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The most common registration question relates to registration restrictions. We’ve gathered some information to help you understand registration “restrictions” that may give rise to error messages.
On this page:
There are errors, other than restrictions, that you may receive during registration. Watch the “Troubleshooting LORIS Registration Errors” video for an examples of common LORIS registration errors
Your registration date is the earliest time you may begin to register for courses. Registration for:
Do not worry if you cannot complete your full registration immediately.
Due to registration restrictions, you may not be able to register for all your courses on your first attempt. You have until the following dates to register for courses:
There are three types of registration restrictions you may encounter: campus, major/program and year restrictions.
Registration restrictions are listed for each section of a course on Browse Classes. To view restrictions:
Watch the video below to learn how to troubleshoot major restrictions:
Courses that are restricted to specific majors may be set for a short period of time for priority registration or may be permanently restricted (e.g., most HE and KP courses).
In addition, some lecture / tutorial / lab sections are restricted to specific majors. For example, compare UU150 OC1 and UU150 OC2 (Fall 2024).
Some 100-level courses are restricted to senior (year level 2+) students, such as PS102 OC1 (online) in fall 2024.
Most senior Faculty of Science courses do not have year restrictions given that 100-level pre-requisite(s) are required. One example of a senior course that lacks a pre-requisite and is therefore restricted to senior (year level 2+) students is SC200 in Winter 2025.
For year restrictions, a year override may be granted at the discretion of the department offering the course. A year override is rare for an incoming Year 1 student.
A course may be restricted to students registered on a specific campus – Waterloo (sections A, B etc.), Brantford (sections BR, BR1 etc.) or Milton (sections MC1, MC2 etc.).
NOTE: Online (OC section) courses are virtual asynchronous (i.e., no scheduled meeting day/time). Some courses have virtual synchronous sections (e.g., WV: Waterloo and BV: Brantford) with a scheduled meeting time listed.
A campus override may be granted at the discretion of the faculty / department offering the course. Campus override forms are available for these requests.
Faculty of Science departments do not routinely provide overrides (major / year / pre-requisite).
Override appeals are managed at the departmental level. Override request policies / forms are available for each Faculty of Science department.
Major / program overrides:
Most departments restrict enrolment in senior courses to their majors for a period of time for priority registration.
A major override may be granted for a course without a release date at the discretion of the faculty / department offering the course. However, this is a rare exception.
Year overrides
For year restrictions, a year override may be granted at the discretion of the department offering the course. A year over-ride is rare for an incoming Year 1 student.
Pre-requisite overrides:
You must have completed the required prerequisite(s) before you can register in a course. Faculty of Science departments do not routinely provide pre-requisite over-rides. Undertaking a pre-requisite course in the same term as the course of interest is also rarely granted. However, students with transfer credits from another institution often require pre-requisite over-rides.
Repeat override
Based on university regulations, a course may only be completed twice. If you attempt to register for the course a third time, you will receive a “repeat” error. If this is a required course for your program, you must contact Science Academic Advising to discuss a petition for a “third attempt” at the course.
There are circumstances where you may receive a “repeat” error message when you have not completed the course of interest twice due to course “exclusions.” For example, if you complete MA100 twice and then attempt to register for MA101, you will receive a “repeat” error.
To address the error, you must request a “repeat override,” using the appropriate override request form, to register yourself in the course.
Time overrides
Overrides are not provided for scheduling conflicts with another lecture/lab/tutorial section. You must select non-conflicting course sections.
Capacity overrides
Capacity overrides for Faculty of Science courses are not provided.