Course Offerings and Registration

Fall and Winter terms

Prerequisite overrides are allowed for senior KS courses (KS203, KS326, KS400) if one of either your major or overall GPA is at least 7.00.  Request a prerequisite override by sending an email to csaadv@wlu.ca with your ID number, course code and the term when you wish to take the course.

Aside from KS203, KS326 and KS400, senior KS courses do not have course prerequisites. Where there are no prerequisites and the course is senior (200-level and up), students in Year 1 may not register.

No major restrictions

Any student may register for Cultural Studies courses, as long as they are in the appropriate Year of Study and have completed any required prerequisites.

Waitlists

There are no waitlists for any Cultural Studies courses.

KS205VA in-person examinations

Even though KS205 (Cartoons and Comics) is offered virtual asynchronous (online), there will be in-person testing for the midterm and final examinations.

Registration is restricted to students registered at Waterloo campus. Students registered at other campuses may request a campus override by:

• sending an email to csaadv@wlu.ca with your ID number
• include a statement in the email that you agree to in-person testing at the Waterloo campus

Communication Studies Course Limit

Communication Studies majors are allowed to register for no more than 3.0 Communication Studies (CS) credits (six courses) over fall and winter terms until July 10 at 4pm, so that all students can have courses and fulfill program requirements.

If you register for more than the amount allowed before July 10 at 4pm, you will be arbitrarily de-registered from extra courses without consultation.

After July 10 at 4pm, you may register as you wish in CS courses that remain open.

400-Level Restrictions

Year 4 Communication Studies majors are allowed to register in:

1. One section of CS400 (senior seminar);
2. One section of offerings for CS411, CS412, CS413, CS414, CS415, CS416. 

These restrictions remain in place until lifted by the department. If you register for more than the amount allowed, you will be arbitrarily de-registered from extra courses without consultation. The department will be monitoring registration daily. Should space remain after all students have registered, the department may lift this restriction to allow students to have more than one section. Students would be notified by email to their mylaurier email account if restrictions are lifted.

Students following the programs requiring one of CS401 or CS402 or CS403 or CS405 may use one of CS411, CS412, CS413, CS414, CS415, CS416 or KS400.

Students joining the program in their senior years should expect to take longer to complete requirements.

Restrictions are deliberately placed; you should not expect to be given exceptions. The type of restriction and how long the restrictions remain varies from one department to another. Some departments do not restrict any courses, some restrict some courses and some restrict all courses.

To check whether a course has a restriction and when the restriction ends, please use the 'LORIS Browse Classes' function, click on the course name, select 'Restrictions".

Waitlists

There are no waitlists for any Communication Studies courses.

Fall and Winter

Spring

Prerequisite requirements still apply for senior courses. Where there are no prerequisites (such as CS205, CS208, CS240), students in Year 1 may not register.

Communication Studies Courses

Restrictions are placed by the department after much planning and careful consideration of many factors. We therefore will not override any of our restrictions.

Prerequisite overrides are allowed only if you have taken a course elsewhere equivalent to the prerequisite course. If you feel this applies to you, please send an email to csaadv@wlu.ca using your mylaurier email account, with relevant details. Please include your student ID number.

Cultural Studies Courses

Prerequisite overrides are allowed for senior Cultural Studies courses (KS203, KS400) if one of either your major or overall GPA is at least 7.00.  Request a prerequisite override by sending an email to csaadv@wlu.ca with your ID number, course code and the term when you wish to take the course.

• Procedure: If an instructor suspects a case of academic and/or research misconduct, he/she will initiate the Academic Misconduct Investigation and Adjudication Process as stated in University Policy 12.2.
• Important: Regardless of the specific penalty levied, the names of all students engaged in academic misconduct will be reported to the department, the Dean of Arts office, and the University’s central registry.

There are only two required courses in first year:

• Communication Studies:  CS100 and CS101
• Cultural Studies:  KS100 and KS101

All other courses should be chosen based on your own interests. The first year is an introductory year and you should select courses from various different disciplines.

Communication Studies

We do not have a yearly scheduled curriculum. You are required to take CS203 and CS235 in your second year. Successful completion of both courses is required for third-year courses.

You are required to complete CS400 and one other 400-level, advanced topic non-seminar Communication Studies (CS) class. Beyond this there are no specific courses that you are required to take in a given year.

However, in Year 3, you may wish to consider the 400-level courses you are interested in, and ensure you take any required prerequisites.

