George Mason University

Prerequisites may be listed in the catalog as either recommended or required.

• Prerequisites: Recommended vs. Required

Recommended Prerequisites

Indicates an item which is built as a text-only note and which has no effect on student registration.

Required Prerequisites

Patriot Web will not restrict registration to students who meet the prerequisites unless those prereqs are hard-coded to the course.  Hard-coding is not automatic; departments must request this for each individual course.

All changes in hard-coding must be made BEFORE registration begins for the effective term.

Features of Prerequisite Hard-Coding:

A student cannot register for the section if

• the hard-coded prerequisite is not in the student’s academic history,
  OR
• the student did not earn the minimum grade required by the prerequisite.

A student can register for the section if the student

• has the hard-coded prerequisite with the minimum grade in their academic history,
  OR
• has been awarded transfer credit for the prerequisite,
  OR
• has the prerequisite in progress.

PLEASE NOTE: If the student later receives a grade below the minimum grade coded for the prerequisite(s), the system will not go back and re-evaluate the registration.  See unit responsibilities below.

 Requirements for Hard-Coding:

• Prerequisites to be hard-coded MUST match prerequisites as approved via a Course Approval Form
• Prerequisites must be a specific course or list of courses that must be taken before registering for a course.  Also include transfer equivalents (i.e. IT U103) if applicable and if the prerequisite has been renumbered, include both the new and original course number.  General statements (i.e. 40 credits or permission of instructor) cannot be hard-coded into Banner.
• A minimum grade (i.e. C or better) is required for each prerequisite. If not indicated, the default grades are C for undergraduate and B- for graduate level. An ‘IN’ grade does not satisfy the prerequisite check.

Unit Responsibilities:

• Units are responsible for maintaining accurate prerequisites.
• Issuing overrides should be centrally managed when possible.  To override the prerequisite checking error, a registration override code (PQTEST) is required.  Units will need to communicate with faculty to let them know that they are not allowed to use this override code if that process is to be managed by selected staff.
• The unit is responsible for emailing regsite@gmu.edu with a list of students who need to be dropped from the courses for not receiving minimum required grades.
• For instructions on how to identify students have not met prerequisite/corequisites requirements for an upcoming term using a Banner process, view the Registration Messages Tutorial.

The Registrar’s Office will not maintain the prerequisite checking feature if a department fails to meet the requirements established for its use.