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While most upper years have or are approaching their 7 day SOLAR deadlines for choosing courses, many still have a few courses in which they want to register. Whether it’s Eng 1A03 or a 2nd year Psych course, students are continually faced with “Full” or restricted courses that to which their faculty does not have immediate access.

This is a frustrating phenomenon but a bit of background may be helpful in understanding why this happens. Courses for first years will be blocked to many upper year students since freshmen pick their courses last, after all the higher levels. In order to ensure that incoming Level I students actually have seats to occupy, upper years may often find themselves requiring course waivers before they can register in a first year course. First years may also find that they have to request permission to take certain courses that may have filled up on SOLAR or when they do not have all the prerequisites for a course.

When dealing with “full” courses, it is important to note that not every course that appears full actually is. It is highly likely that the department has some reserved seats that they open up for students by request. Since you only get one real shot at asking for a waiver, it is vital to make a good first impression. Below are some guidelines to doing so, as well as a complete list of department contact information.

The Introduction

In requesting a course waiver, you must contact the department that offers the course, not the department you are registered to.

Always begin with a professional salutation that could include any one of the following:

• Dear “Mr/Mrs/Dr/Professor”
• Good morning/afternoon “Mr/Mrs/Dr/Professor”
• Hello “Mr/Mrs/Dr/Professor”
• To Whomever it May Concern

If you are unsure whether a professor actually has a PhD or just a Masters, “Professor _________” (insert name) is usually a safe bet. When a name is ambiguous and not indicative of a person’s gender, you may want to settle with “to whomever it may concern”.

In my personal experience, I have found it more useful to contact the department instead of a specific professor when requesting a waiver.

Introducing Yourself
Always list your legal name, student number, level and program. An example might be:

My name is Bushra Habib (01234567), Level II, Chemical Biology and I wish to request a waiver for Health Science 2JJ0.

All of this information in the first line makes life much easier for those processing your request, during a time when they are swamped by hundreds of requests and emails, which only works to your favour. As well, this way, if they do grant you a waiver, they have every necessary detail in one sentence.

Content Guidelines

• Be concise and succinct. Clearly state that you want a waiver for a specific course, making sure to list the course code.
• One paragraph should be sufficient to communicate what course you want to be granted access to and why you feel you deserve a waiver
• Be consistent with font sizes, use appropriate punctuation (especially when writing to the English department) and font colours.
• Never write from your public email address accounts; send all requests from your McMaster email.
• Avoid using emoticons (I.e. , :(, :@ etc) and unnecessary capitalization.
• While it is acceptable to briefly summarize your experiences with getting into a course, you want to avoid using emotion.
• Do: “I have been advised to try again on SOLAR until some seats open up in the course but this is the 5th consecutive day that I have been doing so, without any success”
• Don’t: “IF YOU DON’T LET ME INTO THE COURSE I WILL DIE.”

Body:
The trick to writing a successful course waiver request is to detail, in a brief, straightforward manner why you think you should be allowed into the course. This is where you might want to mention high school marks, volunteering with respect to that specific field, or how this course enriches your academic experience. Most departments appear reluctant to grant requests for the purposes of obtaining a minor in the subject or for grad school plans. Therefore, you would want to discuss the other reasons you really want to pay $600 to take a specific subject. For instance, you may be volunteering with children in a research study conducted by the Psychology department and therefore want to obtain a credit in a child psychology course to make better contributions to your research team.

You may also want to reference your work ethic, especially for more challenging courses such as English and Math, even if you don’t have the best marks for those courses in high school. Stating that you’re welcome to challenges and prepared to work diligently, with one-line proofs of such instances in the past, can be quite persuasive in getting you into your desired course. If departments are taking the time out to grant waivers to students they do not have to oblige (i.e. these students are not in their faculties), it seems natural for them to be partial to students who demonstrate a passion for learning and working hard.

Conclusion
Since this is the last thing the person reading your email will state, ending off on a positive note is always helpful. Be sure to thank the person for their time, regardless of whether your request is granted or not.

LMFAO @ “IF YOU DON’T LET ME INTO THE COURSE I WILL DIE.”

Thanks for this!