Course registration

Instructions for registering for courses can be found on the Graduate Studies website.

A listing of courses available in a given term can be found on the Schedule of Classes or on Quest.

With the approval of your supervisor(s) and departmental Associate Chair, Graduate Studies, students can enrol in courses in one of three categories:

Credit
  • Any course you add through Quest self service will be for credit by default
  • Part of your degree program whether or not they contribute to the minimum requirements
  • Included on your transcript and counted in your CGPA
Audit
  • Must be added to your class schedule through the use of a Course Add/Drop form
  • Not part of your degree program requirements
  • Included on your transcript with a grade of AUD (audit) in place of a numerical grade
  • Courses taken as audit cannot later be taken for credit
Note: Before enrolling in a course for audit you should speak with the course instructor and make sure you clearly understand their expectations to receive a grade of Audit. If you have not met the course instructor's expectations by the end of term, the audit course will be removed from your record.
Extra
  • Must be added to your class schedule through the use of a Course Add/Drop form
  • Not part of your degree program requirements
  • Included on your transcript with a numeric grade but not counted in your CGPA

Any changes to your course registration, including dropping/adding a course or changing a course’s status to credit/audit/extra, should be made before the course registration deadline. Most changes before the deadline can be done through Quest. 

Courses with your Supervisor(s)

You can take no more than one half of your course requirements, as listed in the University of Waterloo Graduate Calendar, with your supervisor(s). 

For example, if you have to take three courses for your PhD, only one can be with your supervisor(s). As a MASc student you may need to take four courses; in that case, a maximum of two courses could be with your supervisor(s).

Please contact your department coordinator if you have questions about this.