request a Course Conflict through EAS. You will be required to fill out a form and have it signed by the instructors of both courses before EAS is able to register you for the conflict.

Please note: First year students are not permitted to have course conflicts. Most faculties and departments do not allow for course conflicts (Faculty of Commerce, Math Department)

If there are available seats in a course and you are eligible for registration, you can use the section switch function on SSC. To do this, go to the Registration tab on SSC Course Schedule, and select Add/Drop Courses. On this page, select the course you wish to switch sections and select the Switch Selected Section button. You will be prompted to select the section you wish to switch into. Do not drop your course and attempt to register in another section. If you drop a course, you will be unable to register into it again. You will need to register on a waitlist in this situation, and are not guaranteed a seat in the course.

If the section you wish to switch into is blocked or you are unable to register in it, you should check the section comments for the course. These comments will often give information about how a department handles section registration. For non-engineering courses, you should also check the department’s website for information about registration. Many departments will have information about how they handle section switches (this may be a form, a person to email, or details about the department not allowing switches).

If it is an engineering course, you are an incoming First Year student, or you were unable to find information from the options above, you will need to request a section switch by contacting EAS. Please be aware the section switches are only granted for extenuating circumstances, and not all section switch requests will be accommodated.

Valid reasons for a section switch request:

• Varsity athletic commitments – You are on a UBC Varsity athletic team and your timetable conflicts with practice times (please include your Varsity sport when contacting EAS)
• Medical commitments – regularly scheduled medical commitments (appointments, etc.)
• Extenuating circumstances
• In rare circumstances, highly unbalanced timetables may be a valid reason for a section switch

Invalid reasons for a section switch request:

• Instructor preferences
• Employment commitments
• Wanting to be in the same section as a friend
• Time of day preferences

Generally, a waitlist is used when all the seats are full in a course. If you have registered on a waitlist you will then be moved into the course section as seats become available. Each department has its own priority guidelines for who will be moved off the waitlist first – usually having to do with specialization, year level, and registration date onto the waitlist. For this reason, it is difficult (if not impossible) to tell a student what “place” they are on a waitlist. 

A waitlist does not guarantee a seat in a course. Seats in the course will only be given to students if the seat limit is increased, or a seat becomes available due to a student dropping the course. 

Not all courses will offer waitlists. If the course you are wishing to register for is full and does not offer a waitlist, you will need to self-monitor the course and register when a seat becomes available. 

EAS controls only the APSC course waitlists. Waitlist clearing for APSC courses usually begins 2 weeks before the start of term. 

For questions about waitlists for non-APSC courses, please consult the course’s department website (i.e. the Math Department for MATH courses, the Journalism Department for WRDS 150B, etc.). Please note that other departments may use their waitlist differently from APSC courses. 

Visit Transfer Credits to learn more.

UBC has an official period where you can add or drop your registration for individuals courses. The deadline to do this will vary depending on the term and duration of your course, and are listed under the “Withdrawal Dates” on the course schedule of the SSC. These deadlines are set by the student registration system, and we expect you to add or drop your courses well in advance of the deadline date and time. During busy periods, the system is in high demand and needs time to process a request, so it may take longer than usual for the registration change to occur. We strongly recommend that you complete your registration change well in advance of the final deadline time to avoid any registration issues. We will be unable to change your registration if you have forgotten, or left your registration change to the last minute. 

If you are a first year and are trying to change your registration you may have received credit for, please follow the instructions under the “How do I drop courses I have transfer credit for?” section. It is important you do not drop your whole STT.

For all First Year registration issues, please contact EAS.

For upper year registration issues, please contact your program advisor.

For non-engineering course registration issues, please contact the overseeing department of that course (Math Department for MATH courses, Psychology department for PSYC, etc.).

Worklists are draft class timetables that you can create on SSC before you register to help you plan out your courses.

Be prepared for registration – create multiple worklists containing individual course sections. Courses fill up quickly during registration, and having multiple registration options can help you register successfully.

Please refer to Enrolment Service’s How To Navigate a Worklist video for more information.

For a demonstration of how to register using SSC, please refer to Enrolment Service’s Course Registration Overview video.

EAS is also holding virtual Registration Workshops in which we will go through the registration process.

Depending on your first-year program type, you will need to add a 3-credit Humanities and Social Science elective, and/or a 3 credit English/Communication course (WRDS 150B or equivalent, ENGL 100, 110, or 111). Please refer to the First Year Registration > First Year Programs section for more information.

• Broadly speaking, a Humanities course is about the study of human culture – the history, art, literature, music, etc. that define groups of people.  Social Science is the study of society, with the main disciplines in social science being culture/social anthropology, sociology, psychology, political science, and economics. 
• You can find the guidelines for H/SS and examples of approved courses chart on the Humanities and Social Science Elective page. Advanced credit eligibility is also listed in this chart.  
• A maximum of 3 credits in a language course can be used towards the humanities and social sciences requirement.

Option 1: Navigate to the course section page of the course you want. Click on the “Register Section” button on the top right corner of the page.


Option 2: If you made a worklist, select the individual courses on the worklist and press “Register Selected” at the bottom of the worklist screen.

Most engineering students will choose to take an introductory 100-level Arts course for their Humanities/Social Science requirement. Common course examples would be PSYC 101 or 102, ECON 101 or 102, LING 100 or 101, etc. You should consider that upper level (300+) Arts courses often require heavy reading requirements and academic writing, which are rarely suitable for first year students.

You may also choose to do a 3-credit language course to fulfill this requirement.

If you are hoping to pursue a minor, you may also consider taking a course that can be used towards this.

Please refer to the First Year Registration > How do I apply my AP, IB, or A-Level credits to the first year requirements? section for more information about advanced credits.

Please refer to the transfer credit page for more information about all transfer credits.

If you have transfer credits that will cover courses in your timetable, please see the “Dropping Courses” question for instructions on how to drop the courses you do not want to take. 

1. On your SSC Course Schedule, navigate to “Registration > Add/Drop Courses”
2. Select the course you wish to drop, and press “Drop Selected Section”
3. **Do not press “Drop STT”, as this will deregister you from all your STT courses. Make sure you are selecting and dropping individual courses, not selecting and dropping your STT.
   

Please refer to the Upper Year Registration page.

If the course for your program is full, please either register on the waitlist or contact your program advisor.

For upper year course planning, please contact your program advisor.