Registration Procedures

Registration

Prior to registration, students will plan a program with an advisor and receive their registration access code. Registration must be completed and all tuition and fees paid to Business Services according to published deadlines in order to avoid assessment of late payment fees.

Class schedules and descriptions of the registration procedures for any semester may be found on the Registrar's Office page.

Adding or Dropping Courses

Registration changes may be made after initial registration. A class may be added through the fifth class day of the term, except for courses which begin later in the semester, or in special circumstances approved by academic appeal. Students may drop a class without record (no indication will appear on the transcript) by the fifth day of the class term, unless the course begins later in the semester or is a shorter summer session course. A class dropped after the first five days will appear on the student’s record as a withdrawal (“W”).

Refunds for dropped courses may apply and guidelines may be found on the Business Services website.

Tri-College University Registration

Students who are enrolled at Minnesota State University Moorhead, North Dakota State University, Concordia College, Minnesota State Community and Technical College, or North Dakota State College of Science may complete a portion of their coursework at any of these institutions through the Tri-College University. Registration procedures for tri-college coursework may be found on the Registrar's Office page.

Auditing Courses

Students who wish to audit or attend a course without seeking credit must be admitted to MSUM, be registered for the course, and pay full tuition and fees. Classes taken for audit are not eligible for financial aid and do not count toward full-time status. Students may be billed for financial aid if classes taken for credit are later changed to audit status.

To audit a course, students shall attend class sessions but are not required to complete assignments or projects, participate in discussions, take examinations, or meet other requirements.

Students may declare the intent to audit a course by submitting a course audit form signed by the instructor by the tenth class day of a semester. Summer session dates vary based on the length of individual sessions; refer to drop dates posted on the Registrar's Office page.

Students may not receive credit for auditing a course except by re-enrollment for credit and successful completion of the course in a subsequent semester.

An entry of “AU” (Audit) is made on a student’s permanent academic record.

Repeating Courses

Students who wish to take advantage of the repeated course opportunity to improve a grade must repeat the course at MSUM, with one exception only. MSUM students may register for a tri-college course to repeat a course previously taken at MSUM under current tri-college policies. If a course is completed at MSUM and an attempt is made to repeat the course elsewhere, the credit is considered duplicate and is not eligible for transfer. When a course is repeated at MSUM, all attempts remain on the academic record but only the credits, grades, and related honor points for the most recent attempt will be used in calculating the cumulative grade-point average and credits for graduation. Students forfeit the previous grade no matter what grade is earned when the course is repeated. Courses taken for regular A-F grades may not be repeated for pass-fail grades. To assure the GPA is corrected, students must submit a repeated course form to the Registrar's Office. The form can be found on the Registrar's Office page.

All course attempts will remain on the permanent academic record. All repeated courses are noted on the transcript to indicate the course was repeated in a following term and excluded from cumulative totals. A student cannot receive financial aid for more than one repetition of a previously passed course.

Resident Credits

Resident credits are those registered and paid for at MSUM while attending courses offered on campus, through Tri-College, or through other designated exchange programs. Non-resident credits are those earned at another college (except in authorized exchange programs), and those credits earned through Advanced Placement, the International Baccalaureate, the College Level Examination Program, credit for prior learning, or examination for credit.

Excess Credit

Freshmen or sophomores registering for more than 18 credits during any semester (nine credits during a summer session) must fill out an excess credit form. This form must be signed by both the student’s advisor and their respective college dean. No student may register for more than 20 credits without an excess credit permit. The form can be found on the Registrar's Office page.

Senior Citizens

Residents of Minnesota age 62 or older before the beginning of the term may either (a) audit a class free without credit or (b) receive credit by payment of an administrative fee of $20.00 per credit, if space is available after all tuition paying students are enrolled. Senior citizens also must bear the cost of any laboratory or course fees, regardless of whether credit is earned or not. Contact the Registrar's Office for additional information.

Withdrawal from Enrollment 

To withdraw officially from all enrolled courses, students must officially withdraw through the Academic Support Center. Students who withdraw without following this procedure will receive a grade of “F” in each course and are considered “unofficially withdrawn”. Financial Aid recipients who unofficially withdraw may incur repayment obligations. For information on withdrawing, go to the Academic Support Center website at https://www.mnstate.edu/academics/support/asc/withdraw/.

“W” grades cannot be granted if the complete withdrawal takes place later than the normal withdrawal deadline of the semester. Under special circumstances, students may pursue “retroactive withdrawal” after this deadline by filing an academic appeal with the Registrar's Office.

Any refund of tuition or fees will be according to the schedule given on the Business Services website.

Military Withdrawal

Students who are members of any branch of the U.S. military and who are unable to complete a semester due to having been called to active duty and veterans with a service connected disability as described in Part 2 of this policy, shall to the extent possible be provided one of the following options.

1.) The student may withdraw from one or more courses for which tuition and fees have been paid that are attributable to the courses and be given a full refund of tuition. The tuition and fees must be credited to the person's account at the postsecondary institution. Any refunds are subject to the requirements of the state or federal financial aid programs of origination.

Students receiving financial aid who choose this option should be made aware they may be liable for any required refunds of state or federal financial aid funds. In such a case, the student must not receive credit for the courses and must not receive a failing grade, incomplete, or other negative annotation on the student's record, and the student's grade point average must not be altered or affected in any manner because of action under this item.

2.) The student may be given an incomplete in a course and complete it upon release from active duty or upon completion of medical treatment, or upon sufficient medical recovery. Course completion may be accomplished by independent study or by retaking course without payment of tuition. Under federal financial aid policies a course that is retaken this way may not be counted toward a student's enrollment load.

3.) The student may continue and complete the course for full credit. Class sessions the student misses due to performance of active military service or due to the person's medical treatment or medical condition must be counted as excused absences and must not be used in any way to adversely impact the student's grade or standing in the class. Any student who selects this option is not, however, automatically excused from completing assignments due during the period the student is performing active military service or receiving medical treatment or recovering from a medical condition.

A letter grade or a grade of pass must be awarded only if, in the opinion of the faculty member teaching the course, the student has completed sufficient work and has demonstrated sufficient progress toward meeting course requirements to justify the grade. If in the instructor's judgment the student has completed sufficient course work to earn a grade of C or better, the student may be given credit for completion of a course.

Military service members or veterans with a service connected disability covered by this procedure shall be eligible to receive a refund of amounts paid for room, board, and fees attributable to the time period during which the student was serving in active military service or receiving medical treatment or dealing with the person's medical condition and did not use the facilities or services for which the amounts were paid. Any refund of room, board, and fees is subject to the requirements of the state or federal financial aid programs of origination.

If the student chooses to withdraw, the student shall be readmitted and reenrolled as a student at the postsecondary education institution, without penalty or redetermination of admission eligibility, within two years following release from the state or federal active military service or following completion of medical treatment or sufficient recovery from the person's medical condition.