Course Selection Period

A blended class, designated by a campus code of BLND, is a class normally scheduled with both an online and in-person activity (students must be available to come to campus).

Courses can be offered in person, online, or a blend of both. In addition, campus codes indicate who (which campus) is offering the course. 

If a required course isn't available online and you are not in a position to come to campus to study, contact your academic advisor to find out your options. The course may be offered in a later term, you might be asked to choose a different course this term, or some other accommodation might be available from your academic unit.

If the desired course is an elective for your degree or major, the recommendation is that you choose a different course this term.

How course selection prioritization works in the following way:

• "0" is the highest priority -- only added by an academic advisor, usually for courses required by your major (important: don't remove these!).
• "1" is the next highest priority, followed by "2", "3", etc.
• Each number, with the exception of "0", must be unique.
• Required courses should be prioritized over electives.

Some courses are offered at multiple campuses (physical, blended, or online). For those courses, when you add a course to your course selection wish list, you must select your preferred campus.

You are also given an opportunity to add an alternate campus (or more). If you do so, that means when schedules are created, the system will first look to see if your preferred campus is available, and if not available (perhaps it is full), it will look for spaces at any alternate campuses you may have indicated. If you don't have an alternate campus, the system will not enrol you in the course being offered at any of the other locations.

If you only want to be enrolled in to one campus (e.g., online), do not select an alternate (in-person) campus.

Once you have successfully added a course to your wish list, to change your preferred campus during the Course Selection Period you have to drop it and readd it with a new preferred campus. It is not possible to change it any other way, though you can set alternate campuses without having to drop and readd the course.

Certain holds prevent students from accessing course registration processes, and the Not Fees Arranged (NFA) hold fall into this category.

This hold will prevent you from doing the following in Quest:

• Participate during the Course Selection Period.
• Add or swap courses during the Drop/Add Period.
• Being enrolled in courses that advisors/academic units have tried to block enrol you into.

In order to be able to regain access to these Quest functionalities, you need to clear the criteria as indicated by the hold.

• For NFA holds: Email rorec1@uwaterloo.ca to learn your options.

It's okay! Some required courses might have been added for you by your advisor, resulting in a partial schedule being generated. Even if that's not the case, you can add courses during the Drop/Add Period. Be sure to mark your calendar with the dates (you can download them from Important Dates) as course choice will be subject to availability and will be on a first-come first-serve basis.