Course Offerings

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 4 at 4 p.m., so that all students can have courses and fulfill program requirements. On July 4 after 4 p.m., students may register for open CS core courses.

If you register for more than the amount allowed before July 4 at 4 p.m. you will be arbitrarily de-registered from extra courses.

400-Level Restrictions

Until July 4 after 4 p.m., each Year 4 Communication Studies major is allowed to register in only:

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

If you register for more than the amount allowed before this restriction lifts, you will be arbitrarily de-registered from extra courses.  After 4 p.m. on July 4, Year 4 majors may register for whatever 400-level spaces are left.

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.

Major Restrictions by Other Programs

The date that filters (such as field of study or major restrictions) may be removed for students who are not registered in an honours program of that discipline is likely July 3 but varies by department.

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

Restrictions are deliberately placed (you should not expect to be given exceptions) by the various departments/ programs, and varies from one to another. Some do not restrict any courses, some restrict some courses, and some restrict all courses.

Restrictions for Non-Communication Studies Students

CS100 and CS101:

• Only Faculty of Arts students (includes Communication Studies majors) will be able to register for CS100 and CS101 until July 2. Other students will be able to register for CS100 and CS101 beginning July 3.
• A number of spaces in all sections of CS100 and CS101 will be reserved for Communication Studies majors.

• Senior CS courses are restricted to CS majors until July 14 at 11:59pm; you may register on July 15 for classes that are not full.
• 400-level courses: These courses remain restricted to Year 4 honours Communication Studies majors always.

• 200-level reserved seating: Approximately 2/3 of spaces in all 200-level courses will be reserved for Year 2 majors. The remaining spaces are reserved for students in other years of study.
• 300-level reserved seating: Approximately 2/3 of spaces in all 300-level courses, excepting CS353 online, will be reserved for Year 3 majors. The remaining spaces are reserved for students in other years of study.  There will be no reserve on CS353 online.
• 400-level courses: These courses remain restricted to Year 4 honours Communication Studies majors always.

If you see spaces in a course but are unable to register and the error message is "Course has seats reserved for specific reasons determined by the Dept..." that means the spaces reserved for your group are gone and the remaining spaces are for other groups.

Please try registering in other sections of the same course or try again later, as students in your group may drop out and we are lifting the reserved seating on July 4th afternoon.

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 with relevant details. Please include your student ID number.

Cultural Studies courses

Prerequisite overrides are allowed for senior Cultural Studies courses if one of either your major or overall GPA is at least 7.00.  Send an email to csaadv@wlu.ca with your ID number, course code and the term when you wish to take the course.

Wait lists will be available for senior Cultural Studies courses and certain Communication Studies courses. We are unable to add wait listing to most CS courses because wait listing conflicts with reserved seating which we use to ensure equitable access to 200- and 300-level CS courses.

• Spring: Wait listing is available for all courses
• Fall/Winter: Wait listing is available for CS353 online, 400-level CS courses and senior Cultural Studies courses

• 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.II.B.
• 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:

• CS100 and CS101 for Communication Studies
• KS100 and KS101 for Cultural Studies.

All other courses are to be chosen based on your own interests. The first year is an introductory year and you should select courses from numerous 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 also have 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.

Cultural Studies

TBA

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 or add your name to the waitlist, if available (see Wait Lists above).

The Communication Studies department offers courses during the fall and winter terms based upon a budget of 3 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 3 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 3 credits and you can expect it to be the most popular (including 400-level seminar) courses to be removed first.

With the exception of CS203, CS235, CS353OC and 400-level courses, senior courses have spaces reserved by year status. To ensure students of all years have reasonable access to courses, 60% of spaces in 200-level courses will be reserved for Year 2 students and 60% of spaces in 300-level courses will be reserved for Year 3 students. These reservations will be waived later in the summer. Finally, Year 4 students restricted are to one registration in CS400 until later in the summer (date to be announced each year).

Current requirements:

• For students entering Year 2, you will need to have completed CS100 and CS101 with a C+ in each course, a CS GPA of 6.0, and an overall GPA of 5.0
• 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 9.00 or higher.

The overall GPA includes every course in your Laurier record. The CS GPA includes Communication Studies core (CS) and elective courses (KS). 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 Wilfrid Laurier University 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 you can retake a course to try and fulfill the requirements. You could also pursue Communication Studies as a minor, rather than as a major. Consult your faculty advisors to better understand and discuss your options.

Note: You may only retake a course once and the second mark received will be what is counted, whether lower or higher than the first.

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. At least half of the spaces in CS100 and CS101 are reserved for majors only. Senior courses in Communication Studies are restricted to majors only until later in the year. 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 available from Enrolment Services. 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. The Communication Studies department has a residency requirement that limits Communication Studies majors to a maximum 1.5 credits in CS equivalents be taken on Letter of Permission.

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. On 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 Centre is a terrific resource for those thinking about work after graduation.

Yes, you can double count courses that appear in the requirements of your Communication Studies degree and 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).