School Starts Soon: What's Next?

There are some things you can do now; there are other things that matter the most in the first two weeks of each semester, and there is stuff to be aware of for later in your first term or your first term back -- Greetings, Readmits! Click on the links below to learn more. If you have any questions, email any of the advisors listed in your LORA account, or the head of your program or department, or the college-level advisors in your Dean's office.

Finding Contact Information on loyno.edu

Your primary advisor/s will be listed in your LORA account. LORA Self-service is found in the Single-Sign-On.
Every department webpage has a Faculty/Staff tab that gives the complete contact listing for everyone in the department. Try Loyola’s VSW (Very Searchable Website) by typing the name of your department into the Search Box (which is also at the top of every Loyola webpage), and follow the links…
To search for faculty or staff by first or last name, click here: https://www.loyno.edu/search/people

*BUT FIRST: Always put your name and ID# in the Subject of the email when requesting assistance or information.***

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You must accept your Registration Agreement by the day before school starts. The Registrar reserves the right to Drop the schedules of students who are not in compliance by the deadline. After you set up your 1) Gmail, 2) Microsoft365 account, and 3) Single-Sign-On (SSO), navigate to the home page in LORA:

1) Choose the person-icon (User Options) on the bottom-left side of the screen to sign your Registration Agreement (and update your Emergency Contact Information).

Update your Emergency Contacts

This is also under User Options on the lower left side of your main LORA screen, and must also be done by the day before school starts.

Request Changes to your Draft Schedule

Your current classes are a first effort to get you into the perfect schedule for your first term. If you believe you need different or additional classes, please follow the guidelines below: Your dedicated advisor sent you the onboarding email that led you to this webpage -- after you Plan your courses in LORA as described, reply to your advisor in the same email thread letting them know you're interested in making a change. The power-hints listed below describe the same basics of how you will do registration by yourself later in your first semester when you're choosing your own courses for next semester. Some of this is covered in this Pan-American Life Student Success Center Youtube video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8gUfan2gTUI&list=PLxFcxZmViR7H3lUttmxmy0ukk8EiMjG00&index=3

1. Inside your Progress tab in LORA, click Expand All at the top. This is the program that matches the classes you take to the requirements they fulfill. Requirements will be displayed several ways: There will be 1-class, named, requirements; there will be some shown as a list of options; and for others, you will click the Search button to the right of a requirement to display the matches.

2. You can also Search via the box in the upper right corner of the screen (very fast), or use the Course Catalog tab: Setting the filters in the Catalog will help eliminate automatically unavailable courses from your search results: a) Set the Term, b) Location is Main (will block out City College courses), c) and Academic Level is Undergraduate (will block out Graduate-level courses).

When the results are returned, look to the left of the screen, and check the box for Open Sections Only

3. Courses being offered this semester will display a gray banner that says View Available Sections for… Click the banner to see more info.

4. Sections where the last 3 digits are Y _ _ are not available (for example, CRIM A110 YA1)

5. Inside the course listing, click on the course-code to see prerequisites, restrictions, and available seats. Please only request courses for which you are eligible, and when seats are available. 5 / 30 / 0 means 5 seats are available out of 30 with no one waiting.

6. Loyola New Orleans does not place new students on waitlists in their first semester: This is to guarantee you real courses; to protect your financial aid if applicable; to keep you on track for graduation; to maximize your first-semester GPA; and to help ensure your best first semester ever. You will be able to Waitlist yourself in your second semester.

7. When you find an available section for which you are eligible, click Add Section to Schedule. When you’re done searching and adding, navigate back to your Course-Plan, and use the Calendar-view to make sure that all of your time-slots line-up. Work through this are to eliminate any and all time-conflicts with other sections. Use the button below each listing to View Other Sections of the same courses in the Calendar Grid until it is perfect.

Again, when you're done Planning, email the advisor that sent you your onboarding email. When referring to courses, always give the entire course-code/s including the last 3 digits: For example, HIST-T122-001. HIST-T122 is not enough information.

