Image: YoAhn Han, MFA ’14
REGISTRATION PROCEDURES
GRADUATE STUDENT COURSE REGISTRATION
IMPORTANT DATES : SUMMER + FALL 2025
RETURNING GRAD STUDENTS
Monday, March 24: Registration for grad major courses and grad-specific electives begins.
Monday, April 14: Complete registration for Grad Required Courses and Grad Specific Electives.
INCOMING GRAD STUDENTS
May 5: Deadline for MFA Low Residency summer workshop preference survey which is emailed to students.
May 30: Deadline for all programs, for the fall elective preference online survey which is emailed to students. Students indicate preferences for grad electives, and interest in BFA/CE courses.
Starting in May: Registrar, Jonathan Rand, registers all courses for the first summer and fall terms of a student’s program.
- Required courses are registered per students’ program requirements (and input from the MArch Program Director).
- Summer workshops and fall electives are registered after student preferences are received on surveys, and any faculty permissions for BFA/CE courses are received via email.
GRAD PROGRAM REQUIRED + ELECTIVE COURSES
INCOMING STUDENT REGISTRATION FOR 1ST SUMMER + FALL
For New / Incoming Students, registration for all courses in the first summer and fall terms is done by MassArt’s Registrar, with support from the Program Director who is your advisor, and the Grad Team. After the deposit deadline, incoming students are emailed with registration information and a request to complete an Elective Survey. This survey is used to collect preferences for fall electives, and MFA Low-Residency Program Summer workshops. Registration occurs in May for students’ first summer and fall terms. In subsequent terms, students register themselves as described below.
RETURNING STUDENT REGISTRATION FOR SUMMER + FALL GRADUATE COURSES
All graduate students register themselves using Self-Service, for required courses and graduate-specific electives, during the open registration period for grads.
- Seek advising with your Program Director.
- Review your progress and program requirements in Self-service. Program Directors and Nadia Savage of the grad team, nsavage@massart.edu, can assist you in this review. Please note the number and type of required electives for your program.
- Detailed instructions from the Registrar for using Self-Service can be found here. Log into Self-service, or paste this URL into your browser: https://mca-ss.colleague.elluciancloud.com/Student/
After you register, confirm you are actually registered, by checking your “course/section” status in Self-Service. Courses/Sections for which you are officially registered will say “Registered” with a green check-mark in the list view and will appear green in the ‘Calendar View’ of your schedule.
“Planned” courses/sections are not registered, and you will see that they are not green.
BFA ELECTIVE COURSES
CURRENT REGISTRATION DATES FOR BFA COURSES
- March 24: Begin review of the Fall 2025 elective schedule in Self-service as described below, for courses of interest.
- March 31: Begin emailing BFA faculty to request permission to enroll in BFA elective courses. This process can take time, so begin asap.
VIEWING ELECTIVE OPTIONS USING SELF-SERVICE
- Use Self-Service to do an Advanced Search for electives by department, faculty, or meeting time and make sure to select the Fall 2025 Term (or Summer term for the 2025 residency). Self-Service will give you a comprehensive list of graduate, BFA courses from all departments. Whether a course is online or on camps will be included in the listing. Select from BFA courses numbered 200-499. You may filter your search for open courses or online courses among other choices, by using the left-hand “Filter Results” selections. To sort a list of courses from a search, use the menu bar selections for Status (open, waitlisted, closed) or Location for online courses, etc.
REGISTRATION FOR BFA ELECTIVES
- All BFA classes require permission of the instructor.
- Email the instructor to request permission to enroll, and cc Nadia Savage at nsavage@massart.edu on this and related emails. Instructor email addresses are available in Self-Service when you “view available sections,” and select “add section to schedule.” Include in your emails: your name, MassArt ID, the full section number (for example 3DTD-201-02) and the course title.
- Forward the faculty permission to Registrar Jonathan Rand at jrand@massart.edu, including all information requested above, and cc Nadia Savage.
- Once they receive the faculty permission, the Registrar requests the faculty’s graduate syllabus addendum for that course. Addenda are reviewed and approved by the Graduate Office prior to enrollment. Again, as this process takes time, please review courses of interest early.
- Students will be notified when Self-Service closes for open registration. Please note that after the open registration period closes, all students must register through Jonathan Rand, the MassArt Registrar. It is strongly advised that you register for all courses during the open registration period.
INDEPENDENT STUDY COURSES
When starting to consider an independent study, follow these steps:
- Students must first consult with their Program Director, if they wish to consider an independent study course as part of their course sequence.
- Then, as far in advance of the intended term as possible, contact the Grad team at gradprogram@massart.edu with the name and contact information of potential independent study faculty. We will contact the artist/expert with details, before they make a final decision to work with graduate students.
- Note: Students do not discuss payment information with potential faculty.
Independent Studies are designed to provide students with an opportunity to pursue a specific vein of study, which cannot be done in the structure of an established class. Independent Studies are usually designed to earn 3 credits, and the scope of the project and amount of contact between the faculty and student should reflect an appropriate depth of engagement.
Exceptions to the number of credits earned are considered on a case by case basis. Graduate students who are interested in doing an independent study consult with their Program Director/advisor, then complete the Independent Study form, which must be accompanied by a Project Proposal and draft of the Syllabus.
Students should initiate this process, creating a rough draft of the proposal/syllabus once permission has been provided by the faculty with whom the student wishes to study.
Please review the Syllabus Guidelines when creating your draft syllabus. You may also visit the Syllabus Guidelines page for more detailed information abut course syllabi.
GRADUATE STUDENT CROSS-REGISTRATION
Graduate students from all programs may cross-register for MIT courses that are offered during the Fall 2025 term, provided the course is offered for graduate-level credit. Please note that MIT’s Spring registration and semester start dates are later than MassArt’s, and classes generally begin after the end of MassArt’s Add/Drop period. The links below will be updated when available from MIT.
See the following links for further information on Cross-Registration at MIT:
- MIT Registrar’s Subject/Course Index Page contains full lists of programs/subjects for the current semester. *Look for classes with a “G” indicating graduate credit (a flower icon indicates it is offered in Spring and a leaf icon indicates a course is offered in Fall).
Instructions for Cross-Registration at MIT:
- Find a course in the MIT Fall 2025 schedule, and email the instructor for permission to enroll in the course and check with your Program Director/Advisor that this course fits your program.
- Complete the MIT cross-registration form; ask the instroctor and your Program Director/faculty advisor to sign the form. Once the form is completed send the form to Marie Turley at the Registrar’s office for signature (mturley@massart.edu).
- Complete the MIT Non-Institution Biographic form.
- Email the 2 completed forms to the MIT Registrar’s office at records@mit.edu, and copy mturley@massart.edu.