Student advising

Some courses require permission to enroll. These are usually courses that a department has reserved partially or entirely for their program students or courses with pre-requisites.

If you are unable to enroll in a course that you need for your degree, you can email the Student Advisor for that program and request permission to enroll. Please note that permission to enroll in courses is not guaranteed.  

In your email, include your student ID, program of study (major and/or minor), the course you are requesting permission to enroll in and any other pertinent information.

Email the Undergraduate Program Assistant, Coordinator, or other administrative staff in the department offering the course you are trying to enroll in.

Students who do not meet SdBI course pre-requisites may request a pre-requisite waiver on a case-by-case basis.

For instance, if you previously took a course that is equivalent to a course listed.

Your requests for a pre-requiste waiver should include:

• your name
• student ID number
• the course for which you are requesting a pre-requisite waiver
• a brief description of your case for the waiver
• relevant support materials

For cases where an equivalent course is being requested for fulfillment of a pre-requisite, include evidence of the equivalent course taken (e.g. syllabus, transcript to show evidence that the course was completed).

Incomplete requests will not be processed and will be returned to the student.

Contact us by email to waive a prerequisite for a course offered by SdBI

• SSDB courses
• WSDB courses

To waive a prerequisite for a course offered by another department

Email the department offering the course you are trying to enroll in.

To waive a prerequisite for independent and visiting students

Refer to the Prerequisite Waiver - Independent & Visting Students form for more information.

Students who are blocked from registering for courses due to an anti-requisite may not be able to enroll in the course because the anti-requisite is listed as an equivalent course. Students who believe a course anti-requisite should not apply to their enrollment should contact Student Academic Services at the Faculty of Arts & Science.

If the course you want to register for is full, the SIS system will automatically ask if you want to be on the wait list. If you agree, you will be added to the wait list and informed of your number on the list. 

Important: The system will inform you by email when space becomes available and you will automatically be registered in the course. It is the student’s responsibility to drop a course before the DNE deadline if they do not wish to remain in a course.

If the course does not have a wait list, or the wait list is full, students will have to monitor the situation until a seat becomes available.

Please note that departmental advisors or staff do not have the jurisdiction to enroll students in a class that is full (overfilling a class is not permitted), nor can they add you to the wait list.

If a course will not allow you to enroll, but there are seats remaining, the problem may be that the seats are reserved for program students. The reserves on seats are usually lifted two weeks before the beginning of classes. Students already on the waitlist are automatically registered if enough seats become available.  

Should the wait list be full, students will have to monitor the situation until a seat becomes available.

Students are permitted to take a course for a second time if they failed the course and are required to pass the course for their degree completion, or if they wish to retake a course for a revised grade. Note that the annual and cumulative GPA will count the latest grade received for the course, regardless of which grade is higher. The same course cannot be counted twice towards your credits for degree completion. The system allows students to register on their own, unless special permission is required.

Please note that this does not apply to special topics courses, where the course topic changes from section to section, unless the topic is the same.

Note: Students who want to take a course for a third time must request it through a Student Request.

Important Note: For a previously exempted course, the system will not allow students to register on their own. Students must submit a Student Request that includes a valid reason, a current copy of their student transcript and any documentation validating the request. Incomplete requests will not be processed and will be returned to the student.

For a previously exempted course, the system will not allow students to register on their own. Students must send a Student Request form that includes a valid reason, a current copy of their student transcript and any documentation validating the request.

Incomplete requests will not be processed and will be returned to the student.