Send Transcripts and Score Reports to Admissions (admit@loyno.edu)

As you review your registration, please keep in mind that Loyola accepts most transfer work graded C or higher, and we have a very generous advanced-placement policy.

https://bulletin.loyno.edu/regulations/academic-credit-and-placement

https://bulletin.loyno.edu/regulations/academic-credit-and-placement#transfer-academic-credit-undergraduate

Dual-enrollment credit, transfer credit, Advanced Placement test scores (AP), International Baccalaureate test scores (IB), and CLEP test scores: Please don’t forget to send your final, official, transcripts (from the college where the classes were taken), and official score reports from the appropriate advanced placement agency: These should go directly to our office of Admissions, admit@loyno.edu

ACT and SAT scores can be voluntarily submitted for math placement exclusively – email them to admit@loyno.edu and make the Subject of the email ACT/SAT for Math Placement.v

Math Placement

While Loyola admissions are test-blind, most STEM Majors require a form of math placement (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics, as well as Business Analytics at Loyola). If you have not chosen a Major in a STEM field, skip this section. If you have chosen a Major in a STEM field (or are thinking about changing to one), see below for more information on how you may already have math placement or how you can establish it if needed or if you should start the math ladder with College Algebra:

The complete list of Majors that will benefit from establishing math placement is here (along with the grids by target math class):

https://bulletin.loyno.edu/regulations/academic-credit-and-placement#mat...

The target math class for many of these Majors is Calculus: The two classes leading up to it are College Algebra, followed by Pre-Calculus.

-- Math placement can be official college transcripts for dual-enrollment or transfer credit for the above graded C or higher.

--Official score reports for AP, IB, and CLEP, are also welcome, along with voluntarily submitted ACT and/or SAT. https://bulletin.loyno.edu/regulations#academic-credit-placement

-- Send official documentation directly to admit@loyno.edu. To submit ACT and SAT reports, make the Subject of the email Name, ID# -- ACT/SAT for Math Placement.

--For those programs where placement is necessary to seat students in the correct first math class, in the absence of the other placement instruments listed, the ALEKS math assessment can be taken at Loyola. http://cas.loyno.edu/aleks

--Default placement is into MATH A110, Concepts in College Algebra – no placement or assessments are required for this option, and it makes sense for many students, but speak with your Major-Advisor in LORA about how to stay on time in your Major math-related requirements.

Language Placement

Language: http://bulletin.loyno.edu/regulations/academic-credit-and-placement#language-requirement-placement
Language placement testing (French and Spanish) https://language-center.loyno.edu/
Language placement testing (Latin and Greek) http://cas.loyno.edu/classical-studies/greek-and-latin-placement-exams

During the First Two Weeks

The Academic Calendar: What to do and WHEN

Dates and deadlines matter: Bookmark this web-page that houses the Academic Calendars for every semester so you never miss a deadline or an opportunity. The calendar includes dates related to Adding, Dropping, Withdrawing, refunds, grades, holidays, final exams, and more...

Just one quick example... this would be an excellent time to check your final schedule in your LORA account in your LORA account through the Single-Sign-On. Look for the LORA Self-service tile.
Missing a class? You can generally ADD classes to your schedule until the end of the 1st week of classes.
Too many classes or have what you feel is the wrong class? You can generally DROP classes until the end of the 2nd week of school. (Roughly 15 credits per semester is the official recommendation: 15 credits x 2 semesters x 4 years is the 120 credits minimum needed for most undergraduate degree-plans...)
Whether you need to Add or Drop in this special time, reach out asap to your faculty advisor for help completing these actions.

Important Note: Once the DROP deadline passes, the only way out of the class is via Withdrawal. Please see the next section!

