Registration

Autumn Quarter course registration occurs the week before the quarter courses begin. Winter and Spring Quarter course registration take place during the eighth week of Autumn quarter and Winter quarter, respectively. Summer quarter course registration takes place in early May and must be approved by the Dean of Students.

MA students may only register for three courses (300 units) each quarter. Exceptions to the 300-unit requirement are rare, and must be approved by the MA program and the Dean of Students.

PhD students are required to register for at least 300 units of coursework. Once students have met the coursework requirements for their departments, the Dean of Students office will add an appropriate number of units of “Advanced Study” to each student’s schedule in order to maintain appropriate registration. Advanced Study courses are graded on an S/U (Satisfactory/Unsatisfactory) basis by the student’s department (usually by the Chair or Director of Graduate Study) dependent on the student making sufficient academic progress. Advanced Study units are added the week after course registration begins, and then adjusted at the end of the third week of the quarter to ensure students are registered for the proper number of units.

Insurance Requirements

In general, PhD students admitted beginning Summer 2020 will receive insurance as part of their funding package; PhD students who do not receive insurance funding, and MA students, are billed for the insurance premium in three installments – Autumn, Winter, and Spring quarter – for coverage that lasts the duration of the plan year, September 1 – August 31.

For PhD students who matriculated prior to Summer 2016, the Division will pay the health insurance premium in the sixth, seventh, and eighth years for PhD students who are admitted to candidacy by the beginning of the sixth year in the program (not counting leaves of absence).

The University requires all students to carry adequate health insurance to cover, among other costs, hospitalization and outpatient diagnostic, testing, and surgical procedures. Additionally, the insurance must cover medical care provided in the Chicago area for both emergency and routine, non-emergency medical situations. If the student will not be in Chicago, the insurance plan selected must provide this coverage wherever the student will be residing and studying during the academic year.

In keeping with this requirement, each year all students registered in an insurance-required program are enrolled in the University Student Health Insurance Plan (U-SHIP). Students wishing to waive out of U-SHIP coverage must affirm that they are carrying alternate comparable coverage before the enrollment/waiver deadline (Friday of second week of the quarter.) Students who do not enroll in or waive the student insurance plan by the deadline will by default be enrolled in U-SHIP and remain enrolled in U-SHIP through the end of the plan year.