New Student Tips

Five Important points to remember from the Office of the Registrar

Welcome to UW-Madison! Many exciting things are happening as you prepare to be a new student. We want to make sure you are aware of five keys things our office provides that will help you transition to campus and start your first semester.

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1. View a map of your classes on campus

While the UW-Madison campus may be beautiful, it is hardly small. When scheduling your classes, it is helpful to know where your classes will be so you have enough time to move from building to building.

The Class Map Portlet in My UW displays an interactive map of your classes so it is easy to see where your classes are located and know how far you will need to walk between classes.

To see your Class Map, log in to My UW with your NetID and password. Go to the Student Services Tab, and click My Enrolled Classes Map.

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2. Remember Enrollment Deadlines

As a new student, you may not be aware of the various deadlines regarding your enrollment. View the Fall 2012 Deadlines to see a quick view of the most important deadlines for the upcoming fall semester. Failure to adhere to these deadlines may have an adverse effect on your student record and/or financial consequences. When in doubt, contact us or talk with your academic advisor.

Some key deadlines to highlight:

  • Last day to drop courses
  • Last day to apply for pass/fail privilege
  • Last day to drop courses or withdraw
  • Last day to withdraw without academic penalty

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3. Remain alert with Twitter - @UWMad_Registrar

To stay up to date with important information and key deadlines, follow the Office of the Registrar on Twitter! We will tweet about important deadlines, new student services features and other helpful announcements to help you stay informed on campus.



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4. Make scheduling easier with the Course Guide and Schedule Planner

In a few months, you will be enrolling for the Spring 2012 semester. The Course Guide, which is available in My UW, is here to make your course selection as easy as possible.
In Course Guide you can search for courses by a variety of topics including level, instructor name, Interest Groups (FIG or Residence Halls) and more. You can also see real-time seats so you know how many open seats are left in a class before you try to enroll.

In addition to searching for classes, you can build schedules within Course Guide and then enroll in those classes in your Student Center by using the Schedule Planner.

View the Course Guide Demos to see step-by-step instructions on how to use these helpful scheduling tools.

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5. Know your student privacy rights

As a student, you have privacy rights regarding your educational records protected under the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA).

However, some information, like your name and email address, is considered public (directory) information and is available for others to access. If you wish to limit the disclosure of this information, you have two options: Third Party Hold or FERPA Hold.

You can enact a Third Party Hold to restrict businesses from requesting your contact information and sending you emails and mailings. This is similar to "opting out" of a mailing list. You can also enact a FERPA Hold which further restricts the release of your public information.

To learn the difference between a Third Party Hold and a FERPA Hold, and view video demonstrations on how to restrict your information, view:


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