Academic Information

To complement their engineering studies, all Nanotechnology Engineering students are required to clear a number of milestones. A milestone is not a course, but an objective which must be cleared before a specified academic term. If you do not clear the milestone by a specified academic term, you will not be allowed to enrol in that term until the milestone has been cleared.

Five of these milestones are Co-op Work Terms and another three or four are the work-term reports. These are documented elsewhere.

The remaining two milestones are:

• English Language Proficiency Examination (ELPE)
• Workplace Hazardous Materials Information System (WHMIS)

All Nanotechnology Engineering Students must complete and clear the Workplace Hazardous Materials Information System (WHMIS) and English Language Proficiency (ELP) requirements by the ends of the academic terms 1A and 2A respectively.

These two milestones are not linked to any courses and therefore when you achieve one of these milestones, you are said to have cleared it. If you make an attempt to clear one of these three milestones and fail to do so, the milestones are simply not yet marked as being cleared — a failure will not appear on your transcript.

Promoted Excellent, Good, Satisfactory (EXCEL, GOOD, and SAT)

If you are a full-load, full-time student and receive a term average of 60% or more, you are promoted to the next term with a standing of Satisfactory, Good, or Excellent depending on your term average.

Promoted (Conditional)

If you are a full-load, full-time student who is taking a given academic term for the first time and have a term average of at least 60% and no more than two failed courses in the current term and no more than two failed a nd uncleared courses in total, then you are promoted (conditional). You will need to clear the failed courses in the manner specified by your department.

Required to Repeat

If you have an average above 50% but below 60% or have an average of more than 60% with three or more failures in an academic term, then you are required to repeat the academic term. This decision permits you to complete the work term following the failed academic term, but you are not permitted to return to repeat the failed term until one year after the start of the failed term (academic terms failed in fall terms are repeated in the next fall term and so on). Normally you will already be enrolled in a work term following the term with the required to repeat decision. You proceed with that work term; however the term following the work term (and before the repeated term) is a non-degree term.

May not proceed

As noted above in some cases you are permitted to have two courses below 50% in a given term as long as the term average exceeds 60%. One exception to this is when you have a total of more than two failed (but uncleared) courses on your record (including the current term). If you accumulate three or more failed/uncleared courses, you receive a decision of May not Proceed and are not permitted to proceed to the next academic term until you have reduced the number of uncleared courses. Normally you must reduce the number of failed courses to one before continuing in the program. You should contact your academic advisor for your specific situation.

Required to withdraw from engineering

You will receive this decision for a number of different reasons as listed in the undergraduate studies academic calendar under Engineering examinations and promotions academic decisions. The most common reasons are:

• earning a term average below 50% in a given term, or
• failing a course in a repeated term

In many cases you may apply for readmission as described in the undergraduate studies academic calendar. You should contact your academic advisor for additional information.

Congratulations! You are about to join a prestigious network of more than 200,000 Waterloo alumni.  This checklist is designed to provide you with resources and information to help navigate the process of getting ready to graduate.

1. Verify your degree requirements.

2. Submit an Application to Graduate Form:

   • Deadlines can be found on the Registar's Office website. 
   • All students must apply to graduate or their degree will not be awarded. 
   • Form can be filled out and submitted online.
3. Visit the Registrar's Office Convocation page and ensure you have completed all required steps.

Students will take three design project courses, one in each of the 3B, 4A, and 4B terms which make up the Nanotechnology Engineering Capstone Design program. Students work in teams on an open-ended engineering design problem under the supervision of a faculty member with expertise in that area. Using the skills you’ve acquired over your studies, your team will solve real world problems and present your project at the annual Nanotechnology Engineering Capstone Design Symposium in March.