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Pre-Registration Guide

Access advisor tools and workflows, and find answers to frequently asked questions to help you support students through pre-registration.

Definition of Terms 

Use these definitions to understand key terms used throughout the pre-registration process. 

Term and Definition

Advisor Course Recommendation Form (Advisor CRF)

A form in UniTime advisors use to submit a prioritized list of courses and alternates for a student. Once submitted, the Advisor CRF auto-populates the student’s Course Request Form. 

Term and Definition

Course Request Form (CRF)

A form in UniTime that students use to submit a prioritized list of courses and alternates. Requests feed into an optimization algorithm that builds schedules while balancing student demand, space constraints and fairness across the student body.

Term and Definition

Vital Course

A course that must be taken in the upcoming semester for any major on the student’s record for degree progression, and there are three or fewer classes to choose from in order to meet the degree requirement.

Term and Definition

Extended Drop/Add

A request to change a registration that may include dropping and/or adding course sections. Extended drop/add requests require advisor approval; instructors must be notified of all drops and must approve all adds. At certain points in the semester, departmental designees may also need to approve changes.

Term and Definition

Open Registration

The period after batch pre-registration when all students can modify their schedules using a time ticket and PIN.

Term and Definition

Pre-registration Simulations

Once the schedule of classes is published each semester, UniTime runs nightly simulations in the Batch Solver Dashboard. Simulations provide enrollment projections and assist in problem-solving before the final batch run.

Term and Definition

Pre-registration/ Batch Registration

The process undergraduate students use to submit course requests in UniTime. An optimization algorithm is then applied to minimize conflicts, accommodate constraints and build the most equitable schedules across the student body.

Term and Definition

Time ticket/ PIN

A time ticket is an assigned window when a student can enroll or modify courses for a term. A six-digit personal identification number (PIN) grants access to the Scheduling Assistant during open registration. Graduate and professional students use this process to register rather than complete pre-registration.

Advisor Course Recommendation Form
(Advisor CRF) 

The Advisor CRF in UniTime allows you to capture and submit a recommended course schedule during advising appointments. Once submitted, it auto-populates the student’s Course Request Form (CRF), reducing data entry errors and giving students a transparent view of their advisor’s recommendations. 

Key Features 

  • Auto-populates the student’s CRF once submitted 
  • Allows you to assign or update the student’s pre-registration status window in one step 
  • Automatically calculates credit hour ranges based on courses entered 
  • Generates a PDF with course schedule, advisor and student signature lines, and a date/time stamp 
  • You’re able to email the CRF to the student directly from UniTime 
  • Previous Notes allow you to quickly reuse notes from prior advising sessions, loading the most recent 50 unique notes from the current semester. Selecting a prior note replaces the standard pre-loaded note — if you want both, include your custom note at the beginning or end of the standard note. The Notes button appears only after you have advised at least one student and entered Additional Notes. 

CRF Warning Confirmations 

Before submitting the Advisor CRF, you’ll see pop-up messages about potential course issues. These are the same messages the student sees when submitting their CRF. They include: 

  • One-to-one course conflicts 
  • No alternative course provided 
  • High-priority free time conflicts 

A second pop-up displays registration errors, including instructor and departmental permissions, field-of-study or college restrictions, student-level restrictions and max credit limit issues. Addressing errors at this stage — especially for courses in your home department or college — may prevent the need for a later workflow override. 

Personal Identification Number (PIN) Updates 

An undergraduate student’s personal identification number (PIN) is pre-populated in the Advisor CRF. Advisors control whether the PIN is visible to the student. After the Advisor CRF is submitted, the PIN also populates in the student’s Course Request Form and in the Scheduling Assistant. If a saved Previous Note contains a PIN, it will automatically update to the current student’s PIN. 