Students in Honours CS need to take at least nine senior CS credits over three senior years.  This would average to three CS credits (six courses) per year.  Students may also count up to one credit (two courses) from senior KS courses toward CS credit requirements.

Students in the combined CS program need to take a minimum of six senior CS credits, but no more than 12 credits, over three senior years therefore averaging two CS credits (four courses) per year.  A minimum of two credits must be at the 300 or 400 level.  Students may also count up to one credit (two courses) from senior KS courses toward CS credit requirements.

Cultural Studies

Cultural Studies (KS) has a fairly open curriculum with many possible courses in several departments. At the 200-level, KS203 and 1.0 additional KS credit are required. At the 300-level, 0.5 credit from the KS curriculum is required. You must take one fourth-year KS course, KS400. Additional requirements, including KS Program Electives, are described in the calendar.

Students in the combined KS program need to take a minimum of six senior credits listed in the KS program over three senior years. This would average to two credits (four courses) per year.

It is our department policy not to override class limits. If a class or tutorial is full your only option is to check through LORIS for a space to become available.

A concentration allows students to map a pathway through the program by selecting courses in particular groupings according to your area(s) of interest. The department offers CS concentrations as goals students may work toward, but do not guarantee courses for completion of the concentrations.

With almost 700 majors, it is difficult to regulate and control course registration for each major student to fulfil concentration requirements.

The Communication Studies department offers courses during the fall and winter terms based upon a budget of three credits per major in the program. This budget is what is allocated to the department from the Faculty of Arts. In order to ensure an equitable distribution of courses among all majors in our program, we expect you to stay within that budget. At a later date, once everyone has had a reasonable opportunity to choose their courses and schedule their classes, the three-credit cap will be lifted and majors may select additional courses subject to availability. Until that time, if you exceed the budget, we will remove you from any and all courses above three credits without consultation.

Current requirements:

• For students entering Year 2, you will need to have completed CS100 and CS101 with a C in each course and an overall GPA of 4.0 or more.
• For students entering Year 3 or Year 4, you will need C in each of CS100 and CS101, CS GPA of 6.0 or higher and an overall GPA of 4.0 or more.

The overall GPA includes every course in your Laurier record. The CS GPA includes Communication Studies courses and senior Cultural Studies (KS) courses. Provided you have the required GPAs, you can declare yourself as a Communication Studies major through LORIS. Alternatively, you can fill out a program selection form available from Enrolment Services.

Note: If you have repeated either CS100 or CS101 and achieved less than a C in the second instance, you will not be able to continue in the program.

No. If you are already enrolled at Laurier and did not enter as a Communication Studies major, then you must first enrol in and successfully complete CS100 and CS101 meeting all progression requirements.

If you do not meet either of the GPA requirements and fail to stay in the Communication Studies program, please consult with Arts academic advisors to better understand and discuss your options.

That depends upon what you have already completed towards the program requirements. The Communication Studies program is designed to be completed in four consecutive years of study. If you are changing your program or returning to the program, you may need more than four academic years in total to complete your new requirements.

During the fall and winter terms, all courses offered by the Communications Studies department have majors-only restrictions until July 13 at 11:59pm, excepting CS100, CS101.

400-level courses in Communication Studies are always restricted to CS majors.

The dates when the major restrictions will be removed will be posted in the 'LORIS Browse Classes' function.

The Management Option is handled by the Lazaridis School of Business and Economics; consult a Business department academic advisor.

Yes. These are called Letter of Permission courses. The applicable forms and instructions are posted on this page on Taking Courses at Another University. When selecting courses at another institution, be sure that they do not overlap with courses you have already taken at Laurier. It is essential that you receive the necessary permissions from your academic advisor and Enrolment Services before you start your course.

It is important to note that because this is a university and not a college program, we do not train you for practice in a specific field. It is a misconception to think that an undergraduate student in history becomes an historian, that a biology student becomes a biologist or that a communication studies student gets employment in the media industry. A university degree gives you a broad set of critical and analytic skills that can be applied in any area of employment. In the job market you will be competing with others who have degrees in history, English, biology, kinesiology, business, geography and many other fields. The type of job you get has more to do with how you market yourself than the subject of your degree. The Laurier Career Development Centre is a terrific resource for those thinking about work after graduation.

Yes, you can count courses that appear in the requirements of your Communication Studies degree and the requirements of another major, minor or option; however, you still only receive 0.5 credit for the course (or 1.0 credit if it was a full-year course).