Information for First-Year Students
Welcome to the David R. Cheriton School of Computer Science at the
University of Waterloo!
Interested in what CS at Waterloo is all about? Here's the presentation (pdf) about CS at Waterloo from UW Day
on 4 November 2006.
The first year of university can be a major challenge. There are a lot of
people and organizations out there that are here to help you.
Here is some information that is useful to have before classes even start.
- The presentation (ppt) on academic
topics from 2009 Orientation.
- Some information about the math
readiness test
- English Language Proficiency Exam
(ELPE) information, from the group that runs that exam.
- Mentoring
The Women in Computer Science (WICS) committee is launching a UW Big CSters mentoring program this fall for first year females in Computer Science.
This is a great opportunity to seek mentoring, and learn from students that have just been in your shoes.
All women are encouraged to apply. More information can be found here (http://www.cs.uwaterloo.ca/~wics/mentoring.phtml)
There are lots of people who can help you if you run into problems:
- Your instructors. If you're having trouble in a course, you can
talk to the instructor during office hours.
- The
first-year advisors can help you with broader academic issues; see them
if you need to change courses, for example. You don't need to see them to
change your CS course in the first two weeks of the semester, but they may
be helpful in figuring out if you're in the wrong CS course.
- The
Math Undergrad Office is the place you can go to handle a variety of
administrative actions that are more complicated than the ones you need to
handle with advisors.
- Counseling Services can give you help with developing better
time-management or study skills, and can be a good source of help if you're
having broader trouble. Linda MacKay and Neil Gibson offer counseling
hours in MC. Contact Counseling Services at x32655.
- First-year directors: Mark Giesbrecht is the
Director of first-year studies for CS, while Riley Metzger is the
Director of first-year studies for Math.
Peter Wood is the Director
of the undergraduate business and accounting programs in Math.
The Math Faculty has a similar
page to this one, which may be useful, as it has lots of links to
common advising questions.
- Please contact me
(Mark Giesbrecht), if you are a first-year CS student and have any
questions/problems that you cannot resolve using the other existing
channels.
You might have fun learning more about the Math Society (MathSoc), the CS club, or the other clubs in Math.
I hope you have a great first year, and please let me know how you're doing!
Mark Giesbrecht, Director of First-Year Studies for CS.
Last modified: Thursday, 12-Apr-2012 14:55:56 EDT
