Enrolment and Registration

Course enrolment is the process of adding the courses you plan to take over the next academic session in ACORN. Registration is the financial step that confirms your place in your program and courses by paying your tuition or setting up an official fee deferral.

Before you enrol in courses, it is a good idea to spend some time to plan your courses, check the delivery method of the courses, create a weekly schedule and understand the enrolment indicators and controls. You should also make sure you know how to use ACORN.

You can find information about programs and courses, see when courses are held, create a draft timetable and learn about any prerequisites that you may need using the following resources:

Academic Calendar: Information about programs, courses, degree requirements and rules and regulations. Note that not every course listed in the Academic Calendar will be offered every term.
Timetable Builder: Includes a list of courses that are available for you to enrol in each academic year. It includes detailed course information including day, time, delivery method and enrolment indicators.
Course Descriptions: Information about Daniels courses that have special enrolment instructions or applications.
Programs of Study: Information about Daniels programs of study and instructions on how to change programs.
Academic Dates and Deadlines: Includes information about current academic dates and deadlines.
Degree Explorer: A tool you can use to review your academic history, learn about degree and program requirements, and plan your future courses.

Step 1: Find your Course Enrolment Period

Course enrolment takes place during different enrolment periods in ACORN. Fall/Winter course enrolment typically begins in early-July, while Summer course enrolment typically begins in early March.

Degree students are assigned enrolment dates according to year of study and non-degree students are assigned start times as a separate group. If you have completed:

fewer than 4.0 Full Course Equivalents (FCE), your year of study is 1.
between 4.0 and 8.5 FCE, your year of study is 2.
between 9.0 and 13.5 FCE, your year of study is 3.
more than 14.0 FCE, your year of study is 4.

Please refer to our Academic Dates and Deadlines page to check for the specific enrolment dates for the current year/session.

Notes for new Daniels students:

If this is your first year at UofT and at Daniels, you will be pre-enrolled in your required courses ahead of your course enrollment period. Once your course enrollment period begins, you can enroll in your chosen electives for the year.
If you are a continuing UofT and/or Daniels student, you will need to ensure that you enroll yourself in your required courses once your course enrollment period begins as you will not be pre-enrolled.
If you have newly transferred into Daniels from another institution or another UofT faculty (e.g. Arts and Science) and your transfer and retained credits are still pending processing, your enrollment date will be the same as first year students.

Step 2: View your Start Time

Refer to our Academic Dates and Deadlines page to find out when you will be able to view your start time on ACORN ahead of the enrolment period. Your start time indicates the earliest date and time at which you can start enrolling in your courses.

On your start date, you will not be able to log into ACORN until your start time. For example, if your start time is 3:45 p.m. then that's the earliest time you can access ACORN on that day. The next day, however, you will be able to log in at any time during ACORN's hours of operation.

Step 3: Enrol in Courses

You can log into ACORN and save courses in your Enrolment Cart starting in mid-June. By saving courses in your enrolment cart, you are not automatically enrolled in those courses. You will have to enrol in each course individually. If a course is full, you can add yourself to the waitlist for that course.

At your course enrolment start time, you can start enrolling in the courses you have chosen. Log into ACORN and begin enrolling in courses using the Search or the Enrolment Cart. You can continue to enrol in courses until the deadline to add or make changes to courses as long as there is space in the course and you meet the enrolment controls.

Remember that course enrolment is done in real time, on a first-come, first-served basis. Courses fill up fast, so prioritize your top courses and enrol in those first.

Course Load

The number of courses that you can take depends on whether you are enrolling during the priority period or the general enrolment period, your academic standing, and whether your tuition is assessed as the program fee or per-course fees. Please note that all students are initially charged a Program Fee, regardless of course load.

Fall/Winter session maximum course loads

During the priority period: 5.0 credits overall, 2.5 credits per term
During the general enrolment period: 6.0 credits overall, 3.0 credits per term
Students on academic probation: 5.0 credits overall, 2.5 credits per term
Students paying per-course fees: 3.5 credits overall

Summer session maximum course loads

2.0 credits overall, 1.0 credits per term

Waitlists

Waitlists let you "line up" for courses that are currently full. If space becomes available and you are next on the waitlist, you will be enrolled automatically.

Things to Consider:

In the Fall/Winter session, you can be on the waitlist for up to 2.0 credits per term.
In the Summer Session, you can be on the waitlist for up to 2.0 credits.
If you are on the waitlist for a course, it will count towards your maximum course and term load.
Not all courses have waitlists. See the waitlist column in Timetable Builder.
You cannot enrol in one section of a course and add yourself to the waitlist for another section.
You can add yourself to the waitlist for multiple sections of the same course. If you are on the waitlist for multiple lecture sections of a course, and are subsequently enrolled into any one of these lecture sections, you will automatically be removed from the other waitlists.

Dropping courses

If you decide that you no longer want to take a course, drop it as soon as possible. This applies to courses that you've added to the waitlist, as well as those in which you are enrolled. If you drop the course before the deadline to add courses, your space becomes available to another student. If you’re not sure how to drop a course, check out the ACORN How-To page.

If you need permission from an academic unit to enrol in a course, you will not be able to drop the course on ACORN. Please contact ORSS to drop the course.

It is important to note that refund deadlines are not the same as course cancellation deadlines. Check Student Accounts for the refund schedule.

Step 4: Pay your Fees

After you enrol in courses on ACORN, the final step to complete your registration is to pay your fees. To complete your registration in a given session, you have to pay at least the minimum first installment of your fees (or officially defer them) by the payment deadlines. You can view your minimum payment to register by accessing your invoice on ACORN.

If you do not pay or defer your fees by the fees/deferral deadline, you may be removed from your courses.

After you have paid your fees, you can check your registration status in ACORN. Your registration status is displayed under "Academics" on the Home/Dashboard page after you log in.

Registered: This means your registration is complete.
Invited: This means your registration is not complete and you may be removed from courses after the payment deadline.
Financially Cancelled: This means your registration has been cancelled.

Visit the Office of Student Accounts website for more information about making payments, deferring your fees with OSAP or other government loans, or using your undergraduate scholarship/award.