The 1L Curriculum and Registration Information

The 1L Curriculum and Registration for your Spring Courses

The 1L spring term curriculum consists of the two already scheduled spring courses, an international/comparative law course chosen from a select group of 1L offerings in this area, and a spring term elective of 2-4 classroom credits chosen from the upper-level curriculum. This document gives some information about the registration processes for these courses. Of course, if you have any questions, don’t hesitate to call or email the Registrar's Office at 617-495-4612 or registrar@law.harvard.edu.
The registration periods for both the international/comparative law courses and the upper-level spring elective courses are in November as described below. All of your registration and drop/add activity will take place on MyPlan, the School's online course registration system.
We will be hosting two information sessions in the Ames Courtroom on the use of MyPlan: one on Monday, October 26 at 5 pm and a second on Thursday, October 29 at 12 pm. We encourage you to attend one of these sessions.
You can access this system by going to the Registrar's home page at www.law.harvard.edu/academics/registrar/ or to myplan.law.harvard.edu.

1L International/Comparative Law Courses
Registration for your 1L international/comparative law course begins November 10 at 9am and runs until November 13 at 5:00 pm. A list of the 1L international/comparative law courses is available here: http://www.law.harvard.edu/academics/registrar/1l/international-comparative-courses.html. You will need to prioritize all 7 of these offerings in the registration process. All of the courses are scheduled to meet Thursdays and Fridays 10 am to 12 pm, so you need not worry about how your international/comparative preferences will affect your spring elective course choices.
Please note that no course assignments will be made until after the registration closes on November 13 at 5:00 pm. There is no advantage to early submission of preferences. You may select your preferences at any time during the registration period, and may change them as often as you like. Once registration is closed, the system will assign you to one of the courses based upon the last set of preferences you submitted. Your assigned international/comparative law course will be posted on MyPlan by November 16 at 5pm.

Spring Elective Courses
In addition to the international/comparative law course, 1L students take one elective course in the spring term. The course must earn 2 – 4 classroom credits. Most of the upper-level electives are open to 1L students. (A few courses are not available to 1Ls because of 2L and 3L enrollments, prerequisites, or faculty preferences.) The list of elective courses available to each section is on the Registrar's page at http://www.law.harvard.edu/academics/registrar/1l/index.html.
NOTE: If you have been accepted to Negotiations, you do not need to register for another Spring Elective.
Registration for spring elective courses begins November 17 at 9am and continues until November 20 at 5:00 pm. You must select a minimum of 5 courses and may select up to a maximum of 15 courses from within the group of electives available to your section. We recommend that you submit for at least 8 courses and include in your selections a few courses with a substantial number of seats available to 1L students. You will then rank those courses according to your preferences. As with the international/comparative law course registration, there is no advantage to early submission of preferences, and you may make changes to your preferences throughout the registration period. The system will process the last set of preferences each student submits before the registration site closes at 5:00 pm on November 20. The system will then sort all student entries and register students into courses. Results will be posted on MyPlan by November 23 at 5:00 pm.

Programs of Study
As you turn to selecting courses for the first time, one source of advice comes from the Programs of Study, a developing initiative joining faculty and students in areas of shared interests. Five Programs of Study are now launched and help identify courses at the Law School and the rest of the university, clinics and practice opportunities, research opportunities, and career paths in these areas:
1) Law and Government;
2) Law and Business;
3) Law, Science, and Technology;
4) Law and Social Change; and
5) International and Comparative Law.
You can check out the web-links and side-bar discussions associated with each of these Programs of Study to see suggestions about germane courses (some may not seem so obvious!) and activities and to find other students and faculty with shared interests.

Wait list for International/Comparative and Spring Elective Courses
You will be placed on a wait list for any courses higher on your priority list than the course you are given. The waitlist processing periods for International/Comparative and Spring Elective Courses will run from December 1 to December 4, and again from January 25 through January 29. During these periods, MyPlan will automatically send you an “Entitled to Add” notice via email if a seat becomes available in one of your waitlisted classes. The email will be sent at around 9:00 am and you will then have 10 hours to add the course. If you have not added the course during this 10-hour period, your space will be offered to the next student on the waitlist. If you have any questions or concerns during the waitlist process, please contact the Registrar's Office at 617-495-4612.

Drop/add for International/Comparative and Spring Elective Courses
In addition to the possibility of adding yourself to a wait listed course during the wait list processing periods, you will have the opportunity to add yourself to open courses or wait lists at any time between November 24 and January 29.

By Permission Courses
Some courses require permission of the faculty member to enroll. Such courses are listed at the bottom of the elective options for your 1L section. You will find instructions for requesting permission on the course description page for each course.

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For additional information regarding 1L spring course registration, see the following links:
• List of 1L international/comparative law courses
• List of available spring electives by section
• HLS 2009-10 Course Catalog

Don’t hesitate to be in touch with any of us in the Registrar's Office if you have questions!