Wait List

• The Wait List process will run every four hours between 6:30 a.m. and 10:30 p.m. 
• Beginning the week before the start of the term and continuing through the end of the drop/add period, Wait List will run hourly.
• The Wait List process will enroll eligible students by order of their position on the wait list. 
• A wait-listed student is not enrolled immediately after a different student drops the course, but the seat remains held for wait-listed students until HUB runs its process.
• This process will continue through the end of drop/add.

• A Wait List becomes available on a class as soon as the section fills up, as long as the Wait List is enabled.
• The Wait List will remain available until its capacity is reached, at which point the class will close completely. 
• A Wait List may be available as early as the first day of enrollment, and as long as space remains, a student may add themselves to the Wait List through the end of drop/add. 
• After the drop/add deadline, no students will be moved from the Wait List to the course.

Once the Wait List capacity has been reached, the Wait List feature is unavailable, and the blue closed class icon will display beside the section in Class Search. Note that students will see a clock icon to indicate the class has a Wait List.

• The Wait List option only shows in HUB once all the seats in the class have been filled, and the section closes. 
• When a class search is performed to include these closed classes, users will notice a yellow triangle beside classes that have available Wait List seats.

An automatic email is sent shortly after enrollment is processed to notify the student that they have been added to the course. An email will be sent daily to students who cannot be enrolled if they do not meet the eligibility criteria.

If a student has only wait-listed course(s) by the registration deadline, and has not enrolled in any other courses, they would still be charged a late registration fee if they register after the deadline.

All wait-listed courses show in a student's schedule and will say “waiting” under the status area and will indicate their Wait List position. In the Weekly Calendar View, the wait-listed course is displayed, but still says “waiting.”

• The department must enable the class to accept a Wait List, and the class has to be closed.
• The student must have a valid enrollment appointment, or it must be during open enrollment.
• The student does not have a negative service indicator (hold) that prevents registration.
  • If, in the time between when the student was added to the Wait List and a seat becomes available, a hold is placed on the account, HUB will not add the student to the class.
• Registration complies with UB’s repeat policy.
  • If a student is attempting to Wait List a course that they have already taken twice, HUB will allow them to add themselves to the Wait List, but enrollment will not occur in the class. A department that grants permission for a third or further subsequent attempt can add a student to the Wait List if they feel it is appropriate.
• The student meets class pre- and co-requisites, if any.
  • Overriding requirements will allow enrollment users to add a student to the Wait List; however, if HUB attempts to enroll them, they will not be added. Instead, they will remain on the Wait List, and the next eligible person will be enrolled.
  • If the current semester finishes and the student failed a course that was a prerequisite, or a student subsequently dropped a course that was a co-requisite, they will remain on the Wait List; if a space becomes available and they are no longer eligible, HUB will not add them to the class.
• The student is not already registered in another section of the class.
  • HUB will allow the student to join the Wait List when they are already enrolled in another section, but they will never be moved into the wait-listed section if a space becomes available. In some situations, students may use Swap to Wait List a different section of the same course.
• The student does not have a time conflict with another course in their schedule.
  • If the student has an existing class on their schedule with a time conflict with the wait-listed course, they will not be able to be added to the class. HUB will allow them to join the Wait List for a course with a time conflict, but it will not enroll them in the class. It is the student’s responsibility to ensure in advance that this does not occur. A student may use the Swap feature to tell HUB to add the Wait List class and drop the other class if a space becomes available.
• The student will not exceed maximum term unit limits.
  • Each student is permitted to Wait List the following:
    
    • Fall, spring and summer terms: up to 8 credit hours.
    • Winter term: up to 4 credit hours.
  • When a student adds a class to the Wait List, it does not count towards the limit. If a space becomes available and enrollment would result in exceeding the limit, HUB will not add them to the class. A student may use the swap feature to tell HUB to add the Wait List class and drop another class if a space becomes available.
  • If a student attempts to Wait List a course in which they would exceed the Wait List credits for a term, they will not be able to be added to the Wait List.

Checking the box will have no effect on registration when a class has seats available or when a class is not accepting a Wait List. It will only impact courses which are currently accepting a Wait List.

Students remove themselves from the Wait List by dropping the class in HUB just like they would drop any other course. Since the Wait List process runs through the end of drop/add, it is imperative that students remove themselves from wait-listed courses they are no longer interested in. If a student is no longer interested in being on a Wait List, it is the student’s responsibility to drop the course.

If a student does not remove themselves from the Wait List and the result is enrollment in a course, they must drop the course before the end of drop/add; otherwise, they will be responsible for any financial and academic impacts.

Wait List position number 1 does not guarantee enrollment in the class. Students remain on the Wait List, in their current position, but HUB checks their eligibility to enroll in the course. If they are not eligible to enroll due to conflicts, holds, etc., it bypasses them and assigns the next eligible student to the course. Students will have missed that opportunity to be enrolled. Students will be emailed daily if this occurs.

At that time, it is their responsibility to rectify the issue (if possible) or drop the wait-listed class. If they rectify the issue and another seat becomes available, HUB will try to enroll them in the class. If they remain on the Wait List and are not able to rectify the issue, they will continue to receive emails when they have been passed over until they drop the wait-listed course.

