Dear Students,
We are writing to make you aware of an important and temporary change to Spring 2025 course registration here at calendar year-end.
Beginning at 12:00 p.m. on Friday, December 20th, students will not be able to register for courses off of an ESTHER waitlist. This means that if you are next on the waitlist and a seat becomes available, you will not be able to immediately register for that open seat. That seat, however, will be held for you, and you will be notified on Thursday, January 2nd, that you have a 24-hour window to register for the course. All registration off of waitlists will return to normal around 10:00 a.m. on Thursday, January 2nd.
Why are we making this change?
We know that many of you will be traveling over the next several weeks and spending time with family and friends getting important rest before the Spring semester begins. We've found that the 24-hour waitlist registration window has occasionally conflicted with student plans resulting in students losing the ability to register for a course in which they were next on the waitlist. This has been particularly true the week between the Christmas and New Year's Day holidays. Additionally, Rice staff will be observing two holidays and Winter Recess for the period of December 24th to January 1st, so there would be limited staff to assist you should you run into a registration issue inside a registration window.
Will I lose my spot on a course’s ESTHER waitlist?
No, all waitlists are and will be preserved. We are only pausing registration off of ESTHER waitlists from Friday, December 20th through Thursday, January 2nd. This means that if you are the first student on the waitlist and a student in the class drops, that seat will remain open and held for you. On January 2nd, you will receive an email stating that your 24-hour registration window has begun, and you will need to take action during that window to register for the course.
Please note that during this brief timeframe, it may look like there are "open" seats in the class when you look at the course schedule; however, if there are students on the waitlist, those seats are reserved for those waitlisted students.
Thank you, and we wish you a restful Winter Recess!
