Registration and Course Changes

At the beginning of each term students must check-in online using DartHub. Students may begin check-in the day before classes begin and have until the end of the third day of class to complete check-in. This process requires the on-line verification/update of the student’s local address, emergency information, confirmation of missing student information, an enrollment commitment for the term, and other important information. The check-in process indicates any holds that may have been placed due to failure to settle the tuition bill or Dartmouth Card account or meet certain other College requirements. If holds exist, information is provided to indicate where and how to remove the holds. (Note: In-person processes to remove holds must be recorded during regular office hours, M-F, 8am-4pm, and may require completion earlier than the published deadline date. All online transactions must be completed before midnight of the published deadline date.)

A fifty-dollar charge will be made for check-in after the deadline. Students may submit a petition to Campus Billing and DartCard Services for a fee waiver only if supporting documentation from the office who initiated the hold is provided. (Petitions without supporting documentation will not be considered.) Any student scheduled to be in residence who has not completed the check-in procedure ten calendar days after the term begins is subject to administrative withdrawal from college immediately thereafter. Any student whose enrollment pattern calls for a residence term (R), but whose plans change, should be sure to change the pattern by the end of the ten days.

Beginning with the first day of classes, students are eligible to change courses online using DartHub. Each term a five-day period is available for the adding, dropping, or exchanging of courses or sections. Information about adding, dropping and exchanging courses using DartHub are on the Registrar’s website. During the second five class days of a term students may add or exchange courses only by securing the approval of the instructor of the intended new course(s). Students should note that the last day of this period is the tenth class day of the term, i.e., the final day to settle on a load of three or, if desired and allowable, two or four courses. Any student not officially enrolled at the end of the tenth day of classes in any term in at least two courses becomes liable for administrative withdrawal by the Dean of the College.

After this second five-day period a student may exchange courses only under certain conditions. They must obtain the written approval of the instructor of the intended new course, the written certification of the instructor of the course the student wishes to drop that he or she is not failing the course, and the written agreement of the Registrar to the overall change. Courses that are normally approved for exchange, per the Committee on Instruction, include section changes, those where the subject matter is essentially the same, where there was inappropriate placement within the same department/program (for example language courses), thesis and independent study courses, or courses that may be offered with or without laboratories. Completely unrelated courses and those exchanged late in the term are not normally approved.

On May 29, 1995, the Faculty approved changes in procedures for dropping or withdrawing from courses. These procedures took effect with the 1995 Summer term.

Each term is divided into three parts with regard to the rules and procedures governing course drops and withdrawals. The specific dates involved appear in the Academic Calendar. As the various deadlines are regulated by faculty policy and are consistently administered, students should be careful to be aware of them each term.

During the first ten class days of a term, as indicated above, students may drop courses as they please. Courses dropped in this period will not appear on the transcript. For students taking four courses, this period extends to the end of the sixth week.

After this period, and until ten class days before the last class day of the term, students may withdraw from a course at their own discretion. They must, as a courtesy, notify their instructor of their intention, submit the withdrawal to the Office of the Registrar on or before the withdrawal deadline. The course remains on the student’s transcript with the notation W for Withdrew. First-year students must also obtain the signature of one of the Deans of Undergraduate Students. Neither the instructor nor dean has the authority to forbid the withdrawal (excepting the case of first-year Writing and first-year seminar courses). Note:  Requests to remove a W from the transcript will not be considered.

During the last ten days of classes in the term until the final examination begins, students must petition to withdraw from a course. Such petitions must be accompanied by a written response from the instructor in the course, and confirmation that the student has discussed the matter with one of the Deans of Undergraduate Students. It will be expected that almost none of these petitions will be approved except in the most extreme medical or other circumstances, arising after the deadline. Petitions are reviewed and approved or denied by a committee that meets weekly during this period. Students whose petitions are denied may appeal to the COS Subcommittee. Once the final examination period has begun, it will be assumed that students intend to complete their courses, and no course withdrawal requests will be accepted.

It is important to note that no student may have more than three terms in which he or she is enrolled in only two courses (courses from which the student has withdrawn do not count toward the course load). A student may never be enrolled in just one course.

At any time during a term, students may view their course schedule on DartHub to confirm the courses in which they are officially enrolled, as well as classrooms and instructors. Checking this source in the first two weeks of the term is strongly advised to ensure that course elections officially on file match the student’s intentions.