Register for Courses

Use CEASAR to register for classes. Before registering for courses for the first time there are a few things to be aware of. In order to register for courses, the MSHE program must give you an 'enrollment appointment.'

The MSHE office will process your enrollment appointment after receiving the Intention to Register form and the tuition deposit. Depending on when you applied and were accepted, enrollment for your starting quarter may not yet be open (e.g. if you were accepted in January and planning to start in the fall you wouldn’t be able to register for courses until fall enrollment opened in late spring.) You will get an email from the MSHE office letting you know when your enrollment appointment has been set.

Course Registration

Students register for courses online through CAESAR. The CAESAR system can be a bit confusing at first, so we strongly recommend that new students complete the virtual orientation session before registering the first time. This is also where you will see your student account and tuition bill, request that excess loan money be sent to you, view registration holds and see your class schedule (including room numbers). Log into CAESAR with your NetID and NetID password.

Registration typically opens three to six weeks before the start of the quarter. You can see exact dates when registration opens on the academic calendar (and on the calendar on the homepage of this website.) In the fall quarter registration closes the week before classes start and re-opens on the first day of classes. Remember that you will also get an email with suggested electives and a list of required courses offered each quarter around the time that registration begins, so that message can also serve as a reminder to go and register for courses.

The MSLOC program put together this helpful 10-minute video about how to register on CAESAR. All of the information is the same for MS_HE students, except that you will choose “MS_HE” under “subject.”

To search for MS_HE classes in CAESAR:

• Go to “search for classes” and choose the right term (e.g. summer 2015).
• On the “subject” drop down menu choose “MS_HE” and on the “career” drop down menu choose “EDG – Education Grad.” This will pull up all of our courses for that term.
  • Note that if you don’t pick the term first you may not see MS_HE on the “subject” drop down menu because “MS_HE” courses weren’t listed until fall 2011.
• You can search for JUST a career (e.g. EDG) but cannot search for just a subject (e.g. MS_HE). This becomes especially important to remember when searching for elective courses offered through other programs at Northwestern. We generally tell you what career each subject is offered through in the quarterly “suggested electives” email that we send (see more about outside electives below.)
• Once you’ve registered for a course it will show up on the main landing page (the “student center”) in CAESAR. The course may also appear in Blackboard, but it is not uncommon for instructors to wait to make courses visible to students until closer to the start of the term, so don’t assume that you aren’t registered just because a course isn’t appearing in blackboard.

More registration tips and troubleshooting are available here.

How do I find an elective?

Take a look at the following infographic to get started on how to find an elective. A more detailed explanation of how to register for electives outside of MSHE follows

Registering for elective courses outside MSHE

School of professional Studies (SPS) Courses

MSHE students often take graduate-level courses offered through the School of professional Studies (SPS)–especially in the Master of Public Policy (MPPA) and Master of Sports Administration (MSA) programs. These courses are offered at the Chicago campus.  MSHE students cannot register themselves for SPS courses. If you want to take an SPS course please complete the Authorization for Dual Registration Form and send it to the MSHE office.  If the SPS administrator gives permission, the MSHE office will ask the SPS Registrar to register you for the class. SPS will not register you for the class until one week before the class begins and will only register you if the course is not already full.

SPS “DL” Courses and Scheduling

You may notice that some SPS courses have a “DL” in their title. DL means “distance learning”, so the course is online. In some DL sections the days/times listed don’t matter – the instructor has “sync sessions” where you can watch a lecture live, but recordings of those sessions are also posted for students to watch later. In other DL courses students may need to be available during the posted class times.This varies from course to course and instructor to instructor, so the only way to find out is to contact the instructor and ask.

MS in Learning and Organizational Change (MSLOC) Courses

1. Read “Policies and Procedures for non-MSLOC students to take MSLOC course”
2. Ask the MSHE office for the course syllabus. Please note that the syllabi are intellectual property - please do not forward to others.
3. If you want to take the course ask the MSHE office to contact the MSLOC program administrators to put you on the waitlist for the course.
4. You will be registered for the course one week before the class begins if the class is not full.

Learning Sciences (LRN_SCI) Courses

If you are interested in taking a Learning Sciences course contact your advisor. She may have an old syllabus for the course and/or feedback from past MSHE students who have taken the course. Generally, MSHE students can take Learning Sciences courses, but they need to ask the course instructor professor directly for permission. In your message to the instructor be sure to copy your advisor.

