First Year Registration Guidelines

Review your Requirements with the First Year Registration Presentation

You should have attended a Peer Advisor Group Meeting to review your courses for the spring. At that meeting, your Peer Advisor showed a recording of a Freshman Registration Presentation. If you haven’t seen it yet, or you’d like to review click this link to view the recording. You may need the following passcode: ?a1ty#TC

You can also view the slides by clicking the button below.

Download the First Year Registration PowerPoint

If you were unable to attend your Peer Advisor Group meeting, please watch the above recording and then stop by academic drop-ins and tell the advisor with whom you meet that you are unable to attend your group advising session. The advisor will answer any questions you may have and review your spring plan with you.

As you approach the end of your first semester at Questrom it’s time to start thinking about registering for your second. Read through the steps below to get all the information you need to prepare for registration including relevant policies, things to think about when selecting your courses, how to plan ahead, and when and where to get help (hint: it’s the UDC!).

Mark Your Calendar
Complete Outstanding Administrative Requirements
Choose Your Courses
The Hub
Plan Your Schedule
See an Academic Advisor
Additional Courses and Credit Overload

Mark Your Calendar

Freshmen register for Spring 2024 classes on Sunday, November 12. Students are split into registration groups by the last digit of their UID. To look up your time, click here or see your StudentLink.

The planner feature on the StudentLink will launch a few weeks before registration for you to set up your desired schedule.

Academic and career drop-in advising takes place both virtually on Zoom and in-Person depending on the day. Check out our Advising page for details.

Complete Outstanding Administrative Requirements

Students will only be permitted to register for courses if they have complied with all of the following University policies. Check your ‘Compliance Status’ under the “My Academics” section on the MyBU Student Portal.

Students are required to resolve any billing issues with Student Accounts.
Students are required to submit health forms (including proof of immunizations) to Student Health Services. Please visit their website for assistance.
Students are required to update/confirm their BU Emergency Alert phone number and Local Address by September 1st and March 1st of each year. Log on to the Student Link, click on ‘Personal’ and then ‘Address and Phone.’
All out-of-state students are required acknowledge the Massachusetts Motor Vehicle Law by logging in here, and clicking the ‘acknowledge’ button. Please click here for more information on the Motor Vehicle Law.
Students are required to complete Alcohol Education Training and Sexual Misconduct Prevention Training.

If you have not resolved any of the matters listed above, you will not be able to register.

Choose Your Courses

Effective June 2019, students enrolled at Questrom must have earned a minimum grade of “C” in five of the following courses, and no less than “C-“ in the sixth course, in order to apply these courses towards their BSBA major and advance into 300-level Questrom courses. For more information on this policy, click here.

MA121 or MA123 (4 credits)
SM131 (4 credits)
SM132 (2 credits)
EC101 (4 credits)
EC102 (4 credits)
BU Hub First-Year Writing Seminar – WR120 or equivalent (4 credits)

In your freshman spring, you should plan to take 18 or 19 credits. To pick your courses for next semester, keep the following in mind:

First, add SM132 to your planner. You should take the same section for SM132 that you had for SM131 (that is, if you were in section FD for SM131, you should register for SM132 FD). If the assigned SM132 section does not work around a work, medical, or religious obligation, please email your academic advisor as soon as possible).
Next, add any of the remaining gateway courses to your planner.
- If you took WR111 in the fall, you must take WR112 this spring
- If you took WR112 in the fall, you must take WR120 this spring.
Then, add up to 2 of the following additional business courses, focusing on the bolded courses if you are interested in taking Core as a sophomore:
- AC221 (Financial Accounting)
- QM221 (Business Statistics)
- IS223 (Information Systems)
- MO221 (The Dynamics of Leading Organizations)

If you haven’t yet completed ES110 (1 cr), add that to your schedule.
Finally, fill any remaining credits with elective courses towards the Hub or any minor aspirations. You should end up with 19 credits with ES110 or 18 credits without it. I recommend taking at least one Hub course during your spring semester, though two or more are possible.

