You must participate in a walk-through registration process for your first main semester (Fall or Spring) at Cornell. If you come in the fall (or in the Summer), then you should attend an orientation day in mid-August set aside for registration. This registration event is held in the Bartels Hall (E5, just up Campus Road from the Engineering Quad) and allows you to complete many required tasks at one time. Be prepared to battle the crowds -- it can take a few hours to do everything you need to do. In addition to registering, you can also pick up your Cornell ID or have one made, apply for a parking permit, apply for a Cornell computing account, and apply for a Social Security Number if you are an international student (see chapter 5). If you miss the registration day in Bartels Hall, you can still register by visiting Day Hall (C5) on other designated days -- see your Graduate Field Assistant or visit Caldwell Hall (DE4) for details. If your first major semester is the Spring semester, then you should visit the Graduate School offices in Caldwell Hall to register; you may have to wander all over campus to complete the other tasks mentioned above, however.
To enroll for the courses you want to take, you need to use the Just The Facts system (www.jtf.cornell.edu) which allows you to electronically add or drop courses until the third week of classes, but check the university calendar to be sure of the exact date. Cornell allows you to shop around for courses during the first couple of weeks of classes before you make a final decision, but you should begin attending classes that you may want to take on the very first day! If your course enrollment is not done on time, you may have to pay a fee to register for your courses. To enroll or drop courses beyond the add/drop date, you must submit a course enrollment form. This form is generally due to Caldwell Hall (DE4). Your course enrollment form must be signed by your Chairperson (see below) and approved by the departments of the courses in which you are enrolling, so don't wait until the last minute.
As mentioned in the previous paragraph, you need the chairperson of your special committee to sign your course enrollment petition form. As a result, you need a chairperson. Special committees are discussed in more detail in section 1.4, but if you haven't yet decided on your chairperson then many graduate fields and departments will allow you to use the Director of Graduate Studies or another faculty member in your department as a temporary chair. In any case, you should submit a Special Committee selection form (see section 1.5) to the Graduate School by the time you submit your course enrollment form.
If you show up at the beginning of the summer to start your graduate work, then the situation is slightly different. You will still have to go through the registration process in the fall, but you also need to be registered for the Summer. Visit the Graduate School in Caldwell Hall (DE4) to get started. In the past, new students who begin graduate work in the summer were required pay a registration fee; we believe that this fee has been eliminated.