Transfer students

Follow Faculty of Arts SPECIFIC DATES regardless of other published dates you may encounter.

After you receive your offer of admission, you'll receive an email from an Admissions Officer outlining transfer credits you've been granted from your previous studies.

Transfer credits are relevant to your degree in several ways:

• Transfer credit courses count as passed courses, so they apply towards the total number of courses needed to complete your Bachelor of Arts degree requirements and will count towards fulfilling the Bachelor of Arts breadth requirements.
• Transfer credit courses help establish your academic level, which is relevant when enrolling in classes that have an academic level pre-requisite. The highest level you can attain solely through transfer credits is 3A. You can view your academic level in Quest on your transcript.
• Transfer credit courses can apply towards your academic plan(s).

You may see a mix of specified and unspecified transfer credits.

• Specified transfer credits have a regular course number (e.g., ECON 101).
• Unspecified transfer credits don't have a specific course number (e.g., PSYCH 1XX, ENGL 2XX). Transfer credits are labelled “XX” when there is no direct equivalent course at Waterloo or where the content from the transferring course is not exactly equivalent to the content of the course we teach at Waterloo.

For additional questions related to transfer credits, see the FAQs below.

Wondering what you should take?

1. All new Arts students are required to take both Arts First courses, ARTS 130 (Inquiry and Communication) and ARTS 140 (Information and Analysis), in order to fulfill the Undergraduate Communication Requirement.

   • Each section of ARTS 130 and ARTS 140 covers a different topic from various Arts disciplines, however the overall learning outcomes and goals are the same for all topics in each course. Course descriptions can be found on the Arts First website.
   • Students take one Arts First course in the Fall term and one in the Winter term. It doesn't matter in which order they are taken, but only one Arts First course can be taken at a time.
   • You will add your Fall term Arts First course in Quest starting on July 2o (see Step 5 below).
2. If you want to declare a major, you'll need to complete specific courses.
   • The recommended major courses chart outlines the courses students take for the Arts majors and the sequencing of these courses.
   • Students interested in Honours Arts and Business should review the course requirements chart and consult with their academic advisor.
3. Found an interesting course?
   • You'll find the course description in the Undergraduate Calendar, including whether the course has any prerequisites.
   • Make a list of courses you're interested in and make sure you meet any prerequisites for the course.
   • Not every course is offered each term. You can confirm if the course you wish to take is scheduled for Fall by reviewing the online Schedule of Classes.
4. All Arts students need courses to complete the BA Breadth Requirements. Depending on your transfer credits, you may have already satisfied these requirements or you may still need to take some courses to complete them.

After you've decided which courses you want to take, email a list of your course requests to your academic advisor who will review and approve them.

If your advisor has approved your course requests, you must log in to Quest and request your courses at any time during this period.

If you have not received a final transfer credit assessment by this time, contact your admissions officer in the Registrar's Office.

You will be able to view your class schedule in Quest beginning July 20. If you need to make adjustments to your schedule, you can do so when the Fall New Student Drop/Add Period begins on July 29.

Current Waterloo students will have access to Quest to add courses as of July 24. This means available spots in classes will fill quickly, so we recommend you adjust your schedule as soon as you can.

• See all of the classes you requested?
  • The only step left is to enrol in one of ARTS 130 or ARTS 140. Follow the detailed instructions on how to add your Arts First course, found on the Arts First How you'll enrol page.​​​​
• Don’t see all of the classes you requested?
  • If you didn't get into all of the classes you requested, don’t worry – you can login to Quest to add additional classes (to a maximum of 5 classes in total, including ARTS 130 or ARTS 140).
  • If you decide to swap a class, make sure to use the swap function - it's the best way to try to switch one class for another. See the Quest Undergraduate students page for more helpful instructions.

You cannot be admitted to a major until you have completed 10 courses, with two of those courses being in your major.

Students can use transfer credits to fulfil the first requirement — 10 courses total — but usually need to take at least two Waterloo courses in their major subject before they are eligible to declare their major. You need to establish an average in your major subject, and transfer credits do not include your grades or an average.

Check that your final official transcript has been received by the University. Final official transcripts are usually available about three weeks after term ends. We strongly recommend you send your final grades to our admissions team as soon as possible.

In addition to a final transcript our admissions team might also require course outlines to assess for transfer credit – if so they will communicate with you directly. If you have submitted your final transcript (and if appropriate, course outlines), then your courses are likely being assessed for transfer credit by the department that teaches the relevant courses at Waterloo. If you have any questions, email our admissions team.

Yes, all students in the Bachelor of Arts degree program must complete two Arts First courses, ARTS 130 and ARTS 140. The exception is where a transfer student has already completed a BA degree from another Canadian University.

If you are transferring to UWaterloo with less than 4.0 units of transfer credit, co-op may be an option for you and this is something you should discuss with your academic advisor. Transfer students coming in with more than 4.0 units of credit are likely ineligible for co-op in Arts, however there are alternatives such as the EDGE certificate program. If you have questions about co-op you can contact your admissions officer and your academic advisor.

Yes, this academic plan is known as Liberal Studies.

This depends on how many courses you plan to take each term, how many terms you want to take each year, and how often the required courses for your major are offered. Meeting with the major advisor to talk about your plans and availability of courses is a good idea.

Make sure to read about your next steps as a transfer student and attend orientation events designed specifically for transfer students.