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On this page, you will find most everything you need to know about registration and program requirements, including:
- Registration Instructions
- Common Registration Errors
- Credit Hours Needed
- Application-Based Courses
- Program Priority
- Waitlist Instructions
- Add/Drop/Audit Deadlines
- Auditing Courses
Please do not hesitate to reach out to the Jones School Registrar team at jgsbregistrar@rice.edu.
Registration Instructions
Before you can register (or be registered) each semester, you must remove your holds. Students are only responsible for their electives registrations; all core registrations will be managed by the Jones School Registrar team.
Students must be registered for at least one course during the designated registration period each semester, or a late registration fee of $75 will be incurred. Notice of these registration periods will be provided by the Jones School Registrar team, but generally speaking, they occur as follows:
- Spring Semester: November
- Fall Semester: April (for continuing students only)
For instructions on how to remove your holds or register for courses, please refer to the documents below:
How To: Register
How To: Clear Holds
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Common Registration Errors
Here are some of the more common registration errors you might see in ESTHER and what they mean:
- Program Restriction: Course is set up to limit registration to students from certain programs. Email us at jgsbregistrar@rice.edu if you think there is an error in the system for the course.
- Registration changes are not allowed. Course status dates not within range for part of term: The add/drop period is closed for this course.
- Course is not available for registration at this time: Course likely does not exist--either it was cancelled or a new section was issued.
- Closed Section: Course is either application-based or is full/has a waitlist (see below for details about both).
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Credit Hours Needed
By the end of your second year, you must have completed a total of 54 credit hours. Your core and custom core courses will fill 37.5 of those; you will need to track your electives to make sure that you reach 16.5 credit hours of electives.
Here is the full breakdown:
|
Program Year |
Core Credits |
Custom Core Credits |
Elective Credits |
Total Credits |
|
First Year, Fall and Spring combined |
30.0 |
|
|
30.0 |
|
Second Year, Fall |
2.25 |
1.5 |
10.5* |
14.25 |
|
Second Year, Spring |
3.75 |
|
6.0 |
9.75 |
|
TOTAL |
36.0 |
1.5 |
16.5 |
54.0 |
*includes 3.0 credits outside of the standard schedule
Please see your degree plan for details. Please see the Advising page for details on academic advising or how to track your own degree progress.
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Application-Based Courses
Information about application-based courses can be found on the Application-Based Courses tab of the course list linked on the Calendars & Schedules page. Please pay close attention to the open and close dates of each application, as they vary.
In order to apply for one of these courses, you need to click on the Additional Information area (on the right side of the course list link) and the link to apply will appear (if the application is open).
Application-based courses will be added to your schedule if your application for the course is approved. Each faculty member handles their application process a little differently, so the timing of selections will vary.
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Program Priority
Because of the limited personal availiability for students in each program, students in each format have LIMITED priority for the classes in their own schedule (aka, FT has priority for daytime classes, PMBA-E for evening, etc.). This limited priority is only in effect for a short period after the official registration week for the semester, and the specific date will be announced with each semester's registration instructions.
If you are closed out of a class in your program's schedule due to capacity, please follow the process to be waitlisted for the course (see below). As long as you make your request prior to the program priority deadline, you will be provided a spot in the course unless the class is already full of your peers.
If you register for a class outside of your program's schedule and the course fills up prior to the program priority deadline, we will pull students out of the course in reverse order of registration to make room for any waitlisted students in that course's scheduled program. Any students removed from the course will be notified and added to the top of the waitlist for that course.
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Waitlist Instructions
We do have a small handful of courses that typically fill to capacity. If this happens with a course you want, please fill out the JGSB Waitlist Form.
We will add you to the waitlist for the course and close registration so that all future enrollments process through the waitlist.
We will check on the closed course enrollments every few weeks until we are closer to the start date for the course, at which time we will begin checking daily. If a spot opens in a closed course, we will offer the spot to the first person on the waitlist, giving them a day to accept or decline the spot before moving on to the next person on the waitlist.
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Add/Drop/Audit Deadlines
Add/drop deadlines for standard terms are after the class starts as follows:
| Schedule | Add Deadline | Drop/Audit Deadline |
| Daytime & evening | Sunday after the 1st week of class | Friday of the 2nd week of class |
| Weekend | Sunday prior to the 2nd class weekend | Friday of the 2nd class weekend |
The specific deadlines for each term are posted on the Calendars & Schedules page prior to the start of each semester.
For ILE and Short Courses (single weekend, two class meetings, etc.) the deadline is prior to the first class meeting.
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Auditing Courses
You may choose to audit a course, rather than take it for credit, if the professor grants you permission. You must fill out the MBA Audit Form. Proof of professor permission uploaded to the form is required. The deadline for auditing is the same as the add/drop deadlines (see above).
Each professor has his/her own definition of what it means to be an auditor in his/her course, so it is important for you to get clarification on that expectation when you request permission.
We recommend that you take courses for credit until you have reached your elective credit requirement so that you do not audit a course that you later realize you need for graduation.
Audited courses do not count towards the requirements for graduation. Textbooks are also not provided for audited courses, though you will have full access to the Canvas course site.