Current Students: Registration Questions and Overrides

We covered how to create and update the MyDegrees Planner in FW 107. Please refer to this presentation and links contained within to update your planner before requesting that your registration hold be lifted. MyDegrees Checklist and Planner Basics

For general information on how to prepare for spring registration, please see Spring Term Updates to Registration Process on this page.

FW 488 and FW 435. The biggest change to spring term is the addition of department approval restrictions (SAPR) on FW 488 and FW 435. So many students need these classes that only students who will graduate in spring or summer term will have access to these classes. Your advisor will provide the approval. Do not submit an override form for these classes as we will not provide an override via the form.

Ecampus Classes. Corvallis campus students can no longer register for Ecampus classes during  Priority Registration (formally Phase I). You will be able to register for most Ecampus classes at the beginning of Week 10 each term. Because of the changes to waitlisting, you cannot waitlist classes these classes until Week 10, even though the waitlist will be available before then. 

The FWCS department added enforced prerequisites to most classes to make sure that Ecampus students can only register for these classes if they are qualified by prerequisites. Nevertheless, we expect some popular classes to be closed by the start of Week 10.

When and How to Get Priority Overrides for Ecampus Sections

When You Receive Overrides. We are allowed to grant priority overrides for Corvallis students to register for Ecampus sections if they are within 3 terms of graduating and the class will not be offered on the Corvallis campus before their graduation term. Some classes are never offered on campus (e.g., FW 475 and FW 427) so you must be within three terms of graduating to get a priority override for these classes.

How to Receive Overrides

1. Have your MyDegrees Planner Updated through graduation. The planner should provide a reasonable and feasible set of classes placed in the terms they are offered and at 19 credits or fewer per term. See below for why you are limited to 19 credits. If a class is offered on campus, that is the term you should plan to take it. For example, FW 435 and FW 488 is offered in spring term.

2. Your advisor should be able to determine that you can graduate with the planned classes within 3 terms and that any classes that need priority overrides must be taken in the planned term. Your advisor will submit the campus override request for you. ​ If a class is offered by another department your advisor will need to note that you require the class to graduate before you can request an override from the other department.

Want to take all or most of your classes via Ecampus? Read On.

If taking classes on campus is no longer feasible, you can ask your academic advisor to change your campus to Ecampus. Be aware that if you choose to take your classes via Ecampus, you will no longer qualify for certain scholarships or have access to some campus services.

University Scholarships: University-level scholarships are tied to your campus. Examples include the Finley, Presidential, WUE and Provost scholarships. You must be a Corvallis campus student to receive these scholarships. Always consult with the Scholarship Office and Financial Aid if you a any questions about scholarship eligibility. Advisors do not have access to this information.

Campus Services:  If you will no longer pay Corvallis campus fees you will not have access to all Corvallis campus services covered by these fees: https://finance.oregonstate.edu/what-are-different-types-mandatory-fees

Academic services such as library access, tutoring and proctoring services are available to all students. All Ecampus students can be part of the degree partnership (DPP) program.

Ecampus Students can take Corvallis Campus Classes. If you opt to change your campus to have more access to Ecampus classes, you can still take most Corvallis campus classes (see registration restriction section of the Schedule of Classes for exceptions).

An enforced prerequisite is a class that you are required to take in preparation for the class you are trying to register for.  Enforced prerequisites are in the Registration Restrictions section of the class information.  For example, if you did not take all of your general biology classes at OSU, you will not be able to register for this class without a prerequisite override. You will need an override if any if of your accepted Biology majors-level classes are BI LDT or BI LD2, even you took the other two here.  See image below for example restrictions.

fwcs_prereq_screenshot.png

Steps to Getting a Prerequisite Override.

