How to Register for Graduate Classes in the Department of Nutritional Sciences

These instructions are for clearing holds or error messages you may encounter during the registration process for students in the Nutritional Sciences program only. To register for classes, go to Athena.uga.edu.

Clearing Holds

In order to register for classes, you must clear any holds on your Student Account. Please check for holds in Athena by going to Student > Student Records > View Holds.

  • Academic Advisement – Please email Donna Holcomb and include your full name exactly as it appears in Athena to clear the advisement hold.
  • Verify Lawful Presence –The Graduate School has identified documents that may be used for verification purposes. Copies may be sent to gradadm@uga.edu.
  • Health Immunization – You can go directly to the University Health Center if you are in town or you can contact them at (706) 542-1162. You can also refer to the Health Center Immunization Forms page for more information and to download the forms. If you are enrolled in a 100% online program, your immunization hold can be waived. Please contact the department’s program coordinator Donna Holcomb and provide your full name as it appears in Athena to request an immunization waiver if you will never be on campus for your program.
  • Student Accounts Acknowledgement – You can clear this hold in Athena by going to Student > Student Records > Clear Student Accounts Acknowledgement Hold.
  • Contact Information - You can clear this hold in Athena by going to Student > Student Records > View Holds>Clear Contact Information Hold. Detailed Contact Information Hold instructions from the University's Registrar office.

Error Messages

  • Permission of Department- Many courses that contain POD restrictions are reserved for special populations of students such as MSNT-Online Community Nutrition students, departmental Double Dawg students, SNDCP, and Obesity & Weight Management certificate students. If you are part of one of these special populations and you are following your program of study and need a POD, email Donna Holcomb with your full name as it appears in Athena, the course name, and CRN to request an override.  If you are not in a population of students that is required to take the course, we cannot grant access to a seat until all students required to take the course have registered. If there are remaining seats, they will be made available no sooner than 10 days before the start of the semester.
  • Level- This occurs when a student listed as an undergraduate is attempting to register for a class at the graduate level. If you are a Double Dawg student or a newly admitted graduate student who is a previous UGA undergradate student and you are attempting to register for a class on your program of study, contact  Donna Holcomb, with the course name, CRN, your full name as it appears in Athena and request a level override. You should be able to register within 2 business days of the request.
  • Program- You must be in a specific program in order to register for the course.  For example, FDNS 8560: Proposal Writing is only open to NUTR MS or PhD students.  If the course is required for your program, email the course name, CRN, and your full name as it appears in Athena to Donna Holcomb and request a program override.   You should be able to register within 2 business days of sending your request.  You must enter the CRN number on the register/adjust schedule screen of Athena for the system to recognize you have special permission to register.
  • Capacity- The number of registered students has reached capacity for the course. If the course is a requirement for your program of study and you must take it this semester to be on track for graduation, email Donna Holcomb to request an override with your full name as it appears in Athena, the course name, CRN and explain why you must be enrolled in this course this semester.
  • Pre-Requisite or Co-Requisite- The system does not see the required pre-requisite course(s) or co-requisite course(s) on your academic transcript.  This can occur if you have transferred from another institution.  Please email Donna Holcomb to request an override with your full name as it appears in Athena, the course name, CRN, what pre-requisite course you have not taken or the system does not recognize. If you have not yet taken the pre-requisite course explain when you will be completing it.  The instructor of the course will be asked to determine if an override can be granted. It can take several days for the instructor to respond.
  • Major- You must be in a specific major to enroll in this course.  If the course is required for your major please email the course name, CRN, your full name as if appears in Athena to Donna Holcomb and request a major override. If the course is required for your major, we will grant you access to register, provided there is a seat available. 

Registering for a course with the CRN number

If you are granted access to register for a course after receiving an error message, you must register using the CRN number on the register/adjust schedule screen of Athena so the system will recognize the override you have been given. This PowerPoint will show you step-by-step how to register with the CRN.

Searching for available courses

To find what courses are offered each semester:

  1. Go to athena.uga.edu
  2. Click on Class Schedule (NOT Course Catalog*)
  3. Under Search by Term, select semester and year; Submit
  4. Under Subject, select the Department, e.g. for Nutritional Sciencesselect NUTR
  5. For Course Number, enter the course you are interested in, e.g. 8900 for NUTR Seminar class. Select Class Search at bottom
  6. If you leave the Course Number box blank, and select Class Search at bottom, you will see all of the courses taught in the Department for the semester that you selected
  7. You may used an advanced search to narrow your selection by level, campus, instructor, etc.
  8. For additional information about a course, a detailed description can be found in Bulletin.uga.edu.

*Course Catalog is a listing of all the courses approved to be taught in a given Department. But some of these courses are not taught each semester, or even each year. 


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