Tufts uses an online registration and student record system called SIS. Museum School students are required to pre-register online with SIS for Tufts classes and are assigned registration times along with other Tufts students. You do not need to pre-register if you are on leave of absence or have compelling reasons to pre-register on paper only and have spoken to the SMFA Academic Affairs O ffice.

You are assigned a specific access period of 16 hours, which you may obtain only by logging in to SIS; this information will not be e-mailed to you. Make sure to obtain this information so that you do not miss your window of opportunity. After the initial registration window, a second window will open for roughly one month during which you have open access to SIS. If you fail to register by the end of this period, you are required to register during the add/drop period, which begins on the first day of classes and is done offline with a paper process. Announcements about SIS open and close times are made regularly via e-mail.

1. You must activate your account by entering your Tufts student ID number. See SMFA Academic Affairs (2nd floor) to obtain your Tufts ID number. This number always starts with 991.

2. After entering your Tufts ID number, you must enter your PIN number. Your pre-assigned PIN number is your 6-digit date of birth (month/day/year). If you are a first-time user, the system then will ask you to choose a new PIN number. The same PIN number must be used from then on. If you forget your PIN number, call the Student Services desk at Tufts at 617-627-2000 to have it reset.  

Add/Drop at Tufts happens in two phases—one online phase where students may add and drop classes online until the Add Deadline, and one paper process phase that is Drop-only until the Drop Deadline. The online phase runs for roughly one month and provides open access to SIS for all students. Once the online phase is over, or if you would like to add a closed course, you must complete the paper add/drop process.

When using the paper process to add or drop a class*, you are required to get the signature of the faculty member teaching the class. If, for whatever reason, you are unable to locate the teacher to obtain their signature, you may ask a department head to sign instead. Each academic department at Tufts is located in a different building. You will find the department head in the appropriate building/office.

Be sure to keep a copy of your add/drop form. You are responsible for turning in your add/drop form to Dowling Hall at Tufts and providing a copy of the add/drop form to the SMFA Registrar. It is a good idea to keep a copy of your form for your own records.

*Faculty signatures are required to drop a class.  

Course listings may be found at:

http://webcenter.studentservices.tufts.edu/courses/main.asp
and
http://studentservices.tufts.edu/registration.htm

More detailed descriptions are available by department:
http://inside.tufts.edu/tuftslinks   

The Experimental College (Ex College) offers unique courses that count as electives for BFA students. As a BFA student you are allowed to take a maximum of two Ex College courses throughout your time at the SMFA. The Ex College course listings change each semester. A handful of them usually fulfill the Science/Technology requirement and these are posted in the SMFA Academic Affairs office shortly after the course list is published each semester. An e-mail notice will also be sent to BFA students with this information. Based on past semesters, courses that fulfill the Science/Technology requirement fill quickly. 

The address of the Ex College website is www.excollege.tufts.edu. You may register for Ex College courses on SIS during the specified days and hours. This timeframe typically begins just before classes and extends until the end of the Academic Add period. Ex College enrollment is done on a first-come first-served basis with a maximum enrollment of 20 students in each class and waitlists of up to ten students. Be sure to attend the first class!  

If there is a waitlist for a course and a student drops that course, the first waitlisted student will be automatically rolled into the course. If a course is closed, faculty members have the discretion to bypass the waitlist, but this cannot be done online and requires a paper add/drop form with the instructor’s signature.  

History of Art                 5 courses
Writing I and II               2 courses
Humanities                     1 course
Social Science                1 course
Language/Culture           1 course
Science/Technology       1 course
Electives                       3 courses

Students are permitted to take one Art History Elective course. If students have received outstanding AP or IB scores for English, they may be able to take upper level literature courses instead of Writing I and II. Students must receive approval from Susan Lush in the SMFA Academic Affairs Office to do this.

Each semester, a list of classes fulfilling the specific BFA requirements are printed and posted on the counter outside of the SMFA Academic Affairs Office and at the back of the Tufts course booklet. Details are subject to change and additions: SOC 0001 01, Introduction to Sociology, does not count for the Science/Technology requirement (but does count as a Social Science or an Elective). SOC 0101 01, Quantitative Research Methods, which covers statistics and research design for the Social S ciences, does count towards the Science/Technology requirement. WL 0092 01, Representing War, fulfills the English 2 (Writing 2) requirement. The course is cross-listed as RUS 92 and ILVS 92 but it is not offered every semester.  

When SMFA students are taking both academic courses at Tufts and studio classes at SMFA, it is advisable to register for Tufts classes that meet for three-hour blocks. This way, you may be able to work your schedule to a point where you spend just one or two days a week at Tufts. Commuting to Tufts for more than two days per week while taking studio classes at SMFA can be burdensome. Speak with an advisor in the SMFA Academic Affairs Office for more advice on putting together the schedule that best suits your needs.  

Stephen Bailey (Anthropology)
Adriana Zavala (Art History)

If there are other teachers you’d like to see listed here, please e-mail Nicole Seisler at nseisler@smfa.edu.