Honors College to Change Priority Registration for Next Spring

Less than a month before students begin building their spring schedules, Miami University’s Honors College is preparing to roll out a new priority registration system.

The new system will keep the “priority” label, but reshapes how, and when, Honors students actually register.

The change stems from the university’s transition to Workday Student, the new registration platform that will replace BannerWeb in 2027, according to a memo from Zeb Baker, the dean of the Honors College. The shift will alter the structure of priority registration beginning in spring 2027.

“Honors priority registration is not going away,” Baker wrote in the message. “You still have priority registration as an Honors College student.”

What is going away is the old system in which Honors students registered on a separate, early day — often well ahead of their non-Honors peers. Under the new model, Honors students will register at 7:00 a.m. on the day assigned to their class standing, meaning students of different years will no longer register together. Instead, each group will receive the earliest available time slot within its designated day.

The change is meant to make registration more consistent and reduce the number of override requests students submit when courses fill too quickly. Baker wrote the new system is designed to give Honors students first access to seats that open at the start of each registration group.

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“While a course may look closed during a student’s registration period, more seats may open in later registration groups and/or when open registration begins,” Baker wrote. “This system is in place to ensure an even distribution of course availability across the entire registration period for all Miami students.”

While this change represents a noticeable change in registration, for some students the changes barely register.

“I’m not too worried about changes,” said John Reed, a first-year student in the Honors College. “I have backups for all my classes.”

He pointed out that the change might matter more for students with fewer credits, especially first years in the last registration group, but said that conversations among his peers regarding the changes haven’t been focused on the changes in the policy itself.

“Any discussions have been very minimal,” Reed said. “It’s more so been specific to each person in regards to what classes they would have to take next semester.”

For students outside the Honors College, preemptive registration can often be viewed as potentially unfair, especially when there is lots of anxiety about registration in general.

“I personally don’t really think it’s fair that Honors students get to register early,” said Vince Sharpe, a sophomore data science and statistics major and member of the Naval ROTC. “We get priority registration for ROTC, but it’s only for specific naval courses we need to graduate.”

The Honors College advising team will be available throughout each registration day, according to Baker’s memo, and students are encouraged to meet with both Honors and college-specific advisors before their time ticket opens. The Spring 2027 course list became available Oct. 5, and registration time tickets will be visible in BannerWeb on Oct. 19.

martino9@miamioh.edu