A glitch on the course registration website allowed students to bypass winter quarter pre-registration and directly enroll in courses for two hours on November 18, the University said this week. The University removed students who were able to enroll in courses during pre-registration after discovering the glitch. 

Students could add courses, rather than pre-register, when University Registrar Scott Campbell extended the closing time for College pre-registration for winter quarter from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. on November 18, the last day of the pre-registration period.  

According to the Registrar, 120 students added themselves into courses during this period. 

After seeing a message about the glitch in his soccer team group chat, first-year Gary Zhao enrolled himself in Math 195 and Core Biology during the glitch period. 

“I was pretty surprised,” Zhao said. “I was just chilling in my room though so I got online and went to my.UChicago as quickly as I could.” 

The Registrar noticed the issue that same night. The following week, students were removed from the classes in which they registered, at which time the Registrar e-mailed students who had taken advantage of the temporary glitch to inform them of the removal.  

“The students were notified that the courses they added would be dropped and only their pre-registration requests would be honored during the College Resolution process during Week 10,” Campbell said in an e-mail. 

The two-hour extension happened during the transition to the new my.UChicago website, which has affected different aspects of the website, from pre-registration to academic records.