Early Registration Extended

Early course registration for winter/spring and fall sessions has been extended from 10 to 15 business days. Early registration for summer has not changed. This change - recommended by the Academic Policies and Practices Task Force and approved by the Office of the Provost - will provide students with more time to schedule advising appointments. The change also gives advisors and collegiate partners more time to work together and make course adjustments to meet the needs of students. Less students are now released each day. Early Registration continues to be based on overall semester hours earned, however day and time assignments may be later than in previous sessions because the length of Early Registration has been extended.

About Early Registration

Early Registration is the time during the current session that students can enroll in future session courses. The Early Registration period for fall, winter, and spring is 15 business days, not including any university student breaks. Summer Early Registration is five days.  

Students’ day and time assignments are based on their overall earned hours. Overall earned hours include transfer credit and exam credit but does not include courses in progress that have not been graded. These assignments will be posted to MyUI on the home page approximately two weeks before Early Registration begins. 

The Office of the Registrar cannot make any exceptions to your assigned registration day/time unless you have had additional credits added to your record after your day and time was assigned. An example would be new transfer credits. 

Additional Information

  • All continuing students who are enrolled are expected to register during scheduled Early Registration. However, students can register or change their registration after their assigned registration time up until 11:59 p.m. the day before the sixth day of fall and spring semester and up until 11:59 p.m. the day before the winter and summer sessions begin. 
  • Students should work on resolving any registration holds prior to their day/time assignment. The administrative contact information is listed next to each hold, under the students' registration day/time assignment on the home page of MyUI.
  • Maximum hours allowed for registration without your collegiate dean’s approval in fall and spring
    • Undergraduates - 18 
    • College of Engineering Undergraduates - 19 
    • Graduate students - 15 
  • Colleges of Dentistry, Law, Pharmacy, and the Carver College of Medicine begin registration at a time announced by their deans. 
  • Professional MBA students follow a different early registration schedule as determined by the Graduate Management Program. Please visit the Iowa MBA registration page for registration and contact information. 
  • Some students may have a priority registration date and time assigned based on factors other than hours earned.

Winter/Spring 

Day Student Groups/Overall Earned Hours
Day 1 - 4 Graduate/Professional students or undergraduate students with 90 or more overall earned hours
Day 5 - 8 Undergraduate students with 60-89 overall earned hours and priority registration
Day 9 - 14 Undergraduate students with 0-59 overall earned hours
Day 15 Non-degree students

Summer

Day Student Groups/Overall Earned Hours
Day 1 Graduate/Professional students or undergraduate students with 90 or more overall earned hours
Day 2 Undergraduate students with 70-89 overall earned hours and priority registration
Day 3 Undergraduate students with 30-69 overall earned hours
Day 4 Undergraduate students with 0-29 overall earned hours
Day 5 Non-degree students

Fall

Day Student Groups/Overall Earned Hours
Day 1 - 4 Graduate/Professional students or undergraduate students with 90 or more overall earned hours
Day 5 - 8 Undergraduate students with 70-89 overall earned hours and priority registration
Day 9 - 14 Undergraduate students with 12-69 overall earned hours
Day 15 Undergraduate student with 0-11 overall earned hours and non-degree students