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Pre-Registration Overview

To help incoming fall first-year students build their very first class schedule at UNC, we ‘jump start’ their registration process by pre-registering them into classes that are required of all first-years, such as First-Year Seminars and Triple-I & Data Literacy Labs.

The Office of Undergraduate Curricula manages the pre-registration process for incoming fall first-year students. These students complete the First-Year Pre-Registration Survey (available beginning mid-April). The survey includes questions about earned test scores, placement credit, and class preferences.

Students are pre-registered into First-Year Foundations classes based on answers they have given in the survey. This happens prior to the first-year registration sessions in July. Eligible First-Year Foundations classes include:

General Timeline

  • Mid-April – May 29*: Admitted first-year students complete First-Year Pre-Registration Survey
    • *Honors first-year students complete the Honors Pre-Registration Survey by May 19
  • Late May: Data from survey is used to generate class assignments
  • Early June – late-June: First-Year students are pre-registered into classes in ConnectCarolina
  • July – early August: First-year students register for classes during their assigned registration sessions
  • August 2: Open Enrollment for first-year students (students can get back into ConnectCarolina to make schedule adjustments)

Honors Pre-Registration

A separate pre-registration process is managed by the Honors Carolina Office for students admitted to the honors program. These students will not complete the standard First-Year Pre-Registration Survey. Instead, they will complete an honors-specific pre-registration survey. Courses included in the honors process are HNRS 101, Honors FY Seminars and FY Launches, sections of ENGL 105/i, and other honors courses that are appropriate for first-year students.

First-Year Pre-Registration Survey Student FAQ

This process helps you jump-start your first registration period as a Carolina student. We want to make sure you are enrolled in courses that you are required to take in your first year as soon as possible so you can focus on other pre-arrival tasks. It is recommended that all first years take at least two First-Year Foundations courses in their first semester at Carolina, so pre-registration is a way to help you do that.

The survey goes live in mid-April. Once this occurs (and after you have enrolled at UNC), you will receive an email from Undergraduate Admissions with the survey link. Beginning in mid-April, you can also access the survey directly from the First-Year checklist page on the Admissions website. See “By May 29” section.

The deadline to complete the First-Year Pre-Registration Survey is 11:59pm, May 29. We recommend completing the survey in one sitting, but you do have the ability to save your progress and return to it later. All survey responses must be submitted (you will receive a confirmation email after submitting) by 11:59pm on May 29, or your answers will not be recorded, and we will not be able to pre-register you in classes of your choice. We will still attempt to pre-register all incoming first-year students in at least one required First-Year Foundations class.

Good news! All classes listed in the survey satisfy First-Year Foundations requirements in the IDEAs in Action Curriculum. As a first-year student, you are required to complete the First-Year Foundations requirements in your first year. Some of these classes also fulfill major and additional IDEAs in Action Curriculum requirements, such as Focus Capacities or Reflection & Integration requirements. We suggest that you select classes in the survey that interest you, knowing they will fulfill requirements that you have to take anyway. You can always drop them later during your summer registration session if they don’t work out with your schedule or you decide you are no longer interested in that class.

No. Pre-registration is meant to jump start your registration process to get some required classes on your schedule. If they don’t ultimately work with your schedule or you decide you’re no longer interested in the class, you are welcome to drop one or all of your pre-registered classes during your first-year registration session over the summer.

You can take the following steps to ensure you can access the survey.

  1. Make sure to set up your UNC username (also known as your “ONYEN”) and your UNC email address. You can find instructions to set these up on the Admissions website. Please be aware that it takes up to 24 hours after you set up your ONYEN for it to populate in the system and allow you to log into the First-Year Pre-Registration Survey.
  2. The survey works best in Firefox and Chrome; if you are not using one of these web browsers, we encourage you to try this step next. If you are using these browsers, please clear your history, cookies and cache, and retry the survey.

If you continue to have issues accessing the survey 24 hours after you created your ONYEN and UNC email address, please email us at pre-registration-help@unc.edu and include your name, PID, and a screenshot of the error message you received. We’ll escalate this to our IT support partners.

Please send us an email at pre-registration-help@unc.edu. A member of our team will be in touch to help you.

Not all UNC Language Placement exams are available right away. For any language besides the four listed above, you do not need a UNC Placement Exam score to complete the Pre-Registration Survey. You can learn about your options on the Language Placement site.

Note: If you have prior knowledge of Chinese and want to take Chinese, you should sign up for the UNC Chinese Placement Test and then continue with the Pre-Registration Survey. The Chinese placement exams occur later in the summer and into fall. See the Department of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies website to learn more about the placement exam and options for registering into Chinese courses.

These are special, smaller versions of large introductory courses. They introduce you to a certain major and help you make a connection early on with an instructor. First-Year Launches fulfill a requirement in your prospective major while also fulfilling your FY-SEMINAR/FY-LAUNCH First-Year Foundations requirement in the IDEAs in Action Curriculum.

  1. Some First-Year Launches have pre- or corequisites. The First-Year Seminar/First-Year Launch Brochure shows the pre- or corequisites for each class. If you have taken placement exams or transferred in credit from another institution, check the transfer credit page on the Admissions website to be sure you will receive credit for the pre- or corequisites.
  2. Students cannot transfer in credit for or place out of the First-Year Launch First-Year Foundations requirement, but you can transfer into or place out of the class that a specific First-Year Launch section is based on (e.g. PSYC 101, BIOL 101, CHEM 102, etc.). If you have taken placement exams or transferred in credit from another institution, check the Admissions website’s transfer credit page. If you will receive credit for the course the First-Year Launch is based on, do not include this First-Year Launch in your list of 10 preferred First-Year Seminars and First-Year Launches.

If the class has a “H” at the end of the catalog number (e.g., AMST 55H-001), it is an honors class. These classes are reserved for Honors Carolina students and are not included in the survey. You may have the option to enroll in one of these classes in August, depending on seat availability.

No, the First-Year Pre-Registration survey is for non-Honors students. You will be contacted separately by the Honors Carolina program about their pre-registration process and your fall classes.

Through the CAA, you will fulfill most of the First-Year Foundations requirements and many other General Education requirements in the IDEAs in Action Curriculum (See: Information for North Carolina Early College Students); however, you are still eligible to enroll in First-Year Foundations classes. Completing this survey is the best way to let us know your plans as a student coming in under the CAA. If you don’t want to be pre-registered into First-Year Foundations, you must indicate that on the survey. If you do want to be pre-registered, you can select your preferred classes in the survey. Most CAA students prefer not to be pre-registered.

Contacts

  • For student questions or issues filling out the pre-registration survey: pre-registration-help@unc.edu
  • SSM or faculty questions about the seat reserve and pre-registration process: First-Year Curriculum Specialist, Ben Haven
  • Honors first-year pre-registration questions: Honors Director of Recruiting and Operations, Jason Clemmons