ECEE Course Enrollment Policies & Procedures

We encourage you to read our specific departmental guidelines below to best understand and prepare for enrollment in any ECEE courses.  

Questions regarding enrollment or other issues should be directed to ecee-enroll@colorado.edu.

Adding a Class

Reserve caps are utilized to ensure that EE, ECE, and CE undergraduate majors and ECE graduate students have priority enrollment access to their required courses.  

ECEE students should register as soon as possible when their enrollment window opens to be sure they have a seat in classes they need to stay on track for graduation. We highly encourage ECEE students to complete enrollment prior to reserve caps expiring.  Majors who do not enroll in a timely manner may not receive priority or may not receive a seat depending upon course demand. 

Please check classes.colorado.edu for the reserve dates for a given semester for each specific class you may be interested in. On classes.colorado.edu, this appears as messaging under the “Maximum Enrollment” line that states what majors are prioritized until a specific date. "Class Notes" may include more information.  

Non-majors: It is possible to waitlist for non-lab-based ECEE courses before the reserve cap lifts. For courses with labs, waitlisting isn't possible until after the reserve cap lifts. If the course does not have a waitlist option, be sure to set a calendar reminder to enroll when the reserve cap expires. 

Please see the CU Boulder course catalog for detailed information about course requisites (prerequisites and co-requisites). Requisites for ECEE classes are strictly enforced. 

Students wanting to use transfer credit to satisfy prerequisites are responsible for having their transcripts sent to the campus admissions office as early as possible to initiate the transfer credit evaluation.   

See the Enrollment Help Form or Course Request Form sections for information regarding override requests.  

Classes that include a lab component require enrollment in both the lecture and lab sections. If there are open seats in the lecture but you waitlist for a full lab section you will be waitlisted for the class as a whole. It is not possible to be enrolled in one section without the other. Please keep this in mind during registration so you do not end up on a waitlist when there are open seats in another section.   

Students on the waitlist for a class might have access to that class in Canvas; however, that does not equate to being enrolled in the class. Always refer to your course schedule in your Buff Portal for official enrollment status, and remember that being on a waitlist is not the same as being enrolled (nor does it guarantee you will get into the class). 

Waitlists 

While we do our best to accommodate waitlisted students, There is never a guarantee of getting into a waitlisted class. Students on a waitlist should always have a backup plan or be in touch with their academic advisors to discuss other options. You are encouraged to enroll in your backup classes ahead of the add deadline, then drop the back-up if you are able to get into the first choice or you can enroll in your back-up class using a Drop if Enrolled. Instructions: Set Up Drop If Enrolled | Office of the Registrar | University of Colorado Boulder. 

All ECEN undergraduate classes have resequenced waitlists. This means ECEE majors have priority (seniors, then juniors, etc.), then the waitlist is ordered chronologically. This resequencing can affect your waitlist position. If you see your waitlist position change in an unexpected way, this is most likely the reason. This is another reason students should not assume that they will get into waitlisted classes. 

Waitlists across campus are purged after close of business on the Monday after census date (the third Friday of the Fall/Spring semester, this date varies for summer terms; please refer to the Summer Session calendar). Being purged from a waitlist is not the same as being dropped from a class; if you were on a waitlist, you weren't enrolled (even if you have had Canvas access, have been attending class, and have been doing the work). Please see the Registrar’s website regarding waitlists. 

Note: ECEE does not add students to courses following the census date. Waitlists are purged after that. Students who are still on the waitlist after census date (before purge) should stop attending the waitlisted class - you will not be enrolled after census. However, don't drop yourself from the waitlist. Staying on the waitlist through the waitlist purge makes you eligible for Course Reservation (see below).

Course Reservation allows eligible students to enroll in classes for which they were waitlisted (and did not get in) during the previous semester. There is action required on your part to make this happen. It does not happen automatically. Please see the Registrar's Course Reservation page for more information.   

Dropping a Course

Students may drop a class via Buff Portal during the first 10 weeks of each semester. Drops after the third week receive a W grade and no refunds. Please refer to https://www.colorado.edu/registrar/students/calendar for specific dates. 

Students are urged to use caution when dropping a class and to contact their advisor before taking this action. Dropping a class can affect full-time student status, financial aid, eligibility for athletics and other extracurriculars, and progress toward degree requirements. There is also no guarantee that the student will be able to get back into this or any other course. 

