FAQ

How can I get advice on course selection?  

Students needing special help in choosing courses or plotting an academic plan can always get help through an advising session. In addition, the on-line Progress Monitor can help you keep track of your progress.  

How do I get permission to take a course?   

If you do not have the prerequisites for a course, if the system does not recognize your prerequisites (if you have transfer credits, or if you are on LOP or an exchange program) or if spots are reserved for other categories of students, you can request permission from the Course Director.  

How do I obtain a lab exemption for a course? 

A lab exemption is possible when a student repeats a course with a lab component. It is given at the discretion of the Course Director and means you do not retake the lab component of the course. Generally, this is done on the condition that the student completed all lab experiments and obtained marks to satisfy the requirements for this course component. You can request an exemption by filling out the form at this link. 

I know I need to miss a lab, now what? 

Lab schedules are established at the very start of the academic term and usually published in lab manuals and labs take place during lab hours. Students are expected to attend all lab sessions when these are scheduled, except when there arises a conflict with a religious obligation. In rare circumstances, a student knows in advance that he/she cannot avoid missing a lab, owing to an outside, non-religious obligation that cannot be altered, and which cannot have reasonably been avoided. In such instances, the student should contact the Lab Coordinator as early as possible to attempt to reschedule the lab or reach another reasonable accommodation. 

How do I raise concerns about labs? 

For any course that has a lab component, the Course Director is responsible for the conduct of the lab and that of the Teaching Assistants for the course. Teaching Assistants have very important responsibilities, namely to ensure the safety and expedient conduct of the lab exercises, to achieve their intended pedagogic results, and to be of assistance to their students to achieve those results. As professionals, they are accorded considerable leeway in meeting their responsibilities and have access to resources, including their own experience as well as the experience of their fellow Teaching Assistants, the Lab Coordinator and the Course Director. 

If you have safety concerns relating to an experiment, you should approach the Lab Coordinator. 

If you have interpersonal conflicts in the laboratory you should contact your TA, the Lab Coordinator, or the Course Director, as appropriate, in order to resolve the issue or reach an accommodation. Keep in mind that experiences within any lab group cannot be guaranteed to be the same or different to others, as each group of people will have varied interpersonal dynamics.  

If you have concerns over the feedback or grades received on a lab report, first speak with your TA to ascertain whether the issue warrants further attention. Should this be the case, the TA will help you contact the Lab Coordinator and/or the Course Director to address the matter. 

How do I take a course at another university and have it count toward my York degree?  

Students sometimes want to take courses at another institution because the equivalent York courses are not available or full. To be able to apply a course taken elsewhere toward your York degree, you need a Letter of Permission, in which the department offering the York course signifies to the Registrar that the course you want is indeed equivalent, and you must achieve a minimum grade of “C” in that course for the credit to be granted.  

Start by identifying the course(s) you want to take at the other university. Choose them as to fit closest with York’s offerings. Get a complete Course Description for each, from the offering department, from the Course Director, or from the university’s website. This will include a brief description of the topics covered but must also include or indicate the course duration (one term or two), whether or not there is a laboratory component (as appropriate) and the number of lecture, laboratory and tutorial hours (per week or in total).  

Next, fill out a Letter of Permission form from the Registrar’s Office website. Bring the completed form and the Course Description(s) to the Chemistry Undergraduate Assistant (124 CB), who will obtain an approval signature from the appropriate York professor. Then you forward this form and the fee to Registrars Office (Bennett Centre for Student Services).  

What do I do if I have Transfer Credits from another institution?  

Be sure to get an advising appointment as early as possible in order to select the courses necessary for you to complete your York degree in a timely manner. When you visit the Chemistry department for your advising appointment, bring with you a copy of all Advanced Standing documentation issued to you, so as to be able to determine the program requirements still outstanding in the completion of your degree.  