1. Check the Registration Restrictions Section for your class in the Schedule of Classes. 
2. If you are not sure you meet the prerequisite requirement, you should add the class to your primary cart (see instructions here). You will see this error if you do not have the prerequisite class: 
   

   prereq_error_fwcs.png

   

3. Consult with your academic advisor to ensure your class(es) meet the requirement and make sure that they verified that your transfer majors-level biology series is equivalent to the OSU biology series.
   
   Note: For classes that are co-requisites and can be taken together, such as FW 321 and FW 488, you must register for FW 321 first before FW 488 or you will receive this error. If you are currently taking the prerequisite class, you will also be allowed to register for the next class (e.g., you can register for MTH 241 for the next term if you are registered for MTH 111z in the current term). 

   If you are a guest or non-degree seeking student, see the section below.

4. If you have met the prerequisite with an approved transfer class, complete the FWCS Override Request Form, which is the last link on this page. Make sure to check for other errors associated with the class (e.g., campus restriction), before completing the form.

Non-degree seeking or Guest Students

Only BA/BS degree seeking students working towards their first OSU degrees generally have transfer classes in MyDegrees. If your prerequisite class is not in MyDegrees, include an unofficial transcript with your override request. We cannot grant prerequisite overrides without evidence of your prerequisite class(es).

A SAPR-Department Approval override is only granted when the student has permission from the instructor to register for the class. FW 209 and 307 and both internship classes, FW 310 and FW 410, have these restrictions and you must receive permission from your academic advisor to register for FW 209 or FW 307. Requests to register for FW 310 and FW 410 must be submitted to the Internship Coordinator after you review the Steps to Complete Your FWCS Internship on this page.

See What to Know about Registering for a Class in Week 2 and Later for Week 2 adds.  

If you are not an FW or FWCS major, you will not be able to register for all FW classes. Classes with this restriction and have limited availability and are required for students in the Bachelor of Science program (not minor). All professional development classes (FW 107, 209 and 307), FW 435 and FW 439 (WIC classes, all campuses), FW 255, FW 370,. and FW 488 (on the Corvallis campus), FW 342, FW 289 and FW 321 (all campuses), and specialty classes with low enrollment caps (e.g. FW 115 and FW 458) have this restriction.  While these classes can be part of options for related majors, they are only required for FW and FWCS majors.

If you receive the following error "Enrollment is limited to students with a major in Fish, Wildlife & Conserv Scien (018) or Fisheries & Wildlife Sciences (733)", check the class notes. If the restriction expires in Week 10 (former Phase 2), you will be able to register for or waitlist the class on or after the Monday of Week 10. If the restriction does not expire, the class will not be available for registration. Work with your academic advisor to plan for an alternative class to meet your option requirement.

Related Majors who require an FW class to Graduate. If you receive this error and your academic advisor has determined you need the class to graduate within in the current term, please ask them to contact [email protected] to request the override. We will not provide overrides without contact from your academic advisor.

I am an FW/FWCS major Who cannot register for a Non-FW Class.

If you receive a prerequisite error while attempting to register for a non-FW class (e.g., BI 370, or ANS 311), you must contact their department directly for a prerequisite override. We cannot provide overrides for non-FW classes. 

Make sure that you have met the prerequisite requirement. If you are unsure, consult with your academic advisor before contacting the department. The appropriate contact information or override form will be in the Department Contact(s) section at the bottom of the Schedule of Classes. See the example for BI 370 below. 

fwcs_non-fwcs class.png

Other departments must major-restrict some classes for the same reason that we do: to make sure that their students can access required classes. It is critical that you plan classes carefully and consult with your academic advisor about non-FW major-restricted classes. Online Botany classes are often restricted during Priority Registration (but may be restricted after Week 10). If you need one of these classes and you are close to graduating, work with your academic advisor to request overrides into Botany classes. We cannot grant overrides into these classes, but we can facilitate an override if you are graduating within 1-2 terms. Therefore, make sure you have communicated about a restricted botany class in your graduation term to your FWCS Advisor so we can make a MyDegrees note for you. Make sure to do this before submitting the new Botany override form here: BOT course override requests 

Spring 2026 Ecampus sections

All Ecampus classes will be restricted to Ecampus students during Phase I registration (that is, students who campus is listed as Dist. Degree Corvallis Student in MyDegrees). The department cannot override this requirement and the restriction will be lifted for most Ecampus classes on the Monday of Week 10 (formally Phase 2).   If you experience a time conflict because two classes you need are offered at the same time, you may be granted an override for the FW Ecampus section. Complete the FWCS Override form and explain the reason for the error. 