Forms

We encourage students to enroll as soon as your individual window opens so we can navigate any issues with as much time as possible to attempt to resolve them. 

ECEE undergraduate majors taking undergraduate-level ECEN courses should fill out this form: https://forms.gle/dwjpfceP5dUAxdedA for enrollment assistance. This form assists with issues such as: 

  • Enrollment error messages; 
  • Uploading petitions related to missing prerequisites; 
  • Uploading degree audits related to transfer credits fulfilling prerequisites; 
  • Written permission being uploaded for time conflicts; 
  • Waitlist issues related to a required course. 

Students should fill out this form as soon as they realize there is an enrollment issue.  

Use these forms if you are unable to access course enrollment for an ECEE undergraduate or graduate-level course.  

Please Note: Course Request Forms may provide permissions to access enrollment, however, they do not guarantee a seat. Students who receive permissions are responsible for enrolling/waitlisting for their needed courses. 

This form is for non-ECEE-major students and/or ECEE minors and is solely for ECEN courses numbered 4000-or lower.  

Only submit the ECEE Course Request Form if: 

  • You are missing a listed prerequisite but have an approved substitution (i.e. MCEN 3017 for ECEN 2250); 

  • If you have an approved petition you can upload; 

  • If you have an error preventing you from joining the waitlist of courses with eligible waitlists. 

Please do not submit a Course Request Form if you are able to waitlist or just need to wait for Reserve Caps to end. These submissions will not be reviewed.  

This form may be used by ECEE graduate and BAM students, non-ECEE graduate students, ECEE undergraduate students, non-ECEE undergraduate students for ECEN graduate-level courses numbered 5000-or higher.  

  • All ECEE graduate students & active BAM students will receive priority enrollment over all other submissions until we are best able to determine that all graduate students who need the course for degree requirements have been able to acquire a seat. 
  • If the course has an undergraduate section, we encourage ECEE undergraduate students to enroll in that section while we determine if a graduate seat is possible. 

  • If a student wishes to swap from the undergraduate to a graduate-level section of the same course, requests must go through the graduate-level course request form. Many graduate courses have specific subplan or area requirements, and the courses are prioritizing subsets of students that undergraduate sections do not have restrictions to (i.e. ECEN 3730 and ECEN 5730), so additional review is needed.  

Switching Sections of a Class 

Switching or swapping sections of the same class can only be done if there is an open seat in the section you are moving into. 

Please Note: ECEE lectures that have a lab are linked together as one enrollment. If you try to switch labs, it is the same as dropping the lecture and your current lab, then re-enrolling for the lecture and a new lab. If you want to be enrolled in the course, make sure the lab you are switching to has open seats. 

Even if you were already enrolled in the course, switching to a lab that is full will drop you from the class and put you on the waitlist. Please check seat availability carefully; once you drop (or accidentally swap to a full section and want your previous spot back), there is no guarantee that department staff will be able to help you get that seat again. A student from the waitlist might have rolled in to the spot you vacated.   

Students can switch or swap sections of a class via Buff Portal through the regular campus add deadline. Please refer to https://www.colorado.edu/registrar/students/calendar for specific dates. 

After the add deadline, but at least 2 days before the drop deadline, students hoping to switch sections of the same course can contact ecee-enroll@colorado.edu with this request.  There must be an open seat in the new section. Switching from undergraduate to graduate sections requires professor approval, which must be included in the email to ecee-enroll@colorado.edu along with the student's 9-digit student ID number. 

Students may only switch from one section to another section one time.  

Requests submitted within 2 days of the drop deadline are not guaranteed to be processed.  

Deadlines 

The ECEE department strictly enforces registration deadlines. 

Students should finalize their schedules by the appropriate add/drop deadlines (https://www.colorado.edu/registrar/students/calendar/add-drop) to avoid any issues with your schedule or completion of degree requirements.   

Per department policy, we do not permit students to add courses, or to swap between sections of courses (undergraduate to graduate or vice versa, etc.), after the semester census date. Students who are not enrolled in a course by the census date should stop attending the waitlisted class and consider the Course Reservation program (see above). 

Students who do not get into a waitlisted class by the add deadline should contact their academic advisor to discuss their options. 

Registration is suspended for all continuing students during the summer in order to allow incoming students to register during New Student Welcome. Continuing students can access registration (add/drop) again in mid-August.