If the instructor grants permission forward that message to the Learning Sciences Program Assistant, Guillermo Munoz (gmunoz@northwestern.edu) and ask for a permission number to register. Again, be sure to copy your advisor on the message.

Human Development and Social Policy (HDSP) Courses

MSHE students can sometimes  register themselves in CAESAR for HDSP courses, but some HDSP courses require instructor approval. If you are interested in taking a HDSP course contact your advisor. She may have an old syllabus for the course and/or feedback from past MSHE students who have taken the course. If required, you can contact the course instructor to request permission to take the course

MS in Education (MS_Ed) courses

The MS_Ed program prepares people to teach at the K-12 level. MSHE students can typically register themselves in CAESAR for graduate-level courses in the  Master of Science in Education program. There are some courses in these programs that are not open to outside students (this will be noted in CAESAR.)

Counseling Courses

If you are interested in taking counseling courses, please contact the MSHE office as soon as possible to discuss potential options. Outside students are admitted to counseling courses on a case-by-case basis by the Counseling program’s Director.

Kellogg Part-Time MBA Courses

If you are interested in taking courses through Kellogg’s part-time MBA program (located on the Chicago campus), please contact the MSHE office as soon as possible to discuss potential options.  [*Note: Students cannot add OR drop Kellogg courses in Caesar - it has to be handled through the Kellogg registrar.]

Medill IMC Courses

If you are interested in taking counseling courses, please contact the MSHE office as soon as possible to discuss potential options. Enrolling in an IMC course requires the permission of the Director and course instructor.

The Graduate School (TGS) Courses

In general MSHE students can register themselves for TGS courses.Some courses say that outside students need to get instructor permission, in which case you can contact the instructor directly to request permission to take the course. Contact the MSHE office if you are having trouble with the registration process.

Registration Holds

There are circumstances that will result in a registration or transcript “hold” on a student’s account. If you have a hold you will not be able to register for courses and may be denied access to other services (like requesting a transcript.)

You can see the reason for the hold by logging into CAESAR and clicking the “holds” link on the right hand column of the page. These holds are most commonly placed by the Office of Student Accounts or Health Services. The most common registration hold is because a student has not entered (or updated) their emergency contact information in CAESAR. If you have a hold, you will need to contact the appropriate office to arrange for removal of the hold before you will be able to register or to receive or send a transcript.

Dropping Courses

Discuss all changes in your academic plans with your MSHE academic advisor, including a decision to add or drop a class. Students should add and drop courses during the first five days of the quarter (known as add/drop week). You can drop a course on CAESAR, provided you will still be enrolled in at least one course after you drop the course (if this is not the case see “withdrawing from an academic quarter” below.)

Students will not be charged tuition for courses dropped in the first five days of the quarter. The University cannot give refunds or reduce tuition bills for any course dropped after the fifth day of classes. Please note that the policies regarding dropping some (but not all) courses in a quarter differ from the policies related to withdrawing from a quarter (dropping all courses in which you are enrolled). You can find the official Northwestern Policy about tuition refunds on the Student Financial Services website.

Courses dropped after the first five days of classes (add/drop week) but before the “last day to drop” date will not appear on your transcript or impact GPA, but (as mentioned above) you will be charged tuition. To see the add/drop and final drop deadlines for each quarter visit the registrar’s website. Also, see the grades for dropped courses information on the Academic Expectations page.

Cancellation (dropping all of your courses in a quarter)

If you will be dropping all of your courses in a quarter you will not be able to do so in CAESAR. You should contact the MSHE office and we will fill out a paper form to drop you from your courses. This includes cases where students were signed up for only one course and then needed to drop the course.

Course Evaluations (CTEC) and Feedback

The MSHE Program Office and MSHE instructors value feedback from students to improve future course offerings. At the completion of each of your courses, you will receive an e-mail from the NU Registrar’s Office asking you to complete an on-line CTEC form (Course and Teacher Evaluation Council), a generalized evaluation form for classes across the University. This information is then compiled and made accessible to students.

Please note that if you do not fill out CTECs for all courses in which you are enrolled you will not have access to CTEC reports for the next quarter. Viewing CTECs for past offerings of a course is especially helpful when selecting electives.

In addition to the CTECs, you are also encouraged to provide feedback and voice concerns about courses to your advisor and/or the program Director. We also gather information about the courses and overall curriculum in the exit survey sent to graduating students each year.