After you applied to transfer to York from a college or from another university, the Admissions Office will have examined your transcript, with help from the institutionally issued course descriptions and from the York departments concerned, in order to ascertain which, if any, of the coursework completed elsewhere can be credited toward a York degree. The Admissions Office will have issued you its determination in a letter, in the form of Transfer Credits (also known as Advanced Standing) apportioned to one or more levels of study, and as Course Credit Exclusions in certain York courses, if the previously taken courses are deemed substantially the same. Marks earned in courses taken at other institutions do not count toward your York GPA and any transfer credits do not enter into the GPA calculation. You may not re-take the courses in which you have been awarded Course Credit Exclusion, as stipulated in the letter from Admissions. Courses in which you have Course Credit Exclusions can nevertheless serve as pre-requisites for York courses. Any transfer credits that are not Course Credit Exclusions nevertheless count in all the appropriate credit totals required in your program (total credits in all courses, total credits in Science courses, total 1000-level Science credits, total upper-year Science credits, etc.). The Registrar’s website gives answers to many frequently asked questions concerning Transfer Credits.  

If you were denied Course Credit Exclusion in a particular course taken elsewhere, it may be that the course was of insufficient depth or breadth to be considered equivalent to a York course, granting equivalence may leave you at a significant disadvantage if attempting a successor course at York, the course lacked a lab component (if a lab component is part of the York equivalent), it had too few lecture hours (and/or laboratory hours in courses with a lab component), or because the grade you earned was too low. Courses that have no York equivalent but appear to be of appropriate level and depth, and in which the grade you earned was sufficiently high, may be granted transfer credit without Course Credit Exclusions.  

How do I drop a course after the drop deadline?  

The course drop deadline is late enough in the academic term to give you ample time to decide whether or not you should remain in a course. Before the drop deadline, you should have had the opportunity to earn marks worth 15% or more of your final grade, to provide you with feedback and to help you decide on whether or not to stay. After the deadline, you can only withdraw from a course before the last day of classes (earning a grade of “W”) or drop a course by formal Petition through the FSc, and only if you can provide documented justification for not having been reasonably able to drop the course before the deadline.   

How do I find out when tests/exams are scheduled and deal with any conflicts?   

The Course Director sets the schedule for each course, including when tests and other grade items (such as assignment deadlines) are scheduled. No later than fourteen days ahead of a conflict between religious and academic obligations (except for final exams), students must notify the Course Director or Lab Coordinator of their conflict in order to gain accommodation. 

Final exams are scheduled by the University, usually in October for Fall term (F) exams, in February for exams for Winter term (W) and full-year (Y) courses, and in May or June for summer-term exams (there are several summer terms). Although the University makes every effort to avoid exam conflicts, the first published schedule remains tentative until conflicts and other issues are identified and resolved as much as possible, then a final schedule is published shortly thereafter. Exam schedules appear on the Registrar’s website.   

How can I petition a course?   

In very special circumstances students may have grounds to petition to drop a course after the drop deadline or remove earlier course attempts from their transcripts. Help on how to prepare your petition is available through the Registrar’s website. 

How can I get my grade reappraised?   

A request to reappraise a final grade, if sufficient academic grounds can be provided, can be made through the grade reappraisal principles outlined by the Registrar’s office.   

During the course, there is no petition mechanism for grades of individual assessments. Students should keep in mind what constitutes fair marking. You are entitled to an opportunity to reasonably challenge the marking on any grade item. Normally, term grade items are returned to students, with feedback, in a timely manner, and it is assumed that there has been ample opportunity for students to have their term grades reviewed during the course itself, if warranted, by the Teaching Assistant for lab marks, or by the Course Director for all other marks. Students have the right to see their final exams and determine that the marking was appropriate, usually by appointment with the Course Director. Only final grades are reviewed at the end of the course by the department and later by the FSc Committee on Examinations and Academic Standards.  

If the processes outlined above were not followed, students should contact the Undergraduate Program Director with their concerns. However, Course Directors and Teaching Assistants have the right to not be continually harassed for better grades, or to suffer pleas for special consideration.