Important Emails and Communications with Students from the Registrar and DOF

Wednesday, September 2, 2026

Hello all Bates students,

Welcome to the Fall 2026 semester! 

I hope you all had a good summer and are excited to start a new Fall semester at Bates. I write with some important information that will assist you in getting situated and started in this new semester. Please always refer to the Student Advising Portal as a resource for information on registration and resources that may be useful to you as you make your way through the semester. 

Your Course Schedule for Fall 2026

• The Add/Drop period opened yesterday, Tuesday, September 1 at 7 AM. You can adjust your course schedule over the next couple of weeks as you explore what classes work best for your academic exploration and meet your remaining requirements.
  • New for this year: There’s a new feature called ‘Conditional Add/Drop’ that will allow you to tell the system to drop a course on your schedule only if the course(s) you are attempting to add are successfully placed on your schedule.  
• The deadlines for the last day to add a class and the last day to drop a class can be found at the Important Dates and Deadlines Calendar at the Student Advising Portal. 

• Information on Off-Campus Study can be found here.
• If you are interested in student research, you can find information here.

Information by Class Year

Class of 2027 (Seniors) – Please read this section and take any needed action

• If you are a senior, please review your Degree Audit to ensure all of your degree requirements are either already fulfilled or that you can work with your academic advisor to ensure completion by the Winter 2027 semester. Your Degree Audit is accessible via Garnet Gateway. 

Class of 2028 (Juniors) – Please read this section and take any needed action

• Please review your Degree Audit to ensure that you are on track with completing all degree requirements: 5 of 6 MOIs, 3 Ws, and Major + 1. You can get to Garnet Gateway by going to www.bates.edu/g or simply going to the Garnet Gateway link at the Student Advising Portal.
• Please note that it is recommended that all students complete their MOI requirements before the end of their sophomore year, so if you have any MOIs left to complete, please consider taking courses that are tagged with MOIs either this semester or next.

Class of 2029 (Sophomores) – Please read this section and take any needed action

• If you are a sophomore, please remember that you must declare your Major Plus 1 by March 1, 2027. If you are intending to study abroad during 2026-27, you must declare at least your Major by Mid January, 2027 to meet study abroad deadlines. 
• All students must have 1 major at Bates. The “+ 1” can be fulfilled either by a second major, a minor, or a Concentration. Concentrations are course clusters that are often transdisciplinary. These require 4 courses or 4 credits (depending on the concentration). A full list of Concentrations can be found in the Bates Catalog.
• Declaring the major or a minor is a multi-step process that starts with you indicating an intention to declare a major on Garnet Gateway (simply click on the link labeled “Declaring Majors, Minors, and General Education Concentrations”). The declaration process usually involves meeting with faculty in your major or minor field of study before the declaration is finalized, and this can take a couple of weeks. 
• Please review your Degree Audit to ensure that you are on track with completing all degree requirements: 5 of 6 MOIs, 3 Ws, and Major Plus 1. You can get to Garnet Gateway by going to www.bates.edu/g or simply going to the Garnet Gateway link at the Student Advising Portal.
• Please note that it is recommended that all students complete their MOI requirements before the end of their sophomore year, so if you have any MOIs left to complete, please consider taking courses that are tagged with MOIs either this Fall semester or next Winter semester.

Class of 2030 (First-Years) – Please read this section and take any needed action

• Welcome to your first semester at Bates! You should have met with your FYS instructor, who is also your pre-major academic advisor, during the first meeting of your First-Year Seminar last Friday. It is recommended that all students complete their MOIs before the end of their sophomore year. Please be sure to review your Degree Audit to ensure that you are on track with completing degree requirements. You can get to Garnet Gateway by going to www.bates.edu/g or simply going to the Garnet Gateway link at the Student Advising Portal.
• Continue to work with your pre-major academic advisor/FYS instructor to explore the curriculum to identify possible majors, minors, and/or GECs that you are interested in pursuing.

Please be in touch with your academic advisor should you have questions. Thank you.

Michael Rocque

Associate Dean of Faculty