Dear Graduate Students,

We are excited to welcome you for classes this Fall. We are writing to share with you detailed information about the course pre-registration process and the virtual shopping period for this upcoming semester.

Courses@Brown

Official course information for the Fall 2020 term is now loaded in Courses@Brown (cab.brown.edu). CAB allows you to explore courses, review syllabi, and register online. CAB also includes a new search filter that allows you to find courses based on mode of instruction (fully online or hybrid). Guidance on using and searching in CAB can be found here.

New Two-Stage Pre-registration Process

This semester, we will implement a two-stage process in light of this fall’s novel circumstances. We will have a pre-registration process, through which all students can submit initial preferences, followed by a manual add/drop period.

To pre-register, please place your preferred courses into your Primary Cart in CAB by Noon EDT on Monday, August 10. When placing a course in your Primary Cart you must add all required course components (e.g. conferences, labs, and sections) to the cart. Then during the week of August 10th, we will use your Primary Cart information, together with course enrollment limits and prerequisite rules to help match you with up to 3 initial courses. The matching process will provide priority based on your degree program. We will also seek to prioritize placement into at least one hybrid course for all students who seek to study in residence.

You are welcome to add as many courses into your Primary Cart as you would like. In those instances where there are course enrollment limits, adding all required course components for at least 5 non-conflicting courses into your Primary Cart by Noon EDT on August 10th will provide you with the highest likelihood for course matches.

You will be able to see your pre-registered Fall 2020 course in both CAB and Self-Service Banner by Friday, August 14. Then, you will be able to add/drop courses from August 17 until the end of the virtual Shopping period on September 22.

Virtual Shopping and Canvas Access

To facilitate virtual shopping and help maintain social distancing during the quiet period, the first week of courses from Wednesday, September 9 to Tuesday, September 15 will be fully online. Hybrid courses may begin in-person meetings on Wednesday, September 16, but all courses will be accessible to remote participants (including potential registrants). Until the end of shopping period on Tuesday September 22nd, students can access the published Canvas sites for any course listed within their Primary Cart in CAB.

Upcoming Webinars

We welcome you to join one of two webinars to review the planning for Fall 2020: Master’s students are invited to a webinar on August 7 at 11am EDT (Master’s Webinar registration) and PhD and MFA students are invited to a webinar on August 7 at 10am EDT (PhD and MFA Webinar registration). Please note that you will be able to submit questions in advance through the registration link as well as during the webinar sessions.

We look forward to seeing you soon, whether on campus or online, and please feel free to reach out if you have any questions.

Sincerely,

Andrew G. Campbell
Dean of the Graduate School

Leah Van Wey
Dean of the School of Professional Studies