The David R. Cheriton School of Computer Science serves a diverse set of students from Faculties across campus, and hence offers a wide variety of courses addressing the varying backgrounds and needs of the students. The prerequisites listed with each course description indicate the set of students eligible to sign up for the course using Quest; here distinctions are made based on Faculty (e.g. "Honours Mathematics students only) or plan (e.g. "Not open to Computer Science students"). In these designations, "Computer Science" students include both BCFM and BSE students as well as students in Computer Science major plans.
Generally speaking, courses for Computer Science majors are intended for students wishing to make a systematic and serious study of computer science, whereas non-major courses are designed for those who wish to incorporate a smaller number of Computer Science courses into a field of study in another discipline. Consequently, major courses tend to have long prerequisite chains and a lot of required background; most upper-year courses are restricted to majors, who have the knowledge needed for the courses. At the same time, the School recognizes that there are non-majors who wish to develop a stronger background in Computer Science. As resources permit, the School is willing to consider requests for access to specialist courses from qualified students. Such requests must be directed to a CS undergraduate advisor and will generally be directed to the waiting list.
The second digit in the course code is a rough guide to the audience, with 0 and 1 usually not open to Math students, and 3 (after first year) usually not open to Computer Science students. As there are many exceptions to this general rule, it is important to check the descriptions to be sure of the categorization of a course.
Students who are not able to enrol on-line because they do not meet published requisites, or the course is full or requires departmental permission, should use the on-line waiting list. This waiting list is the primary tool used to fairly manage scarce resources. When a course offering becomes full, it is “closed” by requiring departmental consent. Thereafter, no one is able to add the course without going through the waiting list.
David R. Cheriton School of Computer Science
University of Waterloo
Waterloo, Ontario, Canada N2L 3G1
Tel: 519-888-4567 x33293
Fax: 519-885-1208
Contact | Feedback: cs-uops@cs.uwaterloo.ca | David R. Cheriton School of Computer Science | Faculty of Mathematics
Last modified: Wednesday, 15-Dec-2010 09:47:57 EST