No Substitutions (No Subs) 

Use No Substitutions (No Subs) with Substitute Course Requests to prevent specific substitutes from being used for certain priority lines. This is a workaround for UniTime’s limitation of not allowing the same course to appear multiple times as an alternative. Students cannot edit No Subs — it’s managed by advisors only. 

Note: Credit totals may differ between the Advisor CRF (Priority Credit) and the Student CRF (Requested Credit). Substitutes count toward the student’s requested credits in nightly simulations, which may increase max credit override requests. 

How to Assign a Pre-registration Status Window 

Undergraduate students must be assigned to a status window before they can submit course requests in UniTime. Select the correct term in UniTime. There are two ways to assign a status window. 

  • Select Online Scheduling Dashboard and choose My Students in the filter. 
  • Use the circle icon to select individual students or double click the circle to assign in bulk. 
  • Choose the appropriate status window. 

  • Choose Advisor Course Recommendations and enter the student’s name or Purdue ID (PUID).
  • Select the appropriate term.  
  • From the student’s status window, continue filling out the Advisor CRF. 

Note: This option allows individual assignment only — it does not support bulk assignment.

Review Time Ticket Windows

stay-on-track

Visit Pre-registration Calendars and Dates for current timelines and future planning.

Explore Pre-Registration Timelines

University Core Curriculum Shortcut Codes 

Use the following shortcut codes in the Advisor CRF or Student CRF to find courses that fulfill university core curriculum (UCC) requirements. 

CodeRequirement 
UC01 Written communication 
UC02 Information literacy 
UC03 Oral communication 
UC04 Science 
UC05 Humanities 
UC06 Behavioral and social sciences 
UC07 Quantitative reasoning 
UC08 Science, technology and society 
UC09 Artificial intelligence (AI) 

As an alternative, use the magnifying glass icon in Advisor Course Recommendations to search by keyword. Enter the keyword below to return all courses in that UCC category. 

KeywordReturns
Writ All written communication courses 
Oral All oral communication courses 
Comm Both written and oral communication 
Beha All behavioral and social sciences courses 
Info All information literacy courses 
Quan All quantitative reasoning courses 
Huma All humanities courses 
Techn All science, technology and society courses 
Science All science courses 
AI Working Competency All AI courses 

Override Workflow During Pre-registration 

During pre-registration batch simulations, only approved override requests are factored into results. Use the table below to decide how to respond to each request. For overrides during open registration, review Registration Troubleshooting.

ActionUsed in Batch Simulations (Yes or No)When to Use
Approve Yes Student meets the override requirement. Allows the solver to attempt to place the student during batch simulations. 
Deny No Student doesn’t or won’t meet the override requirement (except prerequisite). Prerequisite overrides may only be denied if the departmental designee is 100% certain the student won’t meet the requisite. Student is prompted to remove the course before saving new CRF changes. 
Defer No Waiting for AP credit, transfer credit or other information to post. Treated the same as Deny during simulations — student won’t receive a seat. 
No Action No Treated the same as Deny during simulations. 

Because the solver no longer assumes success, courses with pending, deferred or no-action overrides will not appear in the batch dashboard results. To locate these requests, use either: 

  • Registration Workflow: Look up by student or course 
  • Online Scheduling Dashboard: Search by course or student 

Can a student add a note when requesting an override? 

Yes. The student can add a note and then select Request Overrides and submit. 

Can a student edit their note after it’s been saved? 

Yes. The student can select the note in the Course Request Form or the blue clock icon to edit. 

Where does the override notification come from? 

The departmental designee is notified by email with a link to their Special Registration Workflow Request dashboard, where they can approve, deny or defer the request. 

What happens if the departmental designee doesn’t act on a request? 

If no action is taken by 4 p.m. the next business day, the request is escalated to our office. If the departmental designee responds within the timeframe, nothing goes to the Registrar. 

How does the departmental designee add notes to a deferral? 

Enter free-form comments in the text box next to the date, or select a predefined deferral reason from the dropdown. 

