Weighted Lottery

What is the Weighted Lottery?

Wagner has a lottery process to prioritize enrollment in the high-demand courses listed below. Prioritization is based on weighted factors such as whether the course is a requirement for your degree or specialization, whether the course is a Capstone prerequisite for you, and when you expect to graduate.
 

  1. HPAM-GP 1833 Strategic Management for Healthcare Organizations
  2. HPAM-GP 2825 Continuous Quality Improvement
  3. HPAM-GP 4830 Health Economics, Principles
  4. PADM-GP 2106 Community Organizing
  5. PADM-GP 2110 Strategic Management and Leadership
  6. PADM-GP 2132 Social Entrepreneurship and Innovation
  7. PADM-GP 2135 Human Resources: Leading Talent Development
  8. PADM-GP 2140 Public Economics
  9. PADM-GP 2142 Financial Management II
  10. PADM-GP 2145 Design Thinking
  11. PADM-GP 2147 Corporate Finance and Public Policy
  12. PADM-GP 2170 Performance Measurement & Management
  13. PADM-GP 2171 Evaluating Programs and Policies
  14. PADM-GP 2202 Politics of International Development
  15. PADM-GP 2203 Economics of International Development
  16. PADM-GP 2311 Impact Investing
  17. PADM-GP 2407 Advocacy Lab
  18. PADM-GP 2411 Policy Formation and Policy Analysis
  19. PADM-GP 2875 Estimating Impacts in Policy Research
  20. PADM-GP 2902 Multiple Regression and Intro to Econometrics
  21. URPL-GP 1603 Urban Planning: Methods and Practice
  22. URPL-GP 1605 Land Use Law
  23. URPL-GP 2608 Urban Economics
  • If a required degree or specialization course is not on this list, it is excluded from the lottery because it is not expected to exceed enrollment capacity. 
  • If you want to register for any of the courses on this list, follow the lottery timeline and instructions in the sections below.

Timeline for Spring 2025 Registration

  • Monday, November 18: Registration opens for spring 2025 courses.

  • Monday, November 25: Lottery closes at 5:00pm ET. You may still add yourself to a lottery course's waitlist after this deadline, but you will not be included in the lottery process.

  • Monday, December 9: If you have gained a place in a lottery course, you will receive an email with a permission number to register for the course.

  • Tuesday, December 17: Lottery concludes. 

    • If you are still on the waitlist for a lottery course by this date, you should register for a backup course if you have not already. After enrolling in the backup, use Albert's Edit Swap function to link it to the course for which you are waitlisted. This tells Albert to drop your backup if you are enrolled off the waitlist into your more preferred course.


At the start of registration, all weighted lottery courses are artificially closed with a waitlist. To enter the lottery for course enrollment, you must add yourself to the course's waitlist by the lottery deadline listed above. NYU's Registrar provides detailed instructions on how to waitlist for a course. Here are the key steps:
 

  1. Find and select the lottery course through the Course Search link in your Albert shopping cart.

    Screenshot of Course Search link within the Albert Shopping Cart

     

  2. Once you select the lottery course, a waitlist option will appear on the Enrollment Preferences page of your Albert shopping cart. Answer "yes" to the "Wait list if class is full?" question. Do this before clicking the "Next" button.
     

    Screenshot of Enrollment Preferences page within the Albert Shopping Cart, with a red rectangle around the "Waitlist if class if full?" prompt and the answer set to "Yes."

     

  3. At any point between your enrollment appointment time and the lottery deadline, return to your Shopping Cart in Albert and click the “Validate/Enroll/Edit” button. Finish the steps to enroll. The message section on the results page will tell you that you have been placed on the waitlist for the lottery course.

    • The lottery course must appear in the "Waitlist Courses" section. If a course still appears in your Albert Shopping Cart, then you have not waitlisted for it. It is your responsibility to confirm that you have successfully waitlisted for the lottery course.

    • Your initial position on the course's waitlist has no effect on your chances in the lottery. As long as you add yourself to a course's waitlist by the lottery deadline, you will have entered the lottery for that course and weighted factors will determine your final placement. 

    • All students who add themselves to the waitlist by the lottery deadline will be considered in the lottery process. If you enter the lottery and do not earn a spot in a course that closes, you can remain on the course's traditional waitlist.
       

  4. It is best practice to register for a backup course while you await the lottery results. After enrolling in a backup course, you can use Albert's Edit Swap function to link it to the lottery course for which you are waitlisted. This tells Albert to drop the backup course if you are enrolled in the lottery course.
     


If you have any questions about the lottery process after reading the instructions above, please email wagner.academicservices@nyu.edu.

Other Useful Registration Links

Wagner Courses

Registration Checklist

Course Highlights 

Registering on Albert