A guide on transferring from CE to CS at UWaterloo

At the time of writing this, I recently transferred to CS at UWaterloo and I noticed that aside from a couple old Reddit posts, I haven't really seen much info out there about the entire transfer process. So, I thought I would detail my experience in transferring out from CE!

As the title implies, this is a guide on how to transfer from Computer Engineering to Computer Science at the University of Waterloo. Thus, this guide will probably not be relevant to you if you are not trying to transfer and not in ECE. However, you still might find this useful you're in Engineering. In considering whether this guide is for you, think about whether it seems worth it to study-grind for almost the first half of your undergrad just to avoid touching hardware.

The requirements to transfer into CS are listed here. However, these are the minimum requirements to qualify for a transfer. You'll need grades a lot higher than the ones listed on the site for a chance of transferring, as the process is very competitive. For reference, the advisor I talked to in first year said that the practical cutoff for transferring was grades in the low-mid 90s. One thing to note is that Math/CS equivalent courses are more important in the consideration process, so for ECE students, ECE 150 and ECE 250 would be the most important courses as they turn into CS 135/136. Regardless, you should aim for high grades to maximize your chances. For reference, my cummulative average across my 1A, 1B, and 2A terms was 94.88%.

In terms of general advice I would give, there are a couple major points:

• Understand when you don't understand - It's important to realize when you don't get something. If you don't understand something taught in class, make sure you figure it out sooner or later! If you're in first year, there's a nice thing called WEEF TA office hours that you can always go to - I was a frequent visitor throughout 1A and 1B. Otherwise, since you know yourself the best, do whatever helps you learn effectively.
• Make friends - One of the main features of Engineering is the cohort system and how you're in the same class with people for multiple terms. Take advantage of this while you're still in the faculty to make friends! Even though I'm in CS now, the majority of my friends are still from ECE.
• Know when to take a break - Constantly grinding away in Engineering gets pretty tedious, and you should relax sometimes to avoid burning out.
• Don't skip lectures - While some people can probably learn an entire course from a textbook, I would generally recommend attending classes if the prof is actually teaching. For tutorials, I would go if you find them helpful - for example, I skipped all my ECE 140 tutorials where there wasn't an assesment during the tutorial.

This advice is pretty obvious, but important!

This section will go over my experience with the courses for each term in Computer Engineering I went through before transferring, as well as advice for each term. You'll notice that a lot of the advice for each course will just boil down to doing practice problems and seeking help where necessary.

During the 2A term (or whatever term you're eligible to apply), you will need to fill out two forms here. These will usually open a couple weeks into the term. They're not first-come first-serve, so as long as you fill them out before the forms close, you will be fine.

• Transfer from outside of Math to CS- This is the form that requires you to write a bit on why you transferred. Just write something sensible here.
• Transfer from outside of Math to Math- This form just requires you to fill out some information about what you want to transfer into. Make sure you pick CS co-op if you want to stay in co-op.

Assuming you have finished all your exams and you submitted the necessary forms, all you can do is wait. You should get your results fairly early into the preceding term. For reference, I got my results a week into my work term. Assuming you were accepeted, congrats! You never have to worry about what a MOSFET or nodal analysis is for your undergrad! From here, you'll probably need to talk to some math/CS advisors for next steps (I don't remember the specifics of everyone I talked to), but the hard part of transferring is over. Next, you'll need to be overriden into MATH 135 to open up a bunch of courses in the Faculty of Math. I won't be including any advice for MATH 135 here because at this point, you should have the study habits necessary to do well or you won't care about the result since you're already in.

Assuming you were in ECE, your courses will transfer over as follows:

• ECE 105 -> PHYS 121
• ECE 150 -> CS 135
• MATH 115 -> MATH 136
• MATH 117 -> MATH 137
• ECE 106 -> PHYS 122
• MATH 119 -> MATH 138
• ECE 205 -> AMATH 250
• ECE 222 -> CS 251
• ECE 250 -> CS 136
• ARTS 190 -> List I Communication

As well, some of your PD courses will transfer over:

• PD1 - equivalent from ENG courses
• PD11 - equivalent from ENG courses
• One PD elective

All your other courses will transfer over as electives, so to complete your undergrad, you will mostly just need to complete the core CS/MATH/STAT classes. From here, it's up to you choose your courses, as unlike in Engineering, you have to pick your courses each term. However, for your first term out of ECE, I would recommend choosing CS 246, CS 245, and STAT 230, as these are the core 2A CS courses you will need to catch up on.

While transferring from ECE to CS is definitely hard, it's definitely doable. In terms of a tl;dr for transferring, you should keep good study habits, stay on top of work, and touch grass where necessary. Feel free to reach out if you want extra detail added or want more clarification. Good luck!