Wait Lists

Wait Lists are used by instructors and departments to manage enrollment in courses. Some instructors or departments require students to join a Wait List before the cap is reached. In these cases, the instructor or department will manage entry to the course over the registration period. Please check departmental websites for additional information about Wait List management.

Initial wait list settings are done on the class-level, but once registration begins should be managed in SSOL. Please see https://sishelp.sis.columbia.edu/content/wait-lists for more information on managing your wait lists. 

On the day an instructor admits a student from a Wait List, the student will see a status of "Approved" in SSOL. The student will then be automatically enrolled overnight. The Wait List tool will close on Friday evening at the end of the Change of Program period in the fall and spring semesters.

Auto-fill Wait List: Allows students to enroll into a course as seats become available, and students can see their position number on Auto-fill Wait Lists in SSOL.

Self-managed Wait List: Requires students to first join a Wait List and allows instructors to manually add students to a course. In this case, students will not see a position number in SSOL. Limited registration over the cap is accepted; however, accepting students over the course cap will not result in a larger classroom assignment. Instructors can set a course to self-managed in SSOL and can admit specific students to your course without doing anything to the other students on the Wait List. In other words, there is no need to use the “deny” option in this case. The “deny” option is for instructors who want to let students know that there is no possibility that they will be admitted to the course and don’t want to keep them waiting unnecessarily.

We have developed the following reference documents:

• Wait List Overview (pdf)
  A one-page overview of the benefits and functions of the new Wait List.

• Wait List Faculty Quick Guide (pdf)
  A Quick Guide that shows the brief, step-by-step process for using the available Wait List options.

The Wait List feature for course registration in SSOL went live for participating schools on the first day of classes of Fall 2013, Tuesday, September 3.