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Queen's School of Computing

Enrollment News (2020-21)

Last changed Thu Jul 10 2020 14:23.

For information about changes from previous years, see the enrollment news history. See also the key dates for plan selection and enrollment.

Changes to Computing Plans

  1. New option in COMP and CSCI plans: Security has been added as a sixth focus:
    2.A.vi: Security
    a. 15.0 units in CISC 220/3.0, CISC 324/3.0, CISC 327/3.0, CISC 335/3.0, CISC 447/3.0
    b. 3.0 units from CISC 434/3.0, CISC 448/3.0
  2. New courses: Two courses on security have been added (CISC 447 'Introduction to Cybersecurity' and CISC 448 'Software Reliability and Security'). CISC 435 'Computer Networks' has been renamed to CISC 335.
  3. Topics courses CISC 490: CISC