Adding and Dropping Courses

Northwestern students generally sign up for courses during the registration period preceding each academic quarter. However, you may sometimes want to change your schedule--by adding a course you are not yet signed up for or by dropping a course in which you are enrolled. Deadlines for adding and dropping courses are available on the Registrar’s websiteeach quarter. 

You can add a course only during the add/drop period, which is the first week of each quarter. The deadline for adding courses ensures that you will not join a course too late in the quarter to complete it successfully. To add a course, you have to get a permission number from the department in which it is offered. You can then add the course on your own through CAESAR. (If you are already enrolled in four courses and want to add a fifth course, you should read about overloads.)

You can drop a course through CAESAR (no signature or permission number is needed) through the sixth Friday of the quarter; see the Registrar’s website for the deadline for each quarter.

Only in circumstances clearly beyond your control (such as illness near the end of the quarter) will the Office of Undergraduate Studies and Advising permit you to drop a course after the deadline. Discovering after the deadline that you are likely to receive a low grade in a course is not sufficient grounds for a late drop.

If you are only enrolled in three courses, then dropping one of them will mean you are taking an underload; this can have some serious implications.