Faculty of Mathematics

Faculty Policies

Co-op Regulations

General Regulations

Co-operative mathematics students are expected to follow the normal study/work-term sequence appropriate to their plan from admission through to graduation.
Students admitted at the 1A level (except for those in Mathematics/Chartered Professional Accountancy, the Bachelor of Business Administration (BBA)/Bachelor of Mathematics (BMath) double degree, and the Bachelor of Business Administration (BBA)/Bachelor of Computer Science (BCS) double degree) will normally have eight academic terms and six work terms.
Students may not end their sequence with a work term.
Students’ requests to re-arrange their sequence will normally be approved if all the criteria listed on the Faculty of Mathematics Sequence Change Form are met. Students who alter their sequence without obtaining prior approval may be required to withdraw from the co-op system. It is the student’s responsibility to deal with any timetabling difficulties that may arise and to select courses for subsequent terms.

Professional Development (PD) Courses

As specified in Table 1, co-op students are required to complete a minimum of five different Professional Development (PD) courses.
PD 1 is required in the academic term prior to the first work term and PD 11 is required during the first work term.
Students in the Bachelor of Mathematics in Computer Science and Bachelor of Computer Science plans must include PD 10, Professional Responsibility in Computing, as one of their PD courses.
With the exception of PD 1, PD courses are normally taken during co-op work terms.
Students are required to take a PD course each work term until the requirement is completed.

Work Reports

Co-op students must submit a work report following every work term until they have completed four acceptable work reports. Successful completion of PD 11 meets the requirement for a first work report.

Co-op Standing Rules

Conditions	Co-op Standing
Any of the following: The student is required to withdraw from the Faculty, or The student is on academic probation after a full-time academic term for the second time, or Two unemployed or failed work-term opportunities, or Three missing or failed PD courses, or Two missing or failed work reports, or The Standings & Promotions (S&P) Committee deems that the student is unlikely to profit from further participation in co-op or is not making satisfactory progress toward fulfilling co-op degree requirements. Presentation of such requests to S&P result in a notification to the student and an opportunity to reply prior to S&P’s decision.	Withdraw from Co-op
No co-op standing above applies, and any of the following: The student is on academic probation after a full-time term for the first time. Two missing or failed PD courses and one missing or failed work report.	Co-op Probation
No co-op standing above applies, and in the most recent work term, the employer evaluation was Excellent or Outstanding.	Excellent co-op standing
No co-op standing above applies.	Good co-op standing

Co-op Standing Rules Implications

The following table describes the implications of the co-op standings listed above.

Co-op Standing	Implications
Withdraw from Co-op	The student must withdraw from co-op and will be transferred to the most closely matching regular academic plan for which the student is admissible.
Co-op Probation	The student must meet with a co-op advisor to determine conditions necessary to remediate their co-op standing. A student who is on probation in co-op solely because of their academic standing will be placed in Good co-op standing if they return to Good or Excellent academic standing after one full-time academic term without missing or failing any PD courses or work reports. The student’s access to the co-op employment process will be blocked pending completion of remedial requirements.
Good co-op standing	Eligible to continue in co-op.
Excellent co-op standing	Eligible to continue in co-op.

Courses on a Work Term

Co-op students on a work term are limited to one course (0.5 unit), unless they have written support from their employer to take two courses (1.0 unit). COOP, PD, and WKRPT courses are not included in these limits.

Transferring into Co-op

Late transfers to the co-op system are considered once per term. Admission is very competitive and is a function of availability and demonstrated academic performance at the university level.
Regular students in the Faculty of Mathematics may apply to transfer to the co-op system of study in their 1B term. To be eligible, at the time of admission to co-op, such students must have successfully completed between 4.0 and 6.0 units, including transfer credits.
Non-co-op students from other faculties at the University of Waterloo may apply to transfer to the co-op system in the Faculty of Mathematics at the end of their 1B term, as part of the faculty transfer process.
Non-co-op students external to the University of Waterloo are eligible to apply for co-op in the Faculty of Mathematics only if, at the time of admission, they have successfully completed no more than 3.0 units of math transfer credits and between 4.0 and 6.0 transfer credits overall.
Applications to transfer to co-op from co-op students external to the University of Waterloo will be considered on a case-by-case basis.

