Special Permission Process

NOTICE: Matriculated undergraduates can request special permission for closed sections only through the automated system described below. This system is available only during the special permission period, beginning shortly before the term and ending during the first week of classes.

There are four kinds of special requests students may need to make to the undergraduate office to gain admittance to certain courses.

• Admission to some honors courses is by permission of the department.
• Admission to closed sections of regular courses requires a special permission number.
• Admission to courses for which the prerequisites have been filled in an unusual way may require a prerequisite override.
• Admission to Precalculus, Calculus I or Calculus II previously failed twice

Procedures

• Honors courses
• Prerequisite overrides
• Closed sections
• Automated Web System
• Re-taking Precalculus, Calculus I or Calculus II previously failed twice

Honors Courses

To register for an honors course or an honors section of a regular course in the forthcoming semester, you need to apply for special permission by completing the appropriate Special Permission Form available online. You should also use this form if you are already registered in an honors section for the forthcoming semester and would like to switch to another section of the same course.

DO NOT use the Automated Web System to submit your request!

Requests for fall courses may be submitted during the previous spring or summer; requests for spring courses during the previous fall. When filling out the form, make sure you give a valid reason for your request (e.g. previous honors course, recommendation of professor, etc). Requests will be processed as they are received, so long as necessary information (current grades, references, ...) is available.

Prerequisite overrides

A student who is unable to register for a course because he or she lacks the proper prerequisites should not request a special permission number. Under some circumstances – for example, if the student has already taken appropriate prerequisite courses elsewhere, and these are not yet credited to his or her Rutgers transcript – please fill out a Prerequisite Override Application.

If justification for receiving a prerequisite override is too complicated to adequately describe on the form on the online website, please go to the Advising Office of the Math Dept, room 308 of the Hill Center.

NOTE: If you are planning to take prerequisite courses over the summer at an institution other than Rutgers, DO NOT request a prerequisite override to take a more advanced course in the fall semester before completing the summer classes.  Instead, you should submit a prerequisite override request after obtaining the final grade in the summer class, by attaching to your request: your summer transcript and the pre-approval to take the class elsewhere. At that point an override may allow you to register in the desired fall class or to request a special permission number for its closed sections.  Requests for a Fall prerequisite override submitted before the course from outside Rutgers is completed will be rejected.

Closed Sections

Because of the high demand for many of the math department classes, many course sections are filled early in registration. Once the course is filled it is listed as Closed. However, we generally leave some spots open in the course to accomodate late registrants and transfer students. These final spots are assigned through the special permission for closed section process which starts shortly before the semester begins and continues through the first week of the semester. A student should first attempt to register through the Rutgers Web Registration System. If all sections that the student can take are closed, the student should submit a special permission form once the special permission process opens. (The schedule for the process will be listed farther down on this web page shortly before the semester begins.)

The department makes a significant effort to accommodate as many students as possible during the process, and generally satisfies most of them, but unfortunately there is often not enough room to grant all requests.  

• Matriculated undergraduates must request special permission for admission to closed sections using the automated special permission system described below. Applications submitted through the non-matriculated student portal by matriculated students will not be processed. While the special permission process is ongoing, students should send an e-mail (with your NetId) to the instructor requesting temporary guest status in the course that they are trying to enter via special permission. The temporary status will allow students to attend so that no class time will be missed.
• Non-matriculated undergraduate students and graduate students who have active NetIds must also use the automated special permission system described below. All others are required to use the Special Permission Application for Non-Matriculated Students. Decisions on requests for non-matriculated students will be made during the add/drop period regardless of which form is used. Please note that most non-matriculated students will also need to fill out a Prerequisite Override Application for each course they wish to take at Rutgers NB, and attach an unofficial transcript showing that they have completed the prerequisite courses elsewhere. See above for more information about prerequisite overrides.
• All requests to join a closed honors course or a closed honors sections of a regular course must go through the online honors form. See above.

Fall 2024 SPN Rounds will begin mid-late August

If you receive an email informing you that your request has been
granted, you must login within 3 days of when the email is sent
in order to retrieve your special permission number.

Automated Special Permission System

For CLOSED SECTIONS – For matriculated undergraduates
Fall, Spring, and Summer Semesters

Enter Here

NOTE: When viewing the Special Permission login page for the first time, you may get a notice that the SSL certificate is invalid. You can disregard this and know that the site is still perfectly secure. In order to fix this, please add a permanent exception and reload the page. If you need help with this, please see our documentation regrading this issue: Certificate Errors

• Who Can Use the Online Special Permission System?
  Anyone with an active netid who wish to get special permission to enter closed sections of mathematics courses should use the mathematics department's web-based system.
• How Do I Login?
  Students need to use their NetID and password to access the online special permission system. Students using this system DO NOT need to have their own computer accounts or e-mail addresses. They only need access to the web which is available on all campuses. Deans' Offices should be prepared to help disabled students with their special permission requests.

Re-taking Precalculus, Calculus I or Calculus II previously failed twice

Starting in Fall semester 2019, students who have failed Precalculus (111, 112, or 115), Calculus I (either 135 or 151) or Calculus II (either 136 or 152) twice can no longer take the course again at Rutgers New Brunswick. 

Students who have failed any of these courses twice because of extenuating circumstances can request an exception by submitting an appeal.

The only appeal requests taken into consideration will be from students whose education has been affected by very special circumstances and can provide supporting documentation. At a minimum, the extenuating circumstances, medical or otherwise, must be shown to have affected the student's performance in all courses taken when the Precalculus or Calculus course was failed, and to account for that failure.

Students belonging to SOE should see their Dean to submit an appeal. Students from all other schools can submit an appeal by filling out this form and attaching any supporting documentation:

https://www.math.rutgers.edu/index.php?option=com_chronoforms5&chronoform=RequestPortal_MULTFAIL2

ATTENTION: Due to the abrupt transition to online learning at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, ALL students FROM ALL SCHOOLS (including SOE) who failed Precalculus (111, 112, or 115), Calculus I (135 or 151) or Calculus II (136 or 152) in Spring 2020 obtaining an F or an NC and have only one other F or NC in the same course group can apply to the Math Department for permission to one more attempt without need of any supporting documentation. Those students should submit the appeal form above and write into the comments section that one of their two failed attempts was in Spring 2020.

All other appeals still require documentation.

Note: If your appeal is granted, you will be contacted for your section preferences. If you want to request a closed section, you will ALSO need to apply for a spot in a closed section. On this same page you can find the procedures to submit a request for an SPN for closed sections during our SPN rounds. The committee evaluating SPN requests will be notified of the outcome of your appeal.