The Office of Academic Advising offers support for students in planning their academic path and making sure all requirements are met for graduation. There, community members can meet the advising team consisting of Director Carrie Pierson, and academic advisors Joe Patrick and Nicole Mitchell.
With the fall semester only a few months away, course registration is now open to all students, and if you don’t know where to begin, the Office of Academic Advising has all the answers to your questions.
All registration for classes must be completed through portal.chatham.edu. There are two ways students can access the course schedule for fall 2026: through the student portal under the “Academics” tab or the my.chatham.edu website under “myTOOLS” and “Course Schedule.”
“We recommend the my.chatham.edu view because you can search for specific times or subjects more easily,” Pierson said.
However, undergraduate students may encounter two obstacles when registering: advising and financial holds. Advising holds are placed on students each semester until they have a meeting with their advisor to review academic progress and lift the advising hold that will allow them to register for classes. Students unsure of who their advisor is can find that information on my.Chatham under their profile or by emailing [email protected].
Financial holds are due to unpaid balances from previous semesters. For assistance, contact the Office of Student Accounts at [email protected].
“Students should start planning as soon as the next semester course schedule is published,” said Pierson. “It is never too early to start thinking about your academic progress and next semester schedule.”
It is important to enroll as soon as the registration window opens to have the best chances at taking classes before they become unavailable.
“If a course does not show on the portal as an option, that means it is full or you do not meet the pre-requisite requirement to register for the course yourself,” said Pierson.
In those cases, students can submit a prerequisite override form, found on my.chatham.edu in “Documents and Forms” under Academic Advising, that requests permission to join the class.
If a student fails to register within the proposed timeline, they should not panic. The registration portal remains open through the add/drop period of the term. However, if a student does not register within about 10 days of their registration date, someone from the advising team or other offices will reach out to see if they need support or have any questions. There is no penalty for late registration, but it can interfere with students’ eligibility to live on campus or to play a sport.
For this upcoming semester, students can look forward to some new classes being offered: COM313 Witches, Women and Media, EXS180 The Chemistry of Exercise, WSG313 Language, Gender and Sexuality. New language courses may be introduced this fall semester as well.
“Please stop by any of our offices or find us on campus if you have any questions at all,” said Pierson. “Registration should be exciting, not stressful and we want to help students feel more comfortable around the process.”
Students can stop by their offices, housed within the Academic Success Center, located in the Coolidge Room C035 or Falk Room F011, or reach out at [email protected].
