Registration

Course Registration

The Harvard Kennedy School registration process consists of four phases - an online registration period, a single-round of bidding for oversubscribed courses, an online add/drop period, and finally a paper (or off-line) add/drop period. A summary of the phases is presented here. Please refer to the Key Dates and Academic Calendar for the specific dates and deadlines.

Please note that all deadlines will be strictly enforced.

Online Registration

During the online registration period students may request up to five credits (including cross-registered and reading and research courses) on SPARKS, and may change their selections at any time during this phase. A one-semester course at HKS earns one credit and a module earns a half credit. First year MPA/ID students will be pre-registered in their core courses. First year MPP students will choose their preferred sections of the core courses during this phase. Students in other programs who wish to register in core courses must wait until the paper add/drop period.

Permission of instructor courses can be viewed on SPARKS but students cannot register for them online. The paper add/drop period should be used for these courses as the instructor will select the participants.

Bidding

The capacity for each course is usually determined by the number of seats in a classroom, though a small number of courses have reduced enrollment for pedagogical reasons (approved by the Academic Dean). During the online registration phase students select their course preferences. If the course can accommodate the number of students who selected it then those registrations are confirmed at the close of the online registration period. Courses selected by more students than can fit in the classroom are oversubscribed and subject to the bidding process. You can view the history of oversubscribed courses and bidding results on SPARKS. You must select a course during online registration in order to be eligible to bid for it if oversubscribed.

Online Add/Drop

Following the bidding process there is a short period of time when students can add and drop courses online in order to make any changes necessary.

Paper Add/Drop

The paper add/drop phase is the final time for students to add and drop courses. The paper process is used so that instructors can decide themselves who will be admitted to the class.