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Registration for New Students

As a new SLIS student, you will only have a few decisions you will need to make in order to register for your first semester’s set of classes:

1. Part or full time?

Students may choose to study part time or full time. Students who choose to study part time generally take 3 – 6 credits (1 or 2 courses) per semester. Students who study full time generally take 9 credits (3 courses) per semester.

Students who wish to be considered eligible for financial aid must meet particular enrollment requirements. For financial aid purposes, graduate students must be registered for at least 5 credits (2 courses) to be considered part time, and must be registered for at least 9 credits (3 courses) to be considered full time. Please see Enrollment Requirements on the page for Financial Aid – Additional Forms and Policies.

Please see the Maximum Credit Load policy on the Forms & Policies page to see how many courses can be taken in a given semester. New students are strongly encouraged not to take more than three courses during their first semester if in fall or spring (or two courses in summer). Each student will progress through the program differently, depending on area of specialization and on how many courses are planned per semester.

2. What do you need to take in your first semester?

All Students:

All students are required to register for LIS 400: A Virtual Orientation, a zero-credit and un-graded class to be completed online. You will find this course in the “online” class options in Workday. It will be available to you about a month before classes start. This course describes program requirements; college, school, and program policy; and offers information about the full range of resources available to the students in support of their program. It also offers basic tutorial and instruction related to the use of Moodle (the learning management system used in online and face-to-face courses), library resources, and other key tools used to support student learning. This should be completed before the start of your classes.

All M.S. (LIS) Students:

All LIS students are required to take the three courses that comprise the core curriculum:

  • LIS 407 Information Sources and Services
  • LIS 415 Information Organization
  • LIS 488 Technology for Information Professionals*

*Students in the School Library Teacher program take LIS 460 (Technology and the School Library Teacher) instead of LIS 488.

Students must complete these core courses within their first 4 courses or 12 credits.

A student studying full time (3 courses per semester) might choose to take all of the core courses during their first semester, or choose to take one core course and two electives during their first semester, and the remainder of their core courses during their second semester.

A part time student choosing to take 2 courses per semester might choose to take two core courses during their first semester and one core course during their second, or choose to take one core course during their first semester and two core courses during their second.

Students may also choose an elective course within their first 12 credits. Those students new to the world of library and information science are encouraged to take LIS 401 (Foundations of Library and Information Science), which provides an overview of the field and its professional and intellectual foundations, in their first semester.

M.S. (LIS) Students:

Please refer to the links below for information about required courses for students in program concentrations.

Dual Degree Students:

Students in dual degree programs register for and take courses in two degree programs. Specific curricular requirements and course selection information may be found below:

3. Online or face-to-face?

All SLIS students may register for either online or face-to-face classes and may register for LIS classes on the Boston or Greenfield campuses. Students may choose to register for a combination of online and face-to-face classes in a single semester (e.g., a student may register for one online class and two face-to-face classes in a single semester) and may choose to register for a combination of online and face-to-face classes in Boston and Greenfield (e.g., a student may register for one online class, one class that meets in Boston, and one class that meets in Greenfield).

4. When do the classes meet?

You can see the course schedule either on the SLIS page, at courses.simmons.edu, or by logging into Workday. If you have any questions about any part of the registration process, please do not hesitate to contact us at [email protected].

Useful Links

If at any time you have a question, please do not hesitate to contact us at [email protected]. The links below may also provide you with some additional answers:

Registration Tools

Below we have listed some tools that are helpful while preparing for the registration process:

Advising Statement (on Forms & Policies page)

Program Learning Outcomes

Please note: the PDF version of the Course Catalog is only published once a year. Changes that are made during the academic year are included in the online version on our Course Descriptions page