First-year guide to course enrolment

My favorite season is just around the corner. I love fall because it brings with it new beginnings: a new school year, changing colours and a slight chill in the air that creates an excuse to purchase a warm cozy drink on my way to class. It makes me feel like I can realign my goals and intentions for the year, and get back to a routine after summer.

I spend the month of August planning for the fall semester, from the courses I wish to take to my academic and professional goals for the year. This fall semester is especially important to me because I am going into my final year. While I do have an idea of the courses I need to take, especially since the options to choose from are much fewer in my final year, I do need to consider a few important things:

• My minor and major: As a final-year student, I have to be careful that I take the exact courses I need since this is quite literally my final chance. I also have to ensure that I am on track to finish all core courses for my Marketing major so I can apply for graduation. I have had a course tracker since first year where I maintain the course prerequisites I need, courses I have to take towards a major or minor. I also keep referring to my program calendar to make sure I don’t miss anything.

• My course load: Thankfully, my course load is not as intimidating with 4 courses per semester, which will help me devote adequate time to each course. Having taken 5-6 courses in the past, I do recommend a light course load if your financial and personal circumstances allow it. Taking fewer courses has helped me get more out of my classes, and has led me to explore new subjects that I didn’t even know I was interested in!

• Availability of courses: Some courses are offered in either fall or winter semesters. Even though I was able to add my courses to the course intentions I did earlier in the summer, I will find out whether they are actually offered closer to the fall semester during the enrolment period. Either way, having them in my cart helps so that I can keep better track of my top choices, and enrol from the cart during my enrolment period. 

Now that I have an idea of my enrolment plan when my enrolment period begins, I just have to be up and ready the morning the period starts. This year, the priority enrolment start date is August 11, 6:00 a.m. for fourth-year students. You can find the enrolment periods for all years on the Current Students - Course Enrolment website.

Once you know what to keep in mind when choosing courses, you’re ready to actually select the courses you will take in the fall. All of this happens on the MyServiceHub portal, which gives you access to academic and financial features, along with the full suite of Google apps. Here is how course enrolment works:

Setting course intentions

Course intentions are a mandatory process where returning students select the courses they wish to take in the upcoming academic year. Except for first-year students, course intentions are mandatory and incredibly useful for everyone. They ensure that you get priority enrolment, and intended courses will be automatically added to your schedule in the upcoming year.

You might think intentions are not super important; it’s not like courses are concert tickets everyone is fighting over. I realized quickly that they very much are! Some courses can be incredibly sought after, especially if you’re in a bigger program or if you’ve chosen a liberal studies course that is popular across programs. Course intentions help you avoid being stuck on a waitlist for a class you really want to take and missing the first few crucial weeks.

Please note that not all courses are available for intentions since the university might need time to gauge interest for a particular course and figure out other logistics. In that case, you just have to wait until your enrolment period and hope for the best!

Finalizing my schedule through course enrolment 

Course enrolment is a period where you can add, drop or swap courses for the upcoming academic semester. It usually occurs closer to the start of a semester: mid-August for fall and late-December for winter. The enrolment period lasts until the second or third week of classes, giving you enough time to shop around before you finalize your schedule for the semester.

First-year students are usually pre-enrolled in their mandatory classes, and can use the enrolment period to select their liberal studies courses or electives. Upper-year students get the chance to access priority enrolment, which you are only eligible for if you participated in course intentions.

During the enrolment period, you get to see the class schedule for all courses. When enrolling, I take into account the class timings and whether they match my work/commuting schedule, the professor teaching the course and if they have a teaching style that I align with, and most importantly, if the course load is manageable and leaves enough time for me to get across campus or grab a meal in between classes.

What really helps me is the Visual Schedule Builder (VSB)

The Visual Schedule Builder (VSB) is an enrolment tool available on MyServiceHub, which can be used to place courses in your schedule to see which ones fit. I love using this tool because it helps me visualize prospective schedules, and also flags important issues like time clashes and courses that are at full capacity.

The VSB supports features such as dragging and dropping courses directly onto your schedule, pinning certain classes, seeing class details such as the professor name and class location, creating different variations of a schedule and more. These features make the VSB a crucial tool for course scheduling. Learn about other tools that help make the enrolment process as smooth as possible.

Learning as I go

While course enrolment can be an intimidating process, especially in first year, it gets much easier to figure out as you go. There are also tons of resources to help you, such as contacting your academic advisor or reaching out to MyServiceHub Support. Now that I have done this process many times as a fourth-year student, I actually enjoy it because it helps me map out what my next few months of university will look like and plan for the semester in advance. 

But as much as I plan, sometimes things take an unexpected turn. I may end up not liking a particular course, or realizing that a class timing (especially an early morning one) does not suit my schedule. That is what the course enrolment period is for! Just make sure you take a look at Course Drop Dates to ensure that you can still get a refund for the course.

Choosing a class can feel very high stakes, but I have realized that sometimes, I just need to take a leap of faith. It is these leaps that have landed me in the most exciting classrooms and contributed to my learning curve about unfamiliar subjects. So if you're about to enter university, just allow yourself to take it easy and enjoy the process; the rest will figure itself out!