Non-ECE Students Taking ECE Courses

Software, Mechatronics, or Nanotechnology Engineering Students or Students Enrolled in Recognized Options

If you are enrolled in either an associated program (Software, Mechantronics, or Nanotechnology Engineering) or a recognized option (for example, the Digital Hardware Option for Computer Science students) that requires Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE) courses, Quest should allow you to enrol in the required courses. If you have not yet added the relevant option to your academic plan, you must submit a Plan Modification Form to your home department undergraduate academic advisor (or equivalent). Once this form has been processed, you should be allowed to enrol in the course in Quest).

If you do not have the specific prerequisites for a course, you will be required to fill in and submit a Course Override Form adding the course. This must be submitted to one of our two Undergraduate Advisor/Co-ordinators. There are two possibilities:

  1. You will have taken a courses that are equivalent to the prerequisites (that is, a 70% overlap in course subject matter), in which case the prerequisites and their equivalent courses should be listed in in the Notes section of the Course Override Form. This will be forwarded to an Academic Advisor for verification.
  2. If you do not have the prerequisites, make a statement to that effect in the Notes section. This form will be forwarded to the course instructor, or, alternatively, you can contact the course instructor before you submit the form.1

1 If an instructor has not been assigned to a course when the form is received, it will be held by the ECE Undergraduate Office until an instructor has been designated. It is possible to find the course instructor by viewing the Schedule of Classes for Undergraduate Students.

All Course Override Forms, once signed, will be returned to the student's home department for final approval (which may still refuse your request to take the course).

Other uWaterloo Students

If you would like to take an ECE course but are not enrolled in a recognized option, you may continue to follow the same process as for students who are enrolled in a recognized options, however, you will be required to submit a Course Override Form and that form will be held until at least one week after start of the open enrollment period to ensure that there are enough positions for ECE students and students enrolled in recognized options. The Course Override Form must be submitted to the Undergraduate Advisor/Co-ordinator.

All Course Override Forms, once signed, will be returned to the student's home department (which may still refuse your request to take the course).

Non-uWaterloo Students

If you are not a uWaterloo student, you must contact the Registrar's Office to enrol in an ECE course. Please do not contact the ECE Department as course enrollment for non-uWaterloo students is outside our jurisdiction.