You must follow your academic ADVISEMENT REPORT to obtain the necessary credits to graduate. Refer to that document (found in your Mosaic Student Centre under Academics) for a listing of all electives you are able to take for credit towards your degree. Each students' Advisement Report is unique, so please read it carefully, and ensure that you are fulfilling the requirements for your own degree. If you have any concerns, please contact the ECE Advisor in the Engineering Student Services office, Sally Williams (willsal@mcmaster.ca).
Elective courses often become full. As they are not required courses, we cannot add any more seats to them. If there is a particular elective that you want, but it's full, keep an eye on it until the last day to make changes to your enrollment because someone may drop the course, enabling you to get the seat. Always be prepared to enroll (obtaining any necessary permissions, overloads and conflicts ahead of time).
Electives should fit into your timetable without conflict, so if one elective creates a conflict then choose another! Trying to manage courses with conflicting schedules may mean poor performance in both courses, as well as possible conflicts with midterm and final examinations. Please be advised that even if a Conflict is approved by the instructors, it is YOUR responsibility to keep up with the class (authorization does not mean special accommodation will be provided).
As with ALL courses, you must have the prerequisites to take these courses. Permission is sometimes required to take a course, particularly if the course is offered in a department other than your own. If you do not have the prerequisite for an Elective, you can request Permission to take the course from the department that offers the course. Please note that Permission requests are NOT guaranteed - the department that offers the course will decide whether you will be permitted to take the course or not. Because of this and the popularity of Elective courses, plan to take another course in case your request is denied. For courses offered by departments other than ECE, refer to that departments' website for their forms and processes.
For the "ECE Technical Electives", NO additions or substitutions can be made. The Associate Chair of the ECE Department will consider suggestions, however they cannot be implemented until the following year.
For the "Complementary Studies Electives", additional courses can be suggested to the ECE Advisor in the Engineering Student Services office (the ECE Department cannot authorize these credits).
Level 4: The individual Research Project Courses are considered "ECE Technical Electives".