Course Registration
Student Registration Experience Guide
See below for additional information to help you along your registration journey.
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General Guidelines | Register in Courses and Manage Your Schedule | View and Pay Your Fees | FAQ
General Guidelines for Enrolment Appointment Times
View your enrolment appointment time in Bear Tracks.
- “Manage Classes > My Enrollment Date;” or
- “My Schedule Builder > Enrollment Appointment” (displayed under each term when you first access to the tool)
Enrolment appointment times do not change once assigned for changes in registration unless the transfer credit granted is incorrect.
Ensure any transfer credit you have previously received is accurate by generating an unofficial transcript in Bear Tracks.
- If there are errors in your transfer credit assessment, first contact your faculty to correct the issue.
- After you speak with your faculty, contact the Student Service Centre to confirm your registration date is accurate.
All times indicated are Mountain Standard Time (MT), local time in Edmonton.
Undergraduate and Graduate Registration Access
Mid-February
Spring and Summer registration access; all programs, all years. Spring and Summer registration dates exist in the Academic Schedule of the current University Calendar.
Early March
Students begin building their schedules in My Schedule Builder in Bear Tracks. Enrolment appointment date is visible in Bear Tracks via “My Schedule Builder” and “Manage Classes” tiles.
End of March
Advanced registration period opens for students continuing in the same program.
Students who have completed more credits (therefore are closer to degree completion) who are continuing in their same program have priority registration access to support timely program completion.
- Withdrawing, failing or taking fewer courses in a term may result in you having a later registration date than students who have successfully completed the maximum courseload per term.
The majority of students can begin registering at 7 a.m. on their enrolment appointment date (unless otherwise indicated)
- On your enrolment appointment date ONLY: Priority access to all features in Bear Tracks, including “My Schedule Builder,” between 6 - 8 a.m.
Between 6 - 7 a.m., log in and prepare to register.
If you attempt to register between 6 - 8 a.m. MST on a date other than your enrolment appointment date, an error message will display instructing you to log on after 8 a.m.
Early April and beyond
Open access to register; all programs, all years.
Students who are new to the University of Alberta or students reapplying after taking more than 12 months off — accept offer and pay deposit early (if applicable):
- Deposits made through Bear Tracks can take several business days to clear; however, new students paying directly through Launchpad is faster.
- Registration access takes two business days to enable after an offer is accepted and the deposit is paid and posted to Launchpad (this automated process enables registration access).
Continuing Education Registration Access
Mid-May
Fall / Winter registration opens
Mid-October
Spring / Summer registration opens
How to Register in Courses and Manage Your Schedule
The basic steps for building your class schedule and registering are:
- Review your program information and requirements.
- If you have been admitted to a new program, or more than one program, ensure that you are active in the correct program for the upcoming terms. Validate your current program using the Academic Records > Academic Information page in Bear Tracks. If you haven’t already initiated your program change to your new program use the Manage Classes > Change Program page in Bear Tracks. My Schedule Builder will also reference your active program for the upcoming terms.
- Search for courses and build your schedule. Add classes to your cart and validate your schedule prior to your enrolment date.
- Finalize your registration and manage your classes; add, swap and drop/withdraw using “My Schedule Builder” or “Manage Classes” in Bear Tracks where appropriate.
- It is recommended you use “Manage Classes” to complete your registration on your enrolment date.
You can visit the Student Registration Experience Guide for step-by-step instructions on how to build your class schedule, register and manage your schedule.
View and Pay Your Fees
After registration, the next steps include viewing and paying your fees. You can view your fee assessment and current balance in Bear Tracks, under the “Financial Account” tile. Note: Your fee assessment only reflects the costs associated with your courses and does not necessarily reflect your balance or any payments that have been made.
You will receive an email notification when your fee assessment is available. Fee assessments are usually released in July for Fall and Winter terms, and in March for Spring and Summer terms.
The deadline to pay your fees for the upcoming term(s) will be indicated in Bear Tracks. Failure to pay on time will result in late payment penalty charges.
Tuition fees can be paid through Bear Tracks or via online bank transfer. For a complete list of payment options, see the Payment Options webpage.
Need help?
- See Registration and Courses for additional information related to registration.
- Incoming first year students should reference Registration 101 for workshops, modules and tip sheets.
- Contact the Student Service Centre if you have questions about how to register.
- Contact an advisor in your faculty or department for academic advising specific to your program if you are a current student. Prospective students can book appointments on the Prospective Student Advising page.
- Report an issue if you are experiencing system related issues.
FAQ
Log into Bear Tracks using your CCID. After logging in, select the "My Schedule Builder" tile.
