Enrolling in Courses

Enrollment for Fall 2026

Updated Apr 12, 2026

Regarding registration caps

As the registrar has informed everyone, all Brown courses will be capped for next academic year due to our current classroom shortage (as a consequence of classroom closures after the events of Dec 13th). In addition, CSCI lowers pre-registration caps on our fall courses to save room for incoming graduate students (who otherwise get shut out of courses). 

Regarding requirements

If you started at Brown in Fall 2025 (or later), you must follow the requirements in the 25-26 or 26-27 Bulletin (they are the same). If you started at Brown in Fall 2024 (most class of 2028), you can use either the 25-26 Bulletin or the 24-25 Bulletin. For CS requirements, in particular, the 24-25 Bulletin lists more courses as satisfying the foundations courses. Also, APMA made significant changes to their requirements starting in Fall 2025. 

You may find the CS-maintained requirements pages easier to navigate, as we have tried to summarize multiple years on one page. If you need an earlier version of the official Brown Bulletin, go to the 25-26 link and edit the years to get the version you need.

Notes on Prerequisite Changes taking affect in Fall 2026-Spring 2027

CSCI 0500 is now a prereq for undergrads to take 1010 and 1570 (unless you have taken one of these two to use as prereq for the other).

1000-level AI courses now assume that you have had an introduction to AI course such as CSCI 0410.

Graduate students will be able to register for these courses through the standard prereq WAIVE. 

The Placement Exam option for CSCI 0220 will be offered annually in January

If you believe you have the background for CSCI 0500 but have not taken CSCI 0220, you can optionally take a CSCI 0220 final exam each January. Students who pass this exam will get a course notation that allows them to use 0220 as a prereq for other courses. Details on the exam are on a separate webpage.

Courses for Spr 27 that are not yet in CAB

Academic Year 2027-2028 Courses

The current draft schedule for 2027-2028 is available in a Google Sheet. If a cell is solid gray, that means the course is not currently planned for that semester. If it says TBD, we will definitely offer the course, but we are still figuring out the instructor. If a cell says "maybe", we are still finalizing whether the course will be offered.

We are still updating CAB to match the sheet. The sheet has the most accurate information.

Frequently Asked Questions

For Fall pre-registration, we set the caps lower in intro, 1000-, and 2000-level courses to save room for incoming graduate students and first-years. The caps will be raised during the summer in time for new student orientation. Continuing students will be able to claim any remaining seats once registration re-opens for you the day before classes start. The final caps for fall will be on par with what we've usually had in most courses.

Every semester, there is a lot of turnover in who enrolls throughout shopping period. Seats are likely to open up in most courses as shopping period plays out. Keep an eye out during pre-registration, and try for a seat again when the semester starts if you still need one at that time. Some faculty maintain their own waitlists: see the CAB entry to find out of this applies to you.

Reach out to your academic advisor to figure out alternate arrangements. If your advisor isn't sure what to do, reach out to the Director of Undergrad Studies (Kathi Fisler) or the Director of Masters Studies (Nikos Triandopoulos). 

Each instructor decides how to handle overrides for their own courses. Many faculty will not issue any overrides until shopping period begins (because we are reserving seats for incoming students).