Hi! I have a question about protocol re. a waitlisted course. I’m an incoming first year, and have been waitlisted for a course. It has a very high drop rate from what I’ve heard, so I’m fairly sure I’ll get in eventually, but probably not immediately. It’s supposed to be difficult and fast moving, so I’m somewhat concerned about playing catch-up. Am I permitted to attend the lectures in the meantime? What should I do about assignments?
hello young one,
unfortunately if you’re waitlisted, you won’t get access to the course quercus page, assignments, or online lectures (if any). but if the lectures are taking place in person and are fairly large, nothing’s really stopping you from sitting in. from my experience, most first year lectures are too large for profs to take attendance or notice a few extra students lurking around, and unless things have changed drastically in covid, it’s not like there’ll be bouncers out front trying to check if you’re actually in the course or not.
you will probably miss a few practicals/tutorial sessions though, if your course has those, and some assignments. usually, you can get in contact with the course coordinator to ask if assignments from before you joined the course could be dropped or replaced with other assignments. some courses also allow you to drop a certain number of assignments without penalty.
something that could really help is to get your hands on the course syllabus — try to see if you can find a copy floating around on the internet, or make some friends in the course and ask them for some of that insider info — that’ll give you a better idea of the course policies on assignments, topics covered, textbooks and other things you might have missed out on. if in doubt, definitely communicate with the course coordinator and see if you could work something out. btw, your registrar could also help out if you’re having any trouble negotiating things with your prof!
best of luck!
aska