Will there be a notification when a deferred request is due? 

When the departmental designee selects Defer, they must also select a date. After that date passes, the request is considered past due and escalated to our office. The departmental designee can still view and process the request before or after the defer date. 

If a prerequisite override isn’t approved, how will the student find out? 

The student will see the status on their Course Request Form. A red X on the course indicates the approval was denied. 

How will students be notified about an override decision? 

Students are notified via their Purdue email. The email directs them back to the Course Request Form to review any errors.

Dashboard Resources

Access the Batch Scheduling Dashboard and Online Scheduling Dashboard through UniTime. Confirm the correct term and role are selected before running any reports or filters. 

Once nightly simulations begin, check the Batch Scheduling Dashboard regularly to catch issues before the CRF closes. Key issues to check include: 

  1. Not assigned (critical and overall): Filter My Students with Not Assigned Vital and Not Assigned to find students missing courses, especially vital ones. 
  2. Low credit hours: Compare Advised Credit, Request Credit and Enrollment Credit (last night’s simulation) to check whether the student is trending full-time. Common causes include: no space, no alternatives, time conflicts or not available (often requires waiting until open registration). If a course has zero space, that’s acceptable for demand tracking but confirm at least one alternative is listed. 
  3. Reading the fraction columns: Treat the denominator as the column header and the numerator as the filtered group. For example: ‘Out of the [denominator], [numerator] are [filter].’ Sort by Not Enrolled (ascending) to surface the biggest issues first. 

In UniTime, select Online Scheduling Dashboard. Confirm correct term and role. 

  • In the filter, select My Students, Not Set and Not Assigned to find students who haven’t yet registered. 
  • Select the Students tab and sort by Advised Credit or Missing Courses. 
  • Compare Advised Credit and Missing Courses for individual students to review details about missing critical courses. 

Use the inverted caret to select filters such as College or Area. The PREREG filter is listed as Pre-registration Continuing. 

  • Select the Students tab and sort by Requested Credit (descending). Blank indicates no action taken. 

Delivery mode can be found in the Batch Dashboard, Online Dashboard, Student CRF and Advisor CRF. 

  • Use the magnifying glass (Advisor CRF): Enter the course, select the magnifying glass and use the bottom section to preference a specific section or instructional method. Note: A ‘Traditional’ section may still have an instructional mode of SYNC ONLINE — hover or review notes for additional details. 
  • Dashboard quick view: In the Online or Batch Scheduling Dashboard, go to the Enrollments tab and expand the subject (+) to see section information. 
  • Important: PSY 20000DIST is a separate course from PSY 20000. Don’t list both on separate priority lines — use one as an alternative to the other. 

While Boiler Connect is the authoritative source for capturing student communication, you can also send email directly from the Online Scheduling Dashboard. 

  • Enter the student’s PUID in the filter line and search. 
  • On the Students tab, check the box to the left of the External ID and select the icon to the left of it. 
  • Choose send email and fill out the form. You can include course requests or class schedules. 
  • When sending, the email will come from your @purdue.edu account. 

Pre-registration Reports 

Run reports in UniTime by navigating to Students followed by Reports. Confirm the correct term and role before running. 

Not Submitted Student CRF 

This report pulls students with an empty CRF and those with only administratively pre-loaded courses, such as Learning Communities. Use it to ensure all students complete the registration loop. 

  • In UniTime, select Students followed by Reports. 
  • Choose Not Submitted Student CRF. This report allows you to search any student, not just your own advisees. 
  • Execute and sort by the Status column to organize results. Export to Excel as needed. 

Free Time Requests 

Use this report to find students who have placed free time requests on their CRF. The Priority column shows the highest priority at which free time was requested. The High column flags when free time is requested above a course. Select any row for more details about that student. 

  • In UniTime, select Students followed by Reports. 
  • Select PREREG: Students with Free Time Requests. 
  • Enter your (the advisor’s) name and execute. Export to Excel as needed. 

