• Graduate students, Medical students and Undergraduate students whose semester level in Fall '08 will be 07 or above:
  Tuesday, April 22, 8:00 a.m. EDT
• Undergraduate students whose semester level in Fall '08 will be 05 or 06:
  Wednesday, April 23, 8:00 a.m. EDT
• All other students:
  Thursday, April 24, 8:00 a.m. EDT
• Pre-registration will close on Tuesday, April 29 promptly at 5:00 p.m. EDT

Now that the project to convert all student information from the Student Information System (SIS) to Banner has been completed, Banner is now able to check if a student has the required prerequisites during the online registration process. The following information will be helpful to students, faculty and advisors.

Information for Faculty

To: Faculty who have stipulated Pre-Requisite Requirements on Fall 2008 Courses

From: Michael J. Pesta, University Registrar

Subject: Pre-Registration and Pre-Requisites

As you know, registration for courses for the coming fall term will be subject to pre-requisite checking for the first time. This memo is being sent to instructors who have stipulated pre-requisite requirements for one or more of their fall courses. As with other registration restrictions (enrollment limit, etc.) students trying to register for a class for which a pre-requisite is listed and for which they have not completed the pre-requisite will encounter a registration block. In this case, they will receive the error message: “Preq and test score error.” As with all registration restrictions, registration will not be permitted until the student contacts the instructor and obtains a registration override to be allowed into the course if they have satisfied the pre-requisite in some other fashion (more on this below).

Also, PLEASE NOTE, if a course requiring a pre-requisite also has a lab and/or conference, each of these meeting types will be subject to the pre-requisite check as well and the student will need to obtain separate overrides for the section, conference, and the lab in order to completely register. In other words, an override for the primary meeting (the course meeting coded as S01, S02 etc.) does NOT provide an override for associate meeting types.

Additionally, it is important to understand that the transition from the old SIS system to Banner brings with it some complexities relative to pre-requisite checking that will have to be accommodated in the case of students who were on record in both systems. In some instances, a student may encounter the pre-requisite error even though he or she has taken the pre-requisite.

This can happen in the following situations:

1. Course credit established through transfer work prior to Banner becoming the system of record in Summer 2007: Any course that is a pre-requisite and was converted from the legacy system as transfer credit will not be recognized by Banner’s pre-requisite checking. It has been recommended that students obtain their previous record from http://grades.brown.edu and approach the instructor of the course prior to registration to secure a registration override using the printed record as evidence that they have in fact met the pre-requisite(s).
2. Topics Courses used as pre-requisite(s) for other coursework: Any course that has as a pre-requisite a ‘Topics Course’ as previously coded in legacy SIS will require the student who took it prior to this year to secure a registration override as all topics courses had been re-numbered in conversion from SIS.
3. Re-numbered courses: Any course listed as a pre-requisite that had been re-numbered in the conversion to Banner and does not meet the straightforward rubric of 1-99 to 0001-0999; 100-199 to 1000-1999; or 200-299 to 2000-2999 will require the student who took the course prior to this year to secure a registration override in advance of registration.
4. Test Scores: Certain courses may require an Advanced Placement (AP) test score in addition to or in lieu of an actual course. Only first-year students entering fall 2007 have these test scores on their Banner record. Others may need to show evidence that they received these scores in previous years. For this purpose the student can check with the Office of the Registrar to obtain copies of your AP score report and present them to the instructor in advance of registration to secure a registration override. If the Office of the Registrar does not have a physical copy of the test scores in question, the student is advised to contact the College Board in advance to obtain a copy.
5. In Progress Registration: Banner views a course currently underway but not yet graded as a satisfied pre-requisite. However, there is no retroactive process or ‘satisfactory completion of pre-requisite’ checking that will review a student’s record once the semester has ended and grades are submitted. In short, there will be no subsequent notification to the instructor that the pre-requisite course was not satisfactorily completed.

Information for Students

Students should be aware that when they pre-register for courses for the fall 2008 term pre-requisite requirements will be enforced. Student trying to register for a class for which a pre-requisite is listed and for which they have not completed the pre-requisite will encounter a registration error message that says “Preq and test score error.” Registration will not be permitted until the student approaches the instructor and obtains a registration override to be allowed into the course.

Please note the following items:

Approximately 17% of the courses in the fall have pre-requisite requirements. Of these, about one-fourth are year long language courses. A list of the courses with pre-requisites can be found

If a course requiring a pre-requisite also has a conference and/or lab attached to it, the student will need to obtain separate overrides for the section, conference, and the lab in order to completely register.

In some instances, a student may encounter the pre-requisite error even though the student already has taken the pre-requisite. This can happen in the following situations:

1. Course credit established through transfer work prior to Banner becoming the system of record in Summer 2007: Any courses that satisfy a pre-requisite requirement that were recorded in/converted from Brown’s previous registration system as transfer credit will not satisfy Banner pre-requisite checking criteria. It is recommended that students obtain their previous internal record and approach the instructor of the course for which they wish to register. This should be done prior to registration so the student can secure a registration override early, using the printed record as evidence that they have satisfied the pre-requisite.
2. Topics Courses used as pre-requisites for other coursework: Any course that has as a pre-requisite a ‘Topics Course’ as coded in Brown’s previous registration system will not satisfy Banner pre-requisite checking, as such courses have been renumbered. The student will have to approach the instructor of the desired course to secure a registration override in advance of registration.
3. Re-numbered courses: In general, when the conversion of course information was done from the previous registration system into Banner, courses were renumbered along a simple rubric: Courses 0001-0099 became 0010-0990, 0100-0199 became 1000-1999, and 0200-0299 became 2000-2990 (i.e., BI 0195 became BIOL 1950; EN 0090 became ENGN 0900, etc). Any pre-requisite course that has been re-numbered that does not meet this rubric will require the student to approach the instructor of the desired course to secure a registration override in advance of registration.
4. Test Scores: Certain courses may require an Advanced Placement (AP) test score in addition to or in lieu of an actual course. Only first-year students entering fall 2007 have these test scores on their Banner record. Others may need to show evidence that they received these scores in previous years. For this purpose the student can check with the Office of the Registrar to obtain copies of the AP score report and present them to the instructor in advance of registration to secure a registration override. If the Office of the Registrar does not have a physical copy of the test scores in question, please contact the College Board in advance to obtain a copy.

Students should check the course schedule well in advance of registration to verify whether a course has a pre-requisite. This will enable the student to secure an override from the instructor prior to the start of pre-registration on April 22.

If you have questions about pre-requisites, or any other registration related questions, please feel free to contact the Banner Registration Hotline at 401-863-2300 or via email.

List of Fall 2008 Courses with Prerequisites