FAQ about Cross-Registration

Harvard Law School students may enroll in courses offered by the other Harvard faculties, as well as the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), and Tufts Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy. The only exception is all courses offered at the Division of Continuing Education (Extension School) are not eligible for cross-registration.

Cross-registration takes place at the beginning of each semester. Many of the Harvard schools have different cross-registration enrollment dates. Please confirm when each school will begin accepting online petitions by looking at the Academic Calendar.

You must complete the online cross-registration through my.Harvard for Harvard and MIT courses and the Tufts SIS system for Tufts courses. Information on the petition process in my.harvard is available here.

Once you have submitted your cross-registration petition, an automated email will be sent to the faculty member. The faculty member may approve or deny your request, and you will be notified either way via email. It is important to note that faculty approval does not guarantee enrollment in the course. If the faculty member approves, your request will be forwarded onto the host school’s Registrar’s Office. The host school’s Registrar’s Office will enroll you if there is available space in the course.

All LLM students require advisor approval prior to cross-registration. Upon submitting a cross-registration petition through the online catalog, an automatic notification will be sent to an LLM advisor in the Graduate Program for review. If approved, the petition will be automatically sent onto the faculty member. If denied, the student will be notified via an automated email. It is important to note that if you’re submitting a petition for a course at MIT or Tufts, you will need to follow up with the Graduate Program for advisor approval outside of the online cross-registration system.

If you decide you would like to drop a cross-registered course, you will need to notify your home school’s Registrar’s Office. Upon processing the drop on their end, your home school will notify the host school of your drop request. To request a drop, please send an email with the course information to our office at registrar@law.harvard.edu.

No, you cannot file a retroactive petition. In order to enroll in a cross-registered course, you must submit your petition before the host school’s cross-registration enrollment period ends.

Cross Registration Dates are available in the course catalog section of my.harvard, under “Cross-Registration and Enrollment Dates”.

You should consult the Cross Registration Dates in my.harvard for the appropriate deadline for filing your cross-registration petition.

A few deadlines we suggest that you keep in mind:

• The host school’s cross-registration enrollment period.  You will not be able to enroll if you do not submit your petition during this time frame.
• Your host and home school’s drop deadlines.  You will be dropped with notation (WD), if you do not drop a cross-registered course by the earlier add/drop/change deadline.

If you register for the full-year course option in the fall term then you should not need to submit an additional petition in the spring term.  However, this is dependent on how each school lists their full-year courses in the catalog so you will want to confirm with the host school’s Registrar’s Office on what information is required to enroll in the course for both the fall and spring terms.

If you’re a 2L or 3L, you may cross-register as long as you  have at least 8 HLS credits in your schedule in the semester in which you seek to cross-register, and the course you take is worth at least 2 HLS credits in order to meet the HLS 10-credit minimum residency requirement.

No. 1Ls are not permitted to cross-register.

All LLM students require advisor approval prior to cross-registration.  Upon submitting a cross-registration petition through the online catalog, an automatic notification will be sent to an LLM advisor in the Graduate Program for review. If approved, the petition will be automatically sent onto the faculty member.  If denied, the student will be notified via an automated email.

It is important to note that if you’re submitting a petition for a course at  Tufts, you will need to follow up with the Graduate Program for advisor approval outside of the online cross-registration system.

J.D. students may take up to 12 credits in total through cross-registration. LLM students may take up to 6 credits in total through cross-registration. LLM students do not receive credit for language courses at FAS, though they still may cross-register for them, pending approval of the Graduate Program.

For all HLS students, there is a maximum of 6 cross-registration credits per semester.

Some schools require additional steps for cross-registration. In some schools you must participate in a lottery for courses, others require students to pay a materials fee and some FAS language courses require a placement exam.

Per ABA regulations, cross-registration credits will be awarded for every 720 minutes of lecture hour/mandatory class time. Please note, we are not able to round up when determining credits. For example, if a course meets for 2,000 minutes, you will receive 2 credits.

It is important to note there are exceptions to the 720 minute rule: language courses, studio, and field courses. For language courses, 2L/3L students will earn 2 credits per semester for courses meeting minimum of 2 lecture hours per week, 3 credits per semester for courses meeting minimum of 3 lecture hours per week, or 4 credits per semester for intensive courses only that are a full year of work in one semester. LLM students will earn no credit for language courses. Studio and field courses are limited to 2 credits.

No, you are only able to cross-register for a course.

You cannot cross-register for a course that duplicates or overlaps work you’ve done in another course, including your undergraduate work.

Your cross-registered course cannot conflict with anything on your HLS schedule. You must allow travel time between schools as well. You are responsible for understanding the schedule and rules at the school where you cross-register.

Please note, you may not make arrangements with faculty at either school to leave early or arrive late in order to accommodate a cross-registered course.

You should plan to take the exam in the cross-registered course at the time that it’s scheduled and you should familiarize yourself with the host school’s examination policies. For this reason, you should be sure to arrange your academic, travel, and employment schedules to avoid a conflict.

HLS does not allow deferral or rescheduling of examinations except as specified in the HLS Deferred Examination Policy.

Yes, the grade from the host school is the grade of record that will appear on your transcript. It will not, however, be used in the calculation of honors. Grades are not converted between schools. Whatever grade you are assigned at the host school will appear on your HLS transcript.

The available grading options should be listed in the grade drop-down when completing your cross-registration petition.  Most graduate schools do not allow pass/fail grading, and you should not try to negotiate different grading with the professor.  If you have questions about the grading at the host school, please contact the Registrar’s Office there.

Joint degree students should check the credit requirements of their particular program on the Special Programs page or with the Registrar’s Office (WCC 4007).