Dropping versus Withdrawing from classes

There are 3 chances to refine your schedule each semester:

When the semester starts, students usually have the first week of classes to continue ADDING courses. Always check the Academic Calendars to ensure you're working with the correct dates -- there are sub-sessions within the semester (1st and last 8-week sessions, for example) that have their own, different, key dates. If in doubt, check directly with the Registrar, registrar@loyno.edu
Typically students can also DROP courses through the first and second week of school (again, beware of the sub-sessions -- their deadlines are usually much shorter). When students DROP courses, the courses do not appear on their transcripts.
If a student stays in a course past the official Drop-deadline (whether it was for the regular semester or for a sub-session), but does not wish to finish the class for any reason, there is only one option remaining, which is to Withdraw from the course.
The course WILL appear on transcripts with a "grade" of "W," but does NOT factor into GPA calculations.
Withdrawals are an email away. See your colleges forms page above or below. Always put your full name and your campus-wide ID# in the Subject of any email you write at Loyola -- it will help us help you faster!
The deadline for Withdrawals is near the end of the semester or the session (check the Academic Calendars for the exact dates and for sub-session dates).
This allows students to check their near-final grade for a class and make an educated decision about whether there are enough opportunities remaining in the class to positively impact their grade, or whether it would be better to Withdraw in order to protect their GPAs.

College of Arts and Sciences: http://cas.loyno.edu/cas-forms-online

College of Business: http://business.loyno.edu/forms

College of Music and Media: http://cmm.loyno.edu/online-forms

Later in the First Semester

Advisor-Transition

After the Drop-classes deadline, departments and programs may make updates to student advisor-advisee assignments:

You may be reassigned from your original advisor (who prepared your first schedule) to your next or permanent faculty-advisor or departmental-advisor.

You can find the name of your current, new, and/or additional advisor/s (if assigned) in your LORA account through the Single-Sign-On. Look for the LORA Self-service tile.

Registration-Advising & Scheduling

Your original advisor will have helped make your first schedule for you. Going forward, the process is a little different.

Course-offerings for next semester will appear in LORA: This usually happens mid-semester. Check the Academic Calendars for the start of Registration-advising, and see this Registration page for other important dates, including when you can personally register, how to deal with registration holds, tips for using LORA, as well as additional links to advising information, student success, accessibility services and accommodations, tutoring, coaching, workshops, and more. These are great pages to bookmark.
Put some of these dates on your calendar, and well in advance of Registration-advising, plan a consultation with your departmental faculty advisor or your Pan-American Life Student Success advisor. Many advisors send a "sign-up" email to their students -- check your Loyola email regularly to ensure you don't miss an invitation.

Before your meeting, Plan a working schedule to propose to your advisor via your LORA account under the Course Plan tab: A working schedule means ensuring there are no issues with the courses you propose, including no time-conflicts (classes that overlap each other), no prerequisite issues (courses that require that the student had a preparatory class in advance of the desired course), and lastly, that there are actually seats available in the desired course/s.

1. From inside your Progress report, you will see named requirements, or lists to choose from, or requirements will offer you a Search button to the right of the requirement.

2. You can also search via the Course Catalog tab in LORA: Set the filters to show you ONLY classes for which you may be eligible: a) Set the Term, b) set the Location to Main if you usually attend classes in person on campus or set this to Online if you are a member of the City College, c) and set the Academic Level to Undergraduate or Graduate as appropriate.

3. The course-catalog displays every course ever taught, so only click on the gray-bars labeled View Available Sections for… If that wording isn’t there, the course is not being offered. Be sure to click the gray-bar, or you’ll miss the actual sections with their days and times.

4. Inside the course-listing, click on the hyper-linked course-code to see prerequisites and restrictions. If you do not meet the prereqs or the restrictions, it generally means you cannot take the course yet. Consider scheduling the preqrequisite course instead, and discuss with your advisor.

5. Make note of course capacity in the left of each listing: 5 / 30 / 0 means 5 seats are available out of 30 with no one waiting. If the Section has 0 seats or is labeled Waitlisted, that course is not available. You can indeed Waitlist yourself for courses in your 2nd semester, but be sure to read that section of this guide below. There are some tips for helping to ensure you get your seat.

6. When you find an available section of interest, click the button labeled Add Section to Schedule – depending on how you navigated to the course, you may have to choose the semester again.

7. At this point, you have only Planned the course. You won't be able to self-register until your advisor clears you for registration. It also has to be your designated time to register -- check the Registrar's timetable. When discussing classes with your advisor/s over email, refer to the entire course-code/s including the last 3 digits, for example: SUBJ - _### - _ _ _ (NOTE: Sections ending in Y _ _ are only available to students in the City College.)