Some other things to consider:

If you earned a 4 or 5 on AP Statistics, that will cover your QM221 requirement.
Many Questrom courses have the note “permission required” on the StudentLink. This means that the course is blocked from some students at the university. By being a Questrom student, you have permission and shouldn’t have trouble registering for the course.
If, after registration, a course has the note “course closed,” the only way to add a seat is through the Waitlist Request form or the add/drop process. This remains true even if it looks like there is an open seat on the StudentLink. That seat will be filled by someone from the waitlist.
Be aware of pre-requisites. You can see them in the course description on the StudentLink, on the Required Questrom Courses Chart, or in the curriculum flowchart below:

In your sophomore fall, you should plan to take 16 or 17 credits. To pick your courses for next semester, keep the following in mind:

First, add any of the remaining gateway courses to your planner, these must be completed before Core.
Then, add 2 to 4 of the following additional business courses, focusing on those in bold, if you haven’t already taken them:
- AC221 (Financial Accounting)
- AC222 (Managerial Accounting, if you’ve completed AC221)
- QM221 (Business Statistics)
- QM222 (Business Statistics II, if you’ve completed QM221 or AP Statistics)
- MO221 (Dynamics of Leading Organizations, formerly OB221)
- SM275 (Management Communications, formerly ES275)
- IS223 (Information Systems)
- LA245 (Business Law)

You may choose to take ES210 in either the fall or spring semester. If you haven’t yet completed ES110 (1 cr), add that to your schedule, you should take ES215 (2 cr) in the fall semester.
Finally, fill any remaining credits with elective courses towards the Hub or any minor aspirations. You should end up with 17 credits with ES210 or 16 credits without it. I recommend at least one Hub course during your sophomore year, though two or more are possible.

Some other things to consider:

If you earned a 4 or 5 on AP Statistics, you can have that course count as your QM221 requirement. This is a new policy for this year, and degree advice has not yet been updated to reflect the change. Please email your advisor or come to drop-ins and someone can make the update manually.
Many Questrom courses have the note “permission required” on the StudentLink. This means that the course is blocked from some students at the university. By being a Questrom student, you have permission and shouldn’t have trouble registering for the course.
If, after registration, a course has the note “course closed,” the only way to add a seat is through the Waitlist Request form or the add/drop process. This remains true even if it looks like there is an open seat on the StudentLink. That seat will be filled by someone from the waitlist.
Be aware of pre-requisites. You can see them in the course description on the StudentLink, on the Required Questrom Courses Chart, or in the curriculum flowchart below:

The Hub

Use the Curriculum Tracking Worksheet and your Degree Advice Report to figure out which Hub units you’ve already covered, which units your required Questrom courses will cover, and which units you’ll have to find on your own.

Click here for the Hub Curriculum Tracking Worksheet

Compare and contrast your Degree Advice with the Curriculum Tracking Worksheet. Fill in any Hub units that appear on Degree Advice that aren’t already on the worksheet. Then you can focus your efforts on the units that remain.

Plan Your Schedule

Midway through the fall, your planner becomes available on the Student Link. Please visit the UDC if you have any questions on using the Planner or registering.

When do classes meet (day, time)? Please search using the University Class Schedule.

What classes meet the Hub units that I need? Please search using the Course Description Search, the Hub Courses website, or the department course pages on the BU Bulletin.

What requirements have I already met and what do I have left? Review your Degree Advice on the Student Link. You can also see which Hub requirements you’ll meet with the required Questrom coursework on the Hub Curriculum Tracking Sheet.

Watch out for: time conflicts, “permission required” (as a Questrom student, you have permission!), and “course closed” (you’ll need to submit the waitlist request form).

See an Academic Advisor

If you are uncertain about your course selection, you should come to Drop-In Academic Advising Hours. For the 3 weeks prior to registration, we focus almost exclusively on next-semester schedule planning and registrations questions via drop-in appointments. Longer-term course planning requires a full appointment, which you can schedule on Handshake after registration season.

Additional Courses and Credit Overloads

A student’s full-time tuition pays for up to 18 credits, but if you’re taking ES110, you can take up to 19 credits without incurring an additional charges.

A student’s full-time tuition pays for up to 18 credits, and students taking more than 18 credits will be charged for the Course Overload except in the following cases:

If you’re taking ES210, you can take up to 19 credits without incurring an additional charge.
If you have a 3.3 GPA or higher at the end of the semester, you can enroll in up to 20 credits (21 with ES210) without accompanying charges. In order to receive the waiver, you must complete the Tuition Waiver for Course Overload form. If you take any more than 18 credits (19 with ES210), you will need to fill out the waiver form to avoid additional charge. This includes PDPs!
If you plan to overload with a full academic course, you should discuss this first with a UDC academic advisor.
Tuition Waiver for Course Overload forms should only be filled out *after* you’ve registered for your courses.