Several FW classes that our students need are only offered online and we will work with you on how to register for these classes under the following conditions: 

1. You are within three (3) terms of graduating and the class has limited availability during those terms and is not available on the Corvallis campus. 
2. You have a complete and accurate graduation plan in your MyDegrees Planner that shows which terms you need the Ecampus class(es). 
3. You have consulted your academic advisor who confirms that you will need the class(es) in the specified term.   

The department cannot provide the campus override, but we will formally submit your requests to the college. Therefore, it is critical that you plan your last few terms carefully and provide enough time for us to secure the necessary override.  

Your advisor can also help you decide on whether changing your campus to Ecampus is beneficial. There are many considerations, but one of the most important will be whether you are receiving a Corvallis-campus university scholarship or other campus-dependent aid.  Examples of these scholarships include, but are not limited to, the Finley, WUE and Provost Scholarships. You cannot change your campus and receive these scholarships.  

Contact the Scholarship Office with specific questions about your scholarship(s) as we do not have access to this information. All other financial aid questions should be directed to the Financial Aid Office. 

If a class is full and there is an active waitlist, you will receive the following error message: Open – Reserved for Wait List. Do not ask for a capacity override for the class instead of going through the waitlist because we do not provide overrides for classes with waitlists.  Classes that do not have a waitlist will show a waitlist capacity of 0. 

https://registrar.oregonstate.edu/waitlisting-courses  

For classes without waitlists, capacity overrides are generally not granted unless the class is needed during an FWCS student’s graduation term and the student has instructor permission to add the class. Consult your academic advisor for assistance with capacity overrides if this applies to you.  

There are two registration times listed in Beaver Hub (instructions on how to see these below): 

Priority Registration (formally Phase 1) is the first date that you will be able to register for classes, and up to 19 credits. Waitlisting is now allowed during your priority registration time for classes that have a Waitlist Capacity >0. 

Week 10 Registration (formally Phase 2). Priority Registration starts sometime between the beginning of Week 8 and Week 9 and that date will show in Beaver Hub. Priority Registration ends on the Sunday of Week 9. On the Monday of Week 10, you make register for classes that were restricted during Priority Registration if the restriction was lifted. 

If you attempt to register outside of your Priority Registration, you will encounter a Time Ticket error.  There are no exceptions to your assigned registration time. 

How to Check Your Priority Registration Time

Time conflict errors only occur when two Corvallis-campus classes are offered at the same time. You cannot register for two classes if their meeting times overlap, even once, during the term.  

The most common time conflict error where we can provide an override is when a class or FW 410 conference has a meeting time or field trip that occurs once in the term. To receive a time conflict override, you must first contact the instructor of the class you will miss by attending the conference or field trip and get their written permission to miss that day of class. Forward the approval email to [email protected] from your OSU email account and include your OSU ID with no spaces or hyphens. We will not provide an override without this email. 

For class times that conflict more than once per term (e.g., the last 20 minutes of one class conflicts with the start of another class), you need to receive permission from the instructors of both classes to receive the time conflict override. We can only provide the override for a class offered by the FWCS department. If neither class is offered by this department, you will need to seek the override from the department offering the class after getting the instructors’ permission.  

Waitlisting is now available when you can register during the priority registration period.  If a class has a waitlist, the waitlist capacity will be >0. If there is space on the waitlist, you will see Waitlist Avail >0. Example below: 

Waitlist Capacity: 5
Waitlist Count: 3
Waitlist Avail: 2  

Classes that do not have a waitlist will show a waitlist capacity of 0. 