You can see your enrolment dates by going to the “Manage Classes” tile and selecting “My Enrollment Dates” in Bear Tracks. Select a term to view to the enrollment date for that term.
You can also view your enrolment dates through the “My Schedule Builder” tile in Bear Tracks. A list of terms (i.e., Fall 2025, Winter 2026, Spring 2026, Summer 2026) will be displayed when you first enter My Schedule Builder. Enrolment date information is displayed under each term with details related to your specific enrolment appointment date (i.e., the date you can begin registering) and the open enrolment date for the term (i.e., the date that open access to registration begins for all programs and years of study).
- Enrolment Appointment: the date and time you can enrol in classes for the given term(s) based on your program and year of study.
- Open Enrolment Date: when registration is open for all students regardless of program or year of study (course restrictions still apply).
Yes! My Schedule Builder is optimized so that you have a user-friendly mobile experience.
Once in My Schedule Builder, select the term you want to search classes for (i.e., Fall 2025). Make sure to set filters, including those housed in the “Advanced Search” to ensure your search corresponds to your preferences (i.e., location, faculty, course subject, etc.).
There are various ways to search for a course in the search bar in My Schedule Builder, including via course code, course name or instructor. Select the course from the search results.
See the Student Registration Experience Guide for more information. You can also check out this guide to learn more about the Shopping Cart function in the “Manage Classes” tile in Bear Tracks.
Once you have selected the courses you would like to build your schedule around, there may be a number of different schedule variations to choose from. You can narrow these results down and build a schedule that meets your needs by blocking off your personal time, pinning a class and sorting your schedule.
- Personal times
- Block off times where you’re unable to participate in classes by clicking and dragging on the schedule to block out those times. If all results overlap with your personal time indicated, the first result will have the least overlap.
- Pinning a class
- Click on a class section to pin it in your schedule. This essentially “locks” that class into your schedule and can help narrow down your search results.
- Sorting
- Sort your schedule options based on criteria like 'mornings' or 'most time off-campus' using the “Sort By” drop-down menu.
See the Student Registration Experience Guide for more information.
Courses with different sections offering variable topics can often be taken more than once within the same term as long as you register in different topics.
To add more than one section of the same course to your schedule:
- Look for the course using the “Select Course” search bar and go through the different sections to find your desired topic.
- The topic descriptions are displayed in the course legend area.
- Type the same course number again in the search bar and proceed with selecting the additional section(s)/topic(s).
In the My Schedule Builder tile in Bear Tracks, check course details to ensure you meet all prerequisites and restrictions. To view course details, select the down arrow next to the course title. Restriction information may be found in the ‘Description,’ ‘Requirements,’ ‘Subject Notes’ and/or ‘Class Remarks,’ so read the information carefully.
In My Schedule Builder, you can select the courses you want and need to take based on your degree requirements. Once you choose a course it will appear in your visual schedule. Once you have your preferred schedule, select "Get this schedule." This will allow you to proceed with adding the schedule to your cart, validating the schedule and registering on your enrolment date if there are no errors identified.
If registration is successful, you'll see "Added" in the results column. If unsuccessful, follow the instructions provided in the results column.
See the Student Registration Experience Guide for more information.
There are a few options you can take to ensure you block off the time you need: A) click and drag a time slot in your schedule to block off times dedicated to your personal schedule (i.e., work, sports, extracurricular activities, ect.), or B) manually add the personal times you want to block off at the bottom of your visual schedule using the “Personal Time” input bar.
Note: If the class schedule results you are shown conflict with the personal time you’ve blocked off, the first result offered will have the least overlap.
See the Student Registration Experience Guide for more information.
Yes — My Schedule Builder makes it easy for you to find a schedule that works for you! To see different schedule options, you’ll need to locate the visual schedule results page. View different schedules by using the right and left arrows located at the top of your schedule.
Note: Some online courses are asynchronous without scheduled times and will not show scheduled class times.
See the Student Registration Experience Guide for more information.
If the courses you’ve selected conflict, the visual schedule will show a “No results” notice. To see other options, toggle the checkbox on or off of the courses you chose as part of your schedule. If you toggle a course off, it will hide it from your schedule but will not remove it.
Note: Check course details (select the down arrow next to the class code) to ensure you meet all prerequisites and restrictions.
See the Student Registration Experience Guide for more information.
When you create a schedule that you want or find an alternate schedule that meets your needs, click on the “Save as Favourite” button located under that same schedule. You can save up to 15 schedules as favourites.
Saving more than one schedule is a great way to ensure you have alternate course date and time options that still meet your needs and schedule preferences if the initial class you are trying to register in fills up on registration day. You may want to print/save pdf copies of your alternate schedule for reference on your enrolment date if you are finalizing your registration in “Manage Classes.”
