Computer Science (CS) course selection
Source: https://cs.uwaterloo.ca/current-undergraduate-students/majors/cs-course-selection Parent: https://cs.uwaterloo.ca
Course selection (previously called “pre-enrollment”) is important to help us plan for upcoming terms.
We can divide the time leading up to taking a course into the following time periods:
- Course selection: One term before you start your courses, you choose the courses you want to take.
- Sectioning: The Registrar’s Office places you into specific course sections.
- Drop/Add period or Course Enrollment: Your opportunity to swap courses or sections to optimize your schedule. This begins several weeks before classes begin and ends after classes begin.
- Classes begin.
Participate in course selection
What is the Course Selection Period?
What, when, and why?
What is course selection?
Course selection is when you make your best guess about which courses (if any) you want to take in a future term. This information is vital for our planning purposes. We need to know how many sections to create, how many professors and TAs to assign, etc.
When is course selection?
Course selection occurs one term before you take the courses. In the spring, you select courses for the fall. In the winter, you select courses for the spring, etc. Though you will get emails regarding these upcoming important dates, you can also find them by going to the calendar of Important Dates.
Why should I participate in course selection?
Students who participate in course selection are automatically enrolled in those courses before the drop/add period begins. You have a very good chance of getting the courses you signed up for. If you miss course selection, you can only choose from the left-over courses.
Remote video URL
View "About course selection and why you should do it" on YouTube
Implications of not participating in course selection
CS Advisors will not override students into any CS courses unless they have participated in course selection or are a special case.
During the Add/Drop or Course enrollment period, students will only have the following options available:
- They will be required to wait until advisors have handled failures and other legitimate situations.
- They will compete on a first-come-first-served basis on Quest for any remaining spots.
- They will not receive help getting into courses (e.g., overriding full sections, adding new sections, or enlarging existing sections).
Special Case Guidelines
- Students who participated in course selection, but something went wrong because of:
- enrolment capacity in a course (please review more information regarding waitlists)
- a time conflict
- an academic enrolment block was applied after course selection
- dropping or failing a course after course selection
- Students who could not select courses because of:
- a recent transfer to CS
- their status as international exchange students
- hospitalization
- an S&P or ELPE decision or related academic matters
Other notes
Overrides into CS courses are available during course selection; please contact a CS advisor.
We've observed some students selecting up to five courses and then dropping several at the beginning of the term. We view this as an abuse of the system. Selecting more than three CS courses may result in some of them being dropped before sectioning occurs.