Who can cross-register?
Any full-time MIT graduate student (including full-time special students) can cross-register during the fall and/or spring term. A full-time special student is defined by the payment of full tuition during a term; however, if at any point during the term tuition falls below full, the Harvard subject will have to be dropped.
The cross-registration program does not include classes at the Harvard Extension School or Harvard Summer School. Cross-registration at Harvard is not available during MIT's January Independent Activities Period (IAP).
Where do I begin?
Graduate students can pick up cross-registration petitions and instructions at the Student Services Center, 11-120.
How many subjects can I take at Harvard?
Full-time graduate students can take up to one-half their total registration (units) for the term at Harvard.
Where do I find out about subjects at Harvard?
Harvard catalog information is also available on-line. Faculty of Arts and Sciences catalogs are available for perusal in the HASS Education Office, 14N-410.
What do I do once I have the cross-registration petition?
Fill in the required student information, subject name, and number in the appropriate spaces. Then obtain the four signatures needed to approve the cross-registration petition:
- MIT Registrar's Office Representative
- MIT Faculty Advisor or Registration Officer
- Harvard Instructor
- Harvard Registrar
Who decides the credit-level and units for a Harvard subject?
All graduate level subjects will be assigned "H-level" credit and all undergraduate level subjects will be given "N-level" credit, unless otherwise specified by the Advisor or Registration Officer. The MIT Registrar's Office will assign units for Harvard subjects (see Conversion of Harvard Credits to MIT Units). The only exception is if the subject is unit-arranged. In this case, your Advisor or Registration Officer is responsible for assigning units.
Where do all the copies go?
The cross-registration petition is a multi-part form. In order to be correctly registered at both schools, file the canary copy of the petition with the appropriate Harvard Registrar AND file the white copy of the petition with the MIT Registrar. Filing a petition with Harvard will not automatically register you for the subject at MIT, and vice versa. The pink copy of the graduate cross-registration petition is the Department copy. The gold copy is the student copy.
By when do I have to do all this?
It is advisable to begin exploring cross-registration early. Cross-registration deadlines at several Harvard graduate schools (for example, the Business School) fall either before or within the first week of MIT classes.
Students must meet the earlier of MIT's or Harvard's cross-registration or add/drop/change deadlines and must abide by the rules of both MIT and the Harvard School into which you are cross-registering. MIT Academic Calendar ($40 late fee).
NOTE: Upon filing a petition with the Harvard Faculty of Arts and Sciences, the Harvard Business School and/or the JFK School of Government, both Registrar's copies of the petition will be kept. Once accepted into the subject, the Harvard Registrar will mail the MIT Registrar's copy to the MIT Registrar's Office.
NOTE: If your Harvard subject is not on your status of registration by Add Date, please contact the MIT Registrar's Office promptly, records@mit.edu, to confirm that MIT has received your petition.
Do I also have to file a MIT Add/Drop/Change Form to add my Harvard subject?
NO, filing an MIT cross-registration petition will complete the process for adding a Harvard subject.
How do I drop a Harvard subject?
When copies of the cross-registration petition have been filed with both the Harvard Registrar and the MIT Registrar's Office, turn in your MIT Add/Drop/Change Form signed by your faculty advisor or registration officer, to the MIT Student Services Center,11-120 or the Registrar's Office, 5-119. MIT will notify the Harvard Registrar's Office that you are dropping the subject.
NOTE: Filing a drop after Harvard's Drop deadline but before MIT's Drop deadline, will result in the subject being dropped from your MIT record but the subject will not be dropped from Harvard's records. At the end of the term, your Harvard record will show a no credit or failing grade.
Do I need to do anything if I filed a cross-registration petition with Harvard but then decided not to take the Harvard subject and I never returned a copy of the petition to MIT?
YES. Filing a cross-registration petition with the Harvard Registrar enrolled you in the subject at Harvard. To be removed from Harvard's class list, complete an MIT Add/Drop/Change Form (no advisor's signature necessary) or write a letter stating that you wish to be dropped from the subject. Deliver the letter or Add/Drop/Change Form signed by your advisor, to the MIT Registrar's Office, 5-119. This should be done by the Harvard School's drop deadline. The Registrar's Office will then contact the appropriate Harvard Registrar to remove your name from their class list.
I took a divisible, full year subject at the Harvard School of Arts and Sciences in the fall. I am not continuing in the subject in the spring. Do I need to do anything?
YES. Although MIT and Harvard require a petition to be filed each term for a divisible, full year subject, no credit for the first term will be given if you do not petition to divide the course. The ninth Tuesday of the spring term is the last day students may elect to divide a "Divisible" full course with half-credit for the fall term and receive the mid-year grade as the fall-term grade. (Petitions are available in the Harvard Registrar's Office; the instructor's signature is required.) STUDENTS MAY NOT DIVIDE WITH CREDIT COURSES DESIGNATED AS "INDIVISIBLE" in the Courses of Instruction. If a student wishes to postpone taking the spring term half of an "Indivisible" full course, that half may be "suspended," with the instructor's permission, by filing a petition by the deadline for dropping a course in the spring term.
If I have other questions about cross-registration, whom should I contact?
Questions about cross-registration should be directed to the MIT Registrar's Office, records@mit.edu.
Copyright © 2006
Massachusetts Institute of Technology