8. You will also need to accept each semester’s official “Registration Agreement” before you’ll be allowed to register, as well as affirm your emergency contact information.

9. Check with your advisor if in doubt about anything, listen to their advice, follow-up on any thumbs-up or down feedback they give you through your LORA account's Course Plan, and check to see if all of your work has landed in the right places on your Progress tab.

10. Once school starts, clean up your Course Plan -- eliminate any Planned courses that you will not sign up for in a given term so that your Progress report remains accurate.

Most holds will need to be resolved prior to registration (see the Notifications icon on your splash page in your LORA account). Some holds do NOT restrict registration (Transcript Holds), but others do. Contact the office/s listed to try and resolve your hold as soon as possible -- make this a priority. Delaying may cause you to miss out on classes you wanted to take.

BUT WAIT! How will you know what courses to choose? Presenting…

Degree-tracking (How to Graduate)

Degree-tracking just means keeping a record of the courses you take, matched to the requirements they fulfill. Most programs display a digital and interactive version of a student's degree-requirements in their LORA account under the Progress tab. The Progress tab matches the courses you take to the requirements the courses fulfill, but it also offers lists of eligible courses per requirement, assists in requirement searches, and displays actual degree-progress, credit-counts, GPAs, and more.

These are also written out in the annual Bulletin and the Bulletin Archives according to college and catalog year.

Most important of all: Do not wait to set up the Registration-advising meeting with your advisor -- delaying may cause you to miss out on classes you wanted to take.

When you're ready, see this link for more information about your Progress tab and graduation.

Finding Loyola Core Classes

How to find classes that fulfill the Loyola Core "Knowledge/Values" requirements

Some classes in your degree-plan are very specific named courses like ENGLT122 or SCIET129. You must take an exact class to satisfy the requirement. Other items are categories, like "Creative Arts and Cultures" or "Writing About Literature." For the category-classes, you can often choose between several courses in several departments. See this curriculum link in the Bulletin for more about the Loyola Core requirements: https://bulletin.loyno.edu/undergraduate/cross-college-programs#loyola-core
Navigate to LORA Self-service through the Single-Sign-On to view class options versus your own degree-plan needs. Use the Course Catalog within your LORA account, and see the drop-down for Course-Type. This will take you to the offerings by category/requirement.
As a general rule of thumb, A-coded courses, for example, SUBJ-A-###, almost never count for the Loyola Core (there are a few exceptions in the Science Majors and in Honors).
Be sure to check how all of these land in your Progress report -- if a Planned course isn't where you thought it would go, investigate further -- search again, or talk to your advisor if you get stuck.

How to Work the WAITLISTS

Loyola's new database automatically contacts students who have progressed to the next available seat. The student will be given a time period to self-register or to reach out to an advisor for assistance if any difficulties occur. If an ineligible student is on a waitlist, the system will not enroll them automatically. It will help to understand why any difficulties might occur in case those situations can be avoided completely: If self-registration is not possible for one of the below reasons, and if resolution does not occur in the time-period allowed, the database will automatically pass over students who are ineligible to take their waitlisted course, and assign the section-seat to the next eligible student on the waitlist. Faculty and staff with advising responsibilities should verify that students are actually eligible to enroll for a seat in the section prior to any advisement encouraging the use of waitlists.

The system will not process a waitlist enrollment in the following situations:

The student is on the waitlist, but their advisor has not cleared them to register, if required
The student is on the waitlist, but they do not meet the prerequisites or restrictions for the section
The student is on the waitlist, but they have university holds on their record that prevent them from registering
The student is on the waitlist, but is already enrolled in a different section of the same course
The student is on the waitlist, but has a time conflict with the waitlisted section
The student is on the waitlist, but there is no room in their schedule to add more credit hours without going over maximum (overload)
The student is on the waitlist for both a lecture and for a lab -- these courses have to be registered simultaneously, so if the lecture comes through, but the lab is still waiting, it will skip over the student.

Students who DO get seats from the waitlists WILL be notified by email.

Loyola University New Orleans

Search Form

BUT FIRST: Always put your name and ID# in the Subject of the email when requesting assistance or information.