Visit our Choosing First Year Courses page. Search for your program to view your First Year at a Glance and if there are any Important Notes specific to your program.

Login to Acadia Central with your username and password. If you have never logged in before, you will need to click ‘Forgot Password’ in order to request credentials to be sent to your personal email address. Your username can be found on the homepage of the Applicant Status Portal. Your username is the last six digits of your Student ID and the first letter of your last name.

Once you are logged into Acadia Central, click the Course Registration - Fall/Winter Courses tab on the left hand side of Acadia Central. You’ll now see four new tabs at the top of the page, Information, Timetable, Backpack, and Schedule. Click Schedule to see if you’ve been pre-registered* for any courses.



*Note: Do not drop any pre-registered courses from your Schedule, as they are required courses.

Click Timetable* to search for courses to begin course registration. Search by Faculty and Discipline then click the ‘View Courses’ button to generate results.

Table Guide

• Course: Click course code link to read a course description and view any alternate course sections
• Sec: If a course has multiple sections, they will be displayed here i.e. A1, B1, A2 , etc.
• Tip: If the number is a 1 it’s fall semester, 2 represents the winter semester, and 0 is a full year course. If you need to find an elective specific to the Fall or Winter term, we encourage you to use the Advanced Search option to narrow down your list of what you need to receive your full credit hours.
• Time: Time of day the course runs
• Days: Days of the week the course runs.
• Location: Location of course on campus. May also appear as TBD.
• Instructor: Course instructor. May also appear as TBD.

*Depending on your program of interest, you may already be registered for all of your courses.

Once you have searched for a course in the Timetable tab within Acadia Central, click the course code link of the desired course which will open a pop-up window. In this window you can read a brief description of the course and see when it is offered and how it fits within your schedule.

If the course works for your schedule, click ‘Add’ to add the course to your Backpack. Adding a course does not mean that you have registered for the course. The course will now be added to your Backpack which is similar to an online shopping cart.

Head to the Backpack tab in order to see how the course(s) fit into your schedule by clicking ‘View in Schedule’. Click the small checkbox to the right of the course, then click ‘Register’ in order to successfully register for the course(s).

Click the Schedule tab to see the courses that you have registered. To verify if you have a full course load, click the Information tab. You are required* to have a full course load of 15 credit-hours per semester for a total of 30 credit-hours.

*Note: If a course has a lab component, it does not count towards your full credit hours and are co-requisites (required) course components.

Your geographically-assigned Enrolment Advisor can help you with navigating the course registration process but ultimately they can not advise you on courses you should be taking.

Please connect with your faculty in order to receive guidance on the proper courses to register. You can find the contact information of your department by visiting your program of interest.

You can register any time after April 1st if you have accepted your offer of admission.  

You need 5 courses each semester. Each course is 3 hours per week (excluding labs) so your total credit-hours per semester should be 15 hours.  

No, labs are co-requisites for certain courses and those hours are in addition to your regular scheduled class.  

Some level 2000 courses are open to first year students, as they don’t have prerequisite requirements. Other courses may be open through special  permission,  but we suggest sticking mostly to level 1000 courses.  

Of course not! First year is  a time  to try new subjects  and intro courses are set up for students who have no prior knowledge of the subject.   

Refer to the  first year course guide  to see which courses are required for your specific program. Electives are  up  to you  - take what you’re interested in or perhaps try something new!    

Arts students must complete something called the “arts core”. It is recommended to complete this within your first two years.  

• 6 credit-hours in English
• 6 credit-hours in a single language other than English: French, German, Greek, Latin, or Spanish
• 6 credit-hours of Social Science: Economics, Politics, Sociology, or Women's and Gender Studies
• 6 credit-hours of Humanities: Art, Classics, Comparative Religion, History, Philosophy, Music, Women's and Gender Studies (Studio classes in Art and Music do not fulfil this requirement)
• 6 credit-hours of Science: Biology, Chemistry, Computer Science, Earth and Environmental Science, Engineering, Environmental and Sustainability Studies, Math and Stats, Nutrition, Physics, or Psychology

You will be academically advised by your department each year before you register.

Yes, professors give students ten minutes in between classes to get to other classrooms or across campus.

We suggest directly contacting your department for advising before registering if you wish to double major.  

Yes, you can email waitlists@acadiau.ca to be put on the waitlist for a class that is full. Include your student number and the class in your email.