• If a student is not enrolled in any section of the course, and multiple sections have a Wait List, then they can Wait List in multiple sections. However, they will be enrolled in the first available section. Students cannot prioritize which section they get added to.
• If it is a single-component course (e.g., lecture only) and students are already enrolled in one section, they can Wait List a different section using Swap. If a space becomes available, they will be added to the new section and dropped from the old section. HUB will allow students to join the Wait List for a different section without using Swap; however, it will never be able to enroll them should a space open, so advise students to use Swap in this instance.
• In a multi-component course (e.g., lecture and recitation, lecture and lab, etc.):
  • Students cannot Wait List for a different recitation/lab that is associated with the same lecture.
  • However, if there is a different recitation/lab associated with a different lecture, then students can Wait List that set of lecture and recitation/lab.
  • For example, if they are enrolled in Lecture A and Recitation A1, they cannot Wait List Recitation A2, but can Wait List Lecture B and Recitation B1 if available.
  • This transaction can only be processed by students using Swap. Only students can use Swap. Faculty and staff should not use Swap.

There are a number of reasons students may not be able to be added to the class if a space becomes available, but were still able to join the Wait List.

If a class is full and accepts a Wait List, it will not reopen for general enrollment until there are no more students on the Wait List. Those who cannot be added stay on the Wait List indefinitely; however, they will be emailed daily informing them of the issue and asking them to either rectify the issue or drop themselves from the Wait List.

Other students will not be able to enroll directly into the class when this issue occurs; however, if they join the Wait List, they will be added to open seats when the Wait List process is run, as the system tries everyone on the Wait List until an eligible student is found to fill the open seat.

In nearly every instance, if a student cannot add themselves to the Wait List, any action from a department or an advisor will not result in them ever being added to the class by HUB, even if they are able to be placed on the Wait List. HUB does not carry through the advisor/enrollment user overrides when it attempts to move a student from the Wait List to the class. It is strongly encouraged that all additions to the Wait List are processed directly by the student using their own Student Center.

The only known override that works successfully with Wait List is the repeat code RDFR. This code is for departments to grant permission to a student to take a course for the third time or more. If an advisor/enrollment user inputs this repeat code in Quick Enroll when adding the student to the Wait List, they will be able to be added to the class if a seat becomes available.

Checking the “Closed Class” box will bypass the Wait List and add a student directly to the class. This is true whether the Wait List is full or not.

If the Wait List is completely full and you would like to add more students to the Wait List, the only way to do so is to change the Wait List capacity of the course and add spaces to the Wait List.

An advisor/enrollment user can only use Drop if Enroll to add a student to the Wait List of one course when they wish to drop a different course.

For example, in a multi-component course (e.g., lecture and recitation, lecture and lab, etc.):

• Students cannot Wait List for a different recitation/lab that is associated with the same lecture.
• However, if there is a different recitation/lab associated with a different lecture then students can Wait List that set of lecture and recitation/lab. 
• For example, if they are enrolled in Lecture A and Recitation A1, they cannot Wait List Recitation A2, but can Wait List Lecture B and Recitation B1 if available. Advisors must not use Swap for this process.

These actions are also useful for scenarios where a time conflict exists or if the student exceeds max term unit limits; they allow the student to keep the less-preferred class in their schedule and only drops them if they can be added to the other course successfully.

Each department will determine how many spaces to keep on their Wait List.

The Wait List is not infinite. A number of spaces must be specified when scheduling the course. If a Wait List becomes full, the class will appear as closed.

We suggest limiting your Wait List spots to 25% of the course's total enrollment. You do not want the number of spaces to be too low, however, as ineligible students may join the Wait List and take up spaces for eligible students. For small courses, we suggest a Wait List of 5 spaces, even if that is higher than 25%.

It is expected that most students will not be moved from the Wait List to being enrolled in the course. From a customer service standpoint, however, it is not good to have 100 students on the Wait List if only 3-4 of them get moved to the class, as most have a negative experience using Wait List then.

• If a department has enabled Wait List on a multiple-component course, a student can join the Wait List when just one component or both are accepting a Wait List.
• If a lecture is still open, but the recitation has a Wait List, the student will join the Wait List for both the lecture and the recitation.
• A student will not be enrolled in either section until a space is available in both.

You can use Wait List on courses with reserves caps, however it can be a little confusing to the student.

If there are only reserved seats available, the status in HUB shows as Open with Reserve, but if a student who is not eligible for a reserved seat tries to add the class they will not be able to enroll. They can, however, select the Add to Wait List if class is full option, at which point they will be added to the Wait List for a non-reserved seat. If a non-reserved space becomes available HUB will process eligible students from the Wait List to fill the space.

Wait List works best on single-component courses (e.g., lecture only).

Wait List does work on two-component courses (lecture and lab, lecture and recitation, etc.), but can be trickier to troubleshoot issues if they occur; you will need to have a Wait List for each component. The Wait List capacity of your largest component (e.g., lecture) should be greater than or equal to the sum of the Wait List capacity of all smaller components (e.g., recitation).

Wait List should not be used for any three-component courses (lecture, lab, recitation). The programming in HUB behind three-component courses has too many variables for Wait List to be effective.

The requisites coded into HUB should be clear and straightforward. If your department typically makes exceptions to the requisite policy, then none of those students who need exceptions will be able to be added to the class from the Wait List; a class like that would not be a good Wait List candidate.

You can use Wait List on courses with reserve capacities; however, Wait List is only for the non-reserved seats. If the non-reserved seats become full but there are still reserved seats available, the class shows as open with reserve, but students who do not meet the reserve requirements will be wait-listed.

Classes with circular co-requisites should not be enabled with Wait List. The system requires courses with co-requisites to be enrolled together, and Wait List cannot meet that requirement.

You can use Wait List on combined courses, but it will require the Scheduling Office in the Office of the Registrar to make some changes on their end to your combined class settings. Specifically, we will need to add a “combined course wait list capacity” to your combined courses in order for you to use Wait List with them. To have Wait List set up on your combined courses, submit a request through the Ticketing System.