When do I enroll?

Here, you’ll find essential information about enrollment timing each quarter, including how enrollment periods are structured and when you can register. Understanding these timelines will help you stay on track and prepare ahead for a smooth enrollment experience.

When does enrollment open each quarter?

Open Enrollment typically begins about a month before the quarter starts. Exact dates for each quarter can be found in the Academic Calendar. Two days before enrollment opens, you will be able to begin planning your classes in SimpleEnroll.

Prior to enrollment each quarter, please keep in mind the following important considerations:

Clear any holds blocking your registration; holds on registration may be viewed in Axess.
Pay your tuition and fees; payment in full is due on the date indicated on the University Bill. See the Student Bill & Payment System page for more information on payments.
See your academic, departmental, or faculty advisers to discuss academic plans.

Enrollment group times for each quarter can be found on our Enrollment Groups page.

What is Staggered Enrollment?

For autumn, winter, and spring quarters, degree-seeking students are divided into enrollment groups of roughly 2,000, allowing each group to begin enrolling every 30 minutes. This staggered approach helps us ensure a smooth and efficient enrollment process. It is important to note that regardless of your designated start time, there are no specific end times for these groups. Enrollment will remain open until the Final Study List deadline for each quarter.

In addition to the enrollment groups, to guarantee a fair and bot-free enrollment experience, an enrollment transaction limit is enforced during the evening of staggered enrollment. The transaction limit caps students at five singular enrollment requests per minute or two batch enrollment requests per minute. Should you receive a notification that you have reached your enrollment request limit, please wait up to one minute before submitting your next enrollment request.

Enrollment Group Determination

Our enrollment group strategy is designed to support students in the fairest way possible, regardless of their status as an undergraduate, graduate, or professional student. Students are assigned to an enrollment group based on their academic progress. That means those who are closer to graduation based on the number of completed quarters will have earlier start times than those who are newer in their academic journey.

For undergraduates, those with the most enrolled quarters at Stanford will get earlier start times. Transfer students will require fewer completed quarters to enroll at similar times to their social cohort.
For Graduate School of Business (GSB), Law*, Med students, and second-year graduate students will get first access to enroll, followed by first-year graduate students, third-year and beyond graduate students, and then Terminal Graduate Registration (TGR) students.
Students in two degree programs will have the same enrollment start time for both degrees to facilitate their enrollment experience.

*Law students' enrollment for autumn quarter does not follow this criteria. Law students should refer to communications from the University Registrar for further details about autumn quarter enrollment dates.

Frequently Asked Questions

Why does Stanford use staggered enrollment groups?
- A staggered approach to enrollment came in response to student feedback and the ever growing need to optimize your enrollment experience. By strategically staggering students into groups, we can effectively address the system crashes that have occurred in the past, all while working within the limitations of our legacy technologies. This approach will greatly reduce the excessive load on our system that typically arises during the opening of enrollment, ensuring a smoother and more stable student experience.
When and where can I find my enrollment group and unique start time?
- About a week prior to enrollment, you will receive an email with your enrollment group and unique start time. This information will also be available in Axess in the "Enroll in Classes" section under the My Academics menu. Your unique start time will also display as a banner in SimpleEnroll.
How can I request a change to my enrollment group?
- The assignment of enrollment groups is based on the number of quarters completed, prioritizing students nearing degree conferral. Unfortunately, we are unable to accommodate requests to change these appointments. We appreciate your understanding and encourage you to make the most of the available options during your assigned enrollment start time.
My friend and I are in the same population group (i.e. Seniors) with the same number of completed quarters but have different start times. What happened?
- To ensure equity for across students while maintaining equal sizes for each enrollment group (~2,000 students), we randomly assigned students of the same priority level into multiple groups. For example, the first four enrollment groups (Groups 1-4) are designated for undergraduate seniors, 2nd year graduate students, and professional school students. The entire cohort of students (~7,800) that met this eligibility criteria were randomly divided into one of the four time slots (~1950 per group). A 5:30 p.m. start time does not represent any prioritization over a 6:00 p.m., 6:30 p.m., or 7:00 p.m. start time; sorting students of equal priority into these groups was entirely random.

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