First-year courses and beyond
As an Arts student, you’ll choose your major at the end of first year. You’re encouraged to explore a second major in first year to discover potential new interests.
In your Arts First courses, instead of going to a lecture hall, you and your classmates will work together to respond to an intriguing challenge. With only 25 students in each of the two first-year courses, you might address topics such as The Science of Happiness, Are We Erasing History?, Games and Culture, and Writing About Poems and Songs.
You can choose to study Communication Studies and Communication Arts and Design Practice through Honours Arts or Honours Arts and Business.
After first year
40% of the classes you’ll take will be in your major. With your remaining classes, you can choose electives from many of the 100 subject areas at Waterloo.
Sample Communication Studies upper-year courses
COMMST 323 – Speech Writing
COMMST 325 – Organizational Communication
COMMST 420 – Persuasion
COMMST 430 – Communication and Social Justice
COMMST 431 – Crisis Communication
Sample CADP upper-year courses
DAC 302 – Digital Storytelling Design
DAC 309 – User Experience Design
COMMST 339 – Media, Images, and Communication
THPERF 374 – Sustainability in Design
THPREF 379 – Mixed Reality Design
Advisors are here to help
With so much flexibility, you might have a lot of questions. We're here to help! If you're applying for admission, contact our Faculty of Arts recruitment team.
Once you're a Waterloo student, you'll have access to academic advisors who can help you
- choose your courses,
- select minors and specializations,
- ensure that you're meeting the requirements for your degree, and more.
Next steps
- Overview of Waterloo's Communication Studies program.
- Download a Faculty of Arts brochure.
