Arts and Science Grade Requirements

Updated October 25, 2022.

We will begin accepting applications in March from first-year students in Honours Arts and Honours Science seeking admission to co-op in 2023.

If applying to Arts Co-op or Science Co-op, you must have an overall GPA of at least 7.0 in first year, or a GPA of at least 7.0 in your honours discipline courses and at least 6.5 overall, to be granted an admission interview.

Admission Interview Information

We interview only those applicants who achieved the minimum required grade point average for the program.

• ​You must meet the overall GPA minimum to be eligible for an admission interview.
• You must be enrolled full-time in second year as of September.

We will let you know by email whether you are eligible for an admission interview. We will begin sending messages in late July, but it may take until early September to contact all applicants.

Learn more about the admission interview process.

GPA Information

Your minimum overall GPA includes all the courses you completed at Laurier in the fall and winter terms of your first year. You must achieve the overall GPA requirement by the deadline for applying to co-op, which is the Monday of the second week of classes.

You must complete five full credit courses (ten half-credit courses) by April of your first year.

• If you complete fewer than five full credits by April, you must have completed at least ten half-credit courses by the end of the Spring/Summer term.
• Please note that, for courses you take in the Spring/Summer term, we will consider only courses you repeated, courses required for progression to second year and courses needed to meet co-op requirements for completing five full credits during first year. 
• Although we will consider courses taken after the winter, we may give more credit for academic achievement to students who achieved the minimum GPA cut-off by the end of the winter term.
• If you complete more than five full credits by April, you must provide verification from your academic department that you need to complete three more years of full-time study. 
• We will not consider you for co-op if you have more than a total of 7.5 credits as of the end of year one.*

You must meet the requirements for progression to second year by the end of the Spring/Summer term.

*Excess Credits

If you choose to have any excess credits excluded from your transcript, we will consider you eligible to apply for admission. Please note that this change to your transcript will be permanent and that you will still need to achieve the minimum required GPA in first year to be eligible for an admission interview. When determining whether you met the minimum overall GPA requirement for co-op, we will first consider all required courses in your first year, then we will consider the earliest electives you took at Laurier, followed by your later electives, to a total of five full credits.

Assessing Credit Courses

When determining your GPA, we will include only those courses for which we see a numeric grade. We will exclude course letter grades that you have chosen to convert to a “credit" notation.

Please review the information in this section carefully to learn how we evaluate CR courses. The Co-op Office is not able to give advice to individual students.

Note: We consider grades as one of four factors while making admission decisions. We give equal weight to grades, interview performance, work experience, and volunteer and extracurricular experience. We will give special recognition to students who provide numeric grades for all required courses and to those who provide numeric grades for all ten courses. In other words, if you have high marks, it is in your best interest to provide numeric grades and not to convert your grades to a "credit" notation.

We will first review your overall GPA for the fall 2021 and winter 2022 terms. In addition:

• If you elected to convert one or more grades to the credit format, we will recognize you as having met academic requirements, along with all other students with the same GPA.
• If you provide numeric grades for all required courses, we will recognize you as having exceeded academic requirements, compared to other students with the same GPA.
• If you provide numeric grades for all required and elective courses, we will recognize you as having reached the highest academic achievement, compared to other students with the same GPA.

If you have questions about your marks or progression requirements, please consult an academic advisor from the Faculty of Arts or the Faculty of Science.

Courses Graded as Satisfactory/Unsatisfactory (new!)

When calculating your GPA, we will include only those courses for which we see a numeric grade. We will exclude grades from courses such as UU150 that provide only a grade of either satisfactory or unsatisfactory.

We will, however, include courses graded as "satisfactory" when counting the number of courses you have completed.

We may give you slightly less credit for your marks than we give students who provided numeric grades for all ten half-credits.

Note: If you completed UU150 when it still provided numeric grades, we will include your grade when calculating your GPA.

Didn't Meet the GPA Requirements?

If you don't meet the GPA in 2022, we will grant admission interviews only to students who achieved the minimum GPA required by the application deadline.

If you fail to meet the minimum GPA but you petition your department to reconsider any of your grades, let us know your new grades as soon as possible. Submit your petition by September 15, to ensure your department has time to make a decision by Nov. 1. We will not consider requests we receive after November 1. (Note: These dates are approximate; we will confirm them by August.)

If, after your petition, you meet the minimum GPA, we will offer you an admission interview, and will make decisions very soon after. To be eligible, you must also have met the application deadline.