Advance Registration

Undergraduate
Advising
Advance Registration

Advance Registration

Advance Registration: Fall 2026

Below you will see the procedure for the upcoming Spring 2026 advance registration period, which will be held Monday, March 23rd through Monday, April 6th.

You can access Path@Penn here and you can find a quick reference guide on how to request courses during advance registration here.

Advance Registration Procedure

All students will have their hold removed and permitted to register beginning March 23rd. During the two-week Advance Registration period, all Undergraduate students are required to meet (either virtually or in person) with their faculty advisor. You will receive clear instructions from your faculty advisor on how to schedule an appointment. Before meeting with your faculty advisor, you must complete & bring the document below. You must fill out the courses you have taken so far, and the courses you plan to take next semester. Download the document from the link, and save to your computer to edit:

Entered Fall 2020 or later:

BSE Academic Planning Guide

BAS Academic Planning Guide

This is a planning tool only, and does not guarantee the courses you enter will count towards the requirement for graduation. Please be sure to use the links to the SEAS Handbook in the guide for assistance and to check the BE website for any changes.

All students should have met with their advisor by Monday, April 6th. If you do not meet with your faculty advisor by this date, you will remain on hold next semester.

If you still have a hold on March 23rd, please check where the hold is coming from. The BE Department cannot remove any hold other than “Advising Hold” from your Path@Penn. Please check the Path@Penn reference guide for more information. If you still have an advising hold on your account, please email zivia@seas.upenn.edu to have your hold removed.

Some important reminders about the registration system:

Students only need to click “Submit Schedule” to complete their Advanced Registration request. “Submit Registration” will be grayed out because Submit Registration is not used for Advanced Registration.
During the advance registration time frame, registration is NOT first-come, first-served, so students may register at any time within this timeframe and not be at a disadvantage.
Auto Ranking vs. Ranking: students can rank their courses in order of their priority. You can also let the system auto rank on its own. There are pros and cons to both. The best advice we received from the OUR was “students should rank the classes they absolutely need to get into, but in general, auto-ranking is best.”

Credit Increases

There will be no credit increases during advance registration (no exceptions). Students may only register for more than 5.5 cu’s AFTER grades from the current semester are available. You must submit credit increase requests through Path Forms- please wait until all of your grades are reported before submitting your Max C.U. Increase Form.

*Credit increase requests must be done every semester if you would like more than 5.5cu. A credit increase does not roll over from previous semesters and must be approved each new semester.

Permits

Permits are requested through Path@Penn. You can see how to request a permit here. There will be no permits approved during the advance registration period.

UG students needing a permit for BE 5000+ courses ONLY will need to do the following:

1) Email the instructor of the BE course to ask for permission.

2) If approved, submit a permit request through Path@Penn.

3) Forward your instructor approval along with confirmation that you have submitted your permit request in Path@Penn to the BE Academic Coordinator, Zivia at zivia@seas.upenn.edu.

4) The department will then approve the request in the system and you must go in and register for the course. An approved permit does not automatically register you for the course.

The following BE courses require a Google Form along with your permit request in Path (no email approval necessary):

BE 5280 – Applied Medical Innovation I (form)
BE 5650 – Developmental Engineering of Tissues (form)
BE 5690 – Systems Biology of Cell Signaling Behavior (form)
BE 5700 – Biomechatronics (form)

BE4260/5260 is reserved for BE students during the advanced registration period, with 5 seats allocated for BE4260 and 25 seats for BE5260. Remaining seats will be assigned through permit requests submitted via Path@Penn, with approvals finalized by the end of August. BE students will receive higher priority for available seats. Please do not contact the instructor regarding permits or seat availability.

BE permit approvals granted during Advance Registration will be processed starting on Monday, April 13th.

If you need a permit for a course outside of BE, please check with that department for registration and permit information. Each School and Department in SEAS controls their own courses and permit process. Only the school/department offering the course can approve your permit.

BE Curriculum

Students should follow the sample curriculum below:

BAS Sample Curriculum

BSE Sample Curriculum

*Please note that DegreeWorks is still being updated and currently still has errors. Students should be using the BE curriculum websites for the most up to date requirements.

*Many electives in Path@Penn are coded incorrectly for Social Science, Humanities, etc. Many courses in SAS have been renumbered, and OAS is working to update these in the system.

*Please use the SEAS Handbook to see what counts for Social Science, Humanities, TBS, etc. until this feature is updated in Path@Penn.

Prerequisites

Please see the BE Curriculum Prerequisites document for current required pre and corequisites for each of your BE core classes and electives. These will be enforced, so all students must show their advisor that they have taken the required preliminary coursework. If you do not have the required prerequisites, you MUST have an approved petition or plan of action in place, in which case you should contact Kacy (kacy@seas) in the BE office.

Staff Advising

You can direct advising questions to Kacy (kacy@seas). Walk-in advising hours (Skirkanich 240) are Tuesday, 2-3pm and Wednesday, 11am-12pm or by appointment. BE Accelerated Master’s questions can be directed to our Master’s Coordinator, Erin Reavy-Fredericks (ereavy@seas).