Complementary Studies Electives

1. You may use at most one nontechnical, technique-development course as a List-D CSE. Examples include language courses, music studio courses, dramatic-performance courses, and the public-speaking course SPCOM 223.  SPCOM 223 requires that the student print, complete, and submit the Course Override Form to Ceylan Turkeri in Speech Communication and request that the form is forwarded to the appropriate Program Undergraduate Advisor/Co-ordinator (Computer or Electrical) (Department: ECE, Building: EIT).
2. A course taken to satisfy the English Language Proficiency Requirement (ELPE) may count as a CSE; however, if it is not explicitly listed as a List-C CSE, it will fall under the category of a List-D technique course, and you are only allowed to take one technique course.
3. The status of a Fine-Arts (FINE) course (as a List C, List D, or List-D technique course) is at the discretion of the ECE Department. Please contact your Program Undergraduate Advisor/Co-ordinator at least two weeks before your registration period begins. Note that some FINE courses are restricted to students in the Fine Arts Program and thus, you may not use these as CSEs without further permission from the instructor. Again, contact the instructor as soon as possible.
4. For many departments, e.g., Anthropology (ANTH) or History (HIST), we state that all courses are acceptable List-C. The hosting Department, however, may place further restrictions on the enrollments in certain courses. Be sure to read the Undergraduate Calendar description to catch any such restrictions. You may have to get permission from the instructor to take such a course.
5. Not all courses may be offered all Terms, and some courses may be offered during the Fall Term one year and the Spring Term during the next year. Because these courses are not offered by the ECE Department, you should not assume that they will be scheduled when you want or need to take them.

CSEs taken through Distance Education during an academic term do count towards the required number of courses in that academic term.

A number of students elect to take, either by Distance Education or by taking courses at another university, some of their CSEs during their Co-op Work Terms. This creates space for extra courses during an Academic Term which may be required for an option, a minor, or for interest's sake.

In order to enrol in a course during your Co-op Work Term you must e-mail, fax, or submit in-person a Course Override Form to the Undergraduate Advisor/Co-ordinator. Quest will not let you sign into a course or drop a course while on a Co-op Work Term. If you intend to take the course at another university, you must, additionally, get a Letter of Permission which will be sent to the host university.

Note that all students may voluntarily reduce their course load by one elective in any term that has at least one required elective; therefore any CSE taken during a Co-op Work Term can be used to reduce your course load by at most one course. If you take additional electives, you must never-the-less ensure do not reduce your load by more than one course.

If you take a course as a CSE and you fail it, you must either retake the same course or take a different course which also satisfies one of your CSE requirements.

If you are taking a course to satisfy a CSE requirement while on an exchange to another university, you have one of two options: you have to have the appropriate department at this university approve the course as being equivalent to one of the approved CSE courses taught here at the University of Waterloo, or you can have the course identified as one of GENE 22A, GENE 22B, GENE 22C, or GENE 22D, depending on which list, A through D, respectively, the course has been approved for. The Exchange Coordinator will assist with this decision.

If you would like to take a course and have it count as a CSE but it does not appear under the appropriate list in the Undergraduate Calendar, you may request to have the course approved. Please fill in an Elective Approval Form and submit it to your Academic Advisor before you take the course. This must be approved by the Associate Chair of Undergraduate Studies. Any such request should usually be done well in advance of the term in which the course is intended to be taken. The suggested alternate course should satisfy the same requirements of the list itself:

• List A courses deal with the impact of engineering and technology on society. Such a course must specifically focus on how engineering and technology impacts society and does not include courses which covers subject matter that is impacted by engineering and technology. That is, the focus of the course must be on the understanding of that impact. Only one such alternate course has ever been approved and that was a special topics course designed by a faculty member from another department specifically for one student.
• List C courses must focus on the central issues, methodologies, and thought processes of the humanities and social sciences.
• List D courses are additional courses that are acceptable. Such courses must, however, provide an understanding of our heritage and social environment.

In the case of any technique-development course (learning a language, an instrument, public speaking, or any other skill) falls under the List-D category; however, a student may take only one such technique-development course.

The following is a list of courses which have been previously approved as being acceptable CSEs together with which list they qualify for. You must still submit submit a Elective Approval Form, however, the authorization is mostly a formality.

• MUSIC 246 Soundtracks: Music in Film (List D)
• REC 280 Introduction to Tourism (List D)
• BUS 111W Introduction to Business Organization (List D)

Some courses which may not be used as any CSE (A, B, C, or D) include:

• BUS 121W
• GEOG 102
• SCI 206