Academic Exchange

Academic exchange can be a rewarding experience. An important part of planning your exchange term is course selection. 

The SE Associate Director is the person who approves exchange study plans.

Note that SE students are members of both the Faculty of Mathematics and the Faculty of Engineering. However, as a practical matter, SE student applications are routed through the Faculty of Engineering. Please see the Engineering Exchange page (step 2 for the Proposed Study Plan form). Let the SE Associate Director know if you think it's important for your desired exchange university to know that you are also part of the School of Computer Science in the Faculty of Mathematics, and we can pass that message along to your target university.

Getting your Study Plan Approved

  • The Faculty of Engineering requests that you get your study plan approved by the SE Associate Director for your first choice school by the October 31st application deadline.
  • The Faculty of Engineering also recommends that you formulate study plans for your subsequent school choices before the October 31st application deadline, but does not require you to get those plans approved at that time.
  • Prior approvals are not an indication that the course will be approved again.

UW Course Alternatives

If you are going on exchange, then we are more flexible about which term you take certain courses in, and whether you take the regular course with your cohort or take a local alternative.

While it's good to try to match the courses that your cohort is taking at home at UWaterloo, it might not be possible to do so, and in that case you might need to take some core courses at UWaterloo in a different term than the rest of your cohort.

List of UW SE courses, when they are taught, and possible local alternatives.
Course Terms Offered UW Alternatives
SE350 Operating Systems W CS350, ECE350
SE380 Feedback Control F ECE380
SE390 Design Project Planning F Offered online to students on exchange
SE464 Software Design & Architecture F CS446, ECE452
SE465 Software Testing W CS447, ECE453
CS341 Algorithms F, W, S ECE406
CS343 Concurrent & Parallel Programming F, W  
CS348 Databases F, W, S ECE356
CS349 User Interfaces F, W, S MSE343, CS449
MATH213 Advanced Math for SE W ECE207

While some schools have an acceptable alternative for SE464, many schools have a course that is a mixture of of SE463, SE464, and SE465. In such cases it is rarely a good match and is rarely approved.

Electives

Electives that you take abroad often do not have an exact match to UWaterloo courses codes. For such cases we use the codes:

  • GENE21A: a List A course
  • GENE21C: a list C course
  • GENE23S: a science elective course.

We only approve Technical Electives in very exceptional circumstances.  If we approve it, it will be deemed to come from the Extended List.

Part of the opportunity of going on exchange is to study things that are not available at your home university.

Grades from Abroad

You will be graded by your exchange university according to their system. Different countries and different universities have different grading systems and norms.

When you return to UW, we will interpret your exchange transcript on a credit/no-credit basis, and this is what will appear on your UW transcript. While on exchange, you are representing UW & SE, so it is important that you present a positive and respectable impression. In terms of UW norms, we are looking for you to earn grades abroad that are at least a C (70%) and above. Perhaps we will give you UW credit for lower grades if your exchange average is sufficient --- similar to how UW Engineering considers a 50% to pass a course, but requires a 60% average to pass the term. Students on exchange are held to a higher standard than our local bare minimum.

Also note that we will interpret your exchange transcript according to the norms of the country and university you studied at. For some universities, nobody is ever awarded a grade over 70%, so we would understand "C" differently in that kind of context.

Finally, a large part of exchange is cultural experience. You should not spend all of your time abroad studying. The extra effort to go above 85% should probably be directed elsewhere, unless you really enjoy that particular course.

Co-op and Scheduling

Your one term away on exchange is typically surrounded by two co-op terms. So you will be off-campus for 12 months. It is possible to move things around within this 12 month period. For example, you could do an 8 month co-op term, instead of two 4 month terms. Alternatively, if you do not need the co-op credit, you could spend 8 months at the exchange university. Or 6 months of co-op (for one co-op credit) and 6 months of exchange study. Speak to the SE Associate Director about what is possible and how to accomplish it.

Which term to go on exchange?

SE students can go on exchange in either 3A or 3B

When going on exchange in 3B, students are required to participate in their team's capstone design project remotely (SE390). 

With the sole exception of SE 390, students do not take UW courses while on exchange.