Section-level Restrictions

Use myPurdue to look up restrictions at the section level. 

  • Advisors and schedule deputies: From the Advising tab, select Course Catalog Resources
  • Students: From the Registration tab, select Course Catalog Resources
  • Select the term and subject, then review results by course reference number (CRN). 

What does a student need before completing their course request? 

  • Meet with you and discuss course priorities and alternates. 
  • Confirm appropriate overrides to request. 
  • Remove any holds. 
  • Meet with the Disability Resource Center, if applicable, to ensure accommodations are in place. 

What will a student see if the pre-registration window isn’t open? 

A warning box will appear: ‘You are not allowed to make any changes at the moment. Please contact your advisor if you need to make a change.’

How do I check my student’s pre-registration course request? 

Go to the Batch Dashboard to check the status of their course selections. 

How can a student check prerequisites for a course? 

Select the magnifying glass icon to search for the course, then scroll to the Details tab where prerequisites are displayed. 

What if dual or transfer credit isn’t loaded and the student needs an override? 

You’ll need an official or unofficial copy of the transcript to provide an override. Once in place, the student may attempt to request the course. Depending on timing, it may take two nightly processing cycles to clear in the workflow. 

Will a student receive an error if two requested courses meet at the same time? 

Not necessarily — students can ignore the message and still include both on the form, but they will only be registered for one. Some courses (such as BAND 11000) allow students to miss a prescribed number of class meetings. Students should consult their instructor. 

Why is the student receiving an error about fewer than 15 credit hours? 

Students are expected to register for a minimum of 15 credits per semester to stay on track for a four-year degree. Students can save their CRF with fewer than 15 credits, though it’s not recommended. 

Will a student receive an error for requesting more than 18 credit hours? 

  • No, not if the advisor entered a max credit override during the advising session via the myPurdue max credit override option. 
  • Yes, an error will generate if no override was entered proactively. The student can submit an override request through their CRF, which you can then approve or deny. 

What if a student doesn’t get a required high-priority course? 

The algorithm maximizes student choices, but a student cannot be registered in a course if: 

  • The course is already full (consult with the student about whether waitlisting is an option)
  • There is a time conflict with another scheduled course
  • The student doesn’t meet the prerequisites or restrictions for the course

What if the class times the student received aren’t what they wanted? 

The university used the CRF and alternatives to create the most optimal schedule. Advise the student on whether making a change is recommended.

Note: Free time requests are intended for students who cannot be scheduled during certain periods due to work, childcare, disability or similar circumstances. Placing free time at a high priority may prevent the student from receiving a lower-priority required course. 

When will a student receive their course schedule? 

They’ll receive an email when their schedule is final and available to view. 

What if the student has no courses scheduled? 

If no courses are scheduled, then the student didn’t submit a CRF within their status window. They should contact you for next steps. If a PIN was provided, they may register for classes once their time ticket opens. Students may view their time ticket in myPurdue under Registration Status. 

Can a student rearrange their schedule after batch? 

Possibly, but at their own risk. The university optimizes all available space, so open seats will be limited. Students should consult with you before making changes. 

How long does a student have to make schedule changes? 

Refer to the Add/Drop Calendars and select the appropriate term. 

Do students need to select Learning Community courses during pre-registration?  

No. Learning Community courses are pre-loaded into the student’s CRF — the student doesn’t need to select them manually. If a student has questions about their Learning Community schedule, direct them to the Learning Communities office at learningcommunities@purdue.edu or (765) 494-5785. 

What if a student no longer wants to remain in their Learning Community?  

Direct the student to contact the Learning Communities office as early as possible by emailing learningcommunities@purdue.edu or phoning (765) 494-5785. Withdrawal from a Learning Community may affect the student’s course schedule and housing assignment.

For additional information and guidance with pre-registration, please contact our team.

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Last modified: July 27, 2026

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