Note: Some online courses are asynchronous without scheduled times and will not show scheduled class times.
See the Student Registration Experience Guide for more information.
Yes! Validating your schedule will alert you to any restrictions in your course selections such as unmet prerequisites or department permission needed to register. For courses that are not successfully validated you will see a message with information explaining the issue. Revise your schedule and continue validating new classes until you have drafted a schedule without identified registration issues. Once you have your desired courses in your enrolment cart and validated, you are ready to register on your enrolment date!
Note: Validating your courses does not register you in these courses.
See the Student Registration Experience Guide for more information. You can also check out this guide to learn more about the Shopping Cart function in the “Manage Classes” tile in Bear Tracks.
If you do not already have a schedule built, you will need to do that first. If you already built and validated a schedule you can proceed with registration.
Log into Bear Tracks > Manage Classes > Shopping Cart and Watch List. The courses that you previously added to your shopping cart and validated will still be in your shopping cart so you can finalize your registration.
Note: Your ability to enrol in your preferred courses will only appear on your specified enrolment appointment date.
See the Student Registration Experience Guide for more information. You can also check out this guide to learn more about the Shopping Cart function in the “Manage Classes” tile in Bear Tracks.
You can still register in a lecture-lab-seminar combination that best fits your schedule. You will need to enrol in them as a package as opposed to separately. When you search for a class that has multiple components, it will bring up all possible combinations. You are able to choose the combination that best fits your schedule.
See the Student Registration Experience Guide for more information.
Prior to your enrolment date it is strongly recommended you create and save alternate schedules of the classes you want to take in “My Schedule Builder” and to validate a preferred schedule. Doing so will help you navigate to the next available class you can take, knowing the alternate option still meets your scheduling needs. You may also want to print/save pdf copies of your alternate schedule for reference on your enrolment date if needed.
Enrol in a different class
If you’re unable to find a section of the class with a spot available, you can add another class saved in an alternate schedule in your favourites to fill that spot in your schedule. If you don’t have an alternate schedule available you can search for alternate courses that meet your academic requirements and your scheduling needs.
If you’re not sure which alternative classes you might want to take, you can:
- Review the requirements for your degree to determine which classes fulfill those requirements.
- Use the filters and “Additional Search Options” functions to see the class offerings for a subject you’re interested in.
Once you’ve identified which classes you want to take as an alternative, add them to your schedule and attempt to register in them.
Add the Class to your Watch List
Please refer to the “Watch List” function in the “Manage Classes” tile in Bear Tracks to receive notifications when a spot in a course becomes available. You can check out this guide to learn more about the Watch List function. Remember: Receiving a notification does not automatically enrol you in a class once a spot opens up.
Enrol in a separate section of the same class
Using My Schedule Builder, find a new section of the course (i.e., SOC 100 Lec A1 for SOC 100 A3) that works with your existing registration. Once your new section is in the schedule results area, click “Get this schedule.” The action will be listed as ‘Swap.’ Click “Do actions.” Alternatively, swap transactions can also be processed in Bear Tracks (Manage Classes > Swap Classes) by selecting the course you wish to swap from and perform a class search for the new class/section. Once you have selected your new section follow the steps in Bear Tracks to complete the registration transaction.
Tip: Before using the “Swap Classes” feature in Bear Tracks you may want to open up your existing schedule in a new tab to ensure that the new section works with your existing registration.
See the Student Registration Experience Guide for more information.
Prior to the add/delete deadline drops can be processed in Bear Tracks through the “My Schedule Builder” tile or through the “Manage Classes” tile and selecting “Drop Classes and Withdrawals.” After the add/delete deadline you must use “Drop Classes and Withdrawals.”
See the Student Registration Experience Guide for more information.
All students are encouraged to continue using the swap feature in Manage Classes in Bear Tracks. Swaps in “Manage Classes” are performed at the same time while swaps in “My Schedule Builder” will drop the class prior to adding the new class.
It is highly recommended that you perform class swaps in Bear Tracks using the swap function under the “Manage Classes” tile. Swapping in Manage Classes will ensure you get into your new class before your current class is dropped. You can swap classes up until the term registration deadline.
See the Student Registration Experience Guide for more information.
Multi-year planning is a great way to get a sense of the requirements you’ll need to take to successfully complete your academic studies.
The planner tool in the “Manage Classes” tile in Bear Tracks is an optional long-term planning tool that can be used to select the courses you are planning on taking as part of your degree in preparation for your ongoing studies at the University of Alberta.