It is always worth your while to waitlist a class.  Once you get on the waitlist, you must check your email once per day to see if a spot is available. If you do not register within 24 hours of the Registrar sending the notification, you will be removed from the waitlist and your spot will be offered to the next person. Here are the instructions for waitlisting classes.

See the next section to understand why you cannot register for a class even if there appears to be space.  

Assuming that you are not receiving any other error, you may still not be able to register for an open spot. There are two reasons this can happen, but in both cases the class no longer has space available. Please review the information below before asking your advisor why you cannot register for a class that has an opening.

1. There is a lag time between when a student registers for a class and when the Schedule of Classes shows the spot is taken. This can be up to 30 minutes. Therefore, if one spot appear to be available but the class shows as closed or open - available for waitlist, another student registered for that spot in the last ~30 minutes.

2. You will encounter this error most commonly in classes with active waitlists. This is because if there is anyone on the waitlist, the spot is being offered to a waitlisted student.

This is also why you should always waitlist classes if you have that option.  

Waitlisted Class Example from the Schedule of Classes: 

Status: Open  

Max Enrollment: 40  

Enrollment: 39  

Seats Avail: 1 ← Not available, there are 3 people on the waitlist  

Waitlist Capacity: 5  

Waitlist Count: 3 ← the open spot is being offered to the first person on the waitlist. If that person does not take the spot within 24 hours, the spot will be offered to the second person, etc.  

Waitlist Avail: 2 ← Get on the waitlist if possible (up to 3 classes or sections can be waitlisted)  

Students are allowed to register for up to 19 credits per term. This is a heavy load in the quarter system and we generally do not recommend registering for more than 17 credits.  

If you have a compelling reason to register for up to 22 credits, you need to complete an extra credits petition. Before submitting petition: 

1. You must have successfully completed full-time classes (at least 15 credits) the previous term with a GPA of 3.0 or higher.  
2. You have consulted your academic advisor about your planned classes. They will provide valuable insights into the workload associated with major classes.  
3. If your advisor agrees that taking more than 19 credits is appropriate, then submit an Undergraduate Extra Credits Petition. The College Head Advisor, not the department head advisor, will approve or deny the petition based on your previous academic performance and your academic advisor’s recommendation.  

Students can add a class without instructor approval up to the end of Week 1 each term (for full term, 11-week classes – See Academic Calendar for Non-traditional Class Deadlines). During Week 2, you will receive a SAPR -Department Approval error when registering and must receive instructor approval to add a class. This is to make sure that a student does not add a class that they are already behind in without the opportunity to drop. This is important. If you add a class after Week 1 and then choose to drop it, you will receive a W on your transcript and owe 50% tuition on the class, so pursue this option carefully. The decision to allow a late add is at the discretion of the instructor. 

If you receive instructor permission to register, forward the approval email to [email protected] from your OSU email account and include your OSU ID with no spaces or hyphens. If additional overrides are required for the class (e.g., a prerequisite override), include that information in your email. 

Adding a Class After Week 2

Adds after Week 2 (or earlier depending on the length of the class) require a university petition. These petitions are often not successful because by the end of Week 2 it may be very difficult or impossible to complete the class successfully.  Before initiating a late petition to add, talk to both your academic advisor and contact the instructor.  Instructors never approve these requests unless they have talked to the student about whether they can complete the class with a passing grade. 

After identifying the registration error on this page or the Office of Registrar’s Common Registration Errors page, you can submit the FWCS Override Request Form. It is important to get as much information about the reason you are getting the error before submitting this form.  Complete and accurate requests will be processed within two business days. 

Do NOT use this form to get overrides into classes from other departments (e.g. BI 370, ANS 311, etc.). You can find contact information for other departments in the Schedule of Classes.   

FWCS Override Request Form