Multiple Co-op Majors

Students pursuing more than one stand-alone honours co-op plan in the Faculty of Mathematics:
- Must meet the co-op requirements associated with each academic plan.
- Can count completed work terms, PD courses, and work term reports toward each stand-alone honours co-op academic plans.
Students cannot graduate with a combination of co-op and non-co-op honours academic plans (see Bachelor of Computer Science and Bachelor of Mathematics Academic Plan Combinations).

Legend for Study/Work Sequence Information Table

Key	Description
S/S	Sequence/Stream Mathematics plans: Sequence 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 Software Engineering: 8=Stream 8
F,W,S	Terms: F=September-December; W=January-April; S=May-August
1,2,3,4,5 plus A or B	Denotes academic year and term.
WT	Denotes scheduled work terms.
off	Denotes a term in which students are not registered at the University of Waterloo for classes and are not on a co-op work term.
†	Students admitted to Mathematics/Teaching in 2A will have a study/work sequence set at the time of admission. At least two teaching work terms must be part of the sequence.
¹	In order to access courses in appropriate terms, students in some plans may be required to modify their sequence when admitted to these academic plans after 1B.
²	Sequence 1 is assigned to all Mathematics/Chartered Professional Accountancy (Mathematics/CPA) students at admission. Requests to change sequence in third and fourth year are considered individually following the 2B and 3B terms respectively.
-	Not applicable.

Study/Work Sequence Information

Major	S/S	F	W	S	F	W	S	F	W	S	F	W	S	F	W	S
Actuarial Science; Applied Mathematics; Biostatistics; Combinatorics and Optimization; Computational Mathematics; Computer Science; Data Science; Information Technology Management; Mathematical Economics; Mathematical Finance; Mathematical Optimization (both specializations), Mathematical Studies; Mathematics/Business Administration; Mathematics/Financial Analysis and Risk Management (both specializations); Pure Mathematics; Statistics¹	1	1A	1B	WT	2A	WT	2B	WT	3A	WT	3B	WT	4A	WT	4B	-
	2	1A	1B	WT	2A	2B	WT	3A	WT	3B	WT	4A	WT	WT	4B	-
	3	1A	1B	off	2A	WT	2B	WT	3A	WT	3B	WT	4A	WT	WT	4B
	4	1A	1B	2A	WT	2B	WT	3A	WT	3B	WT	4A	WT	WT	4B	-
Business Administration and Computer Science (double degree); Business Administration and Mathematics (double degree)	-	1A	1B	WT	2A	WT	2B	3A	WT	3B	4A	4B	WT	5A	5B	-
											WT	4A	4B	WT	5A	5B
											4A	WT	4B	WT	5A	5B
Mathematics/Chartered Professional Accountancy (CPA) (with or without a specialization)²	1	1A	1B	off	2A	WT	2B	WT	3A	3B	WT	4A	WT	4B	-	-
	2	1A	1B	off	2A	WT	2B	WT	3A	3B	4A	WT	WT	4B	-	-
	3	1A	1B	off	2A	WT	2B	WT	3A	3B	WT	WT	4A	4B	-	-
	4	1A	1B	off	2A	WT	2B	3A	WT	3B	WT	4A	WT	4B	-	-
	5	1A	1B	off	2A	WT	2B	3A	WT	3B	4A	WT	WT	4B	-	-
	6	1A	1B	off	2A	WT	2B	3A	WT	3B	WT	WT	4A	4B	-	-
Mathematics/Teaching	1	1A	1B	WT	2A	†	†	†	†	†	†	†	†	†	†	†
	2			WT	2A	†
	3			off	2A	WT
	4			2A	WT	†
Mathematical Physics	-	1A	1B	WT	2A	WT	2B	WT	WT	3A	WT	3B	WT	4A	4B	-
Software Engineering	8	1A	1B	WT	2A	WT	2B	WT	3A	WT	3B	WT	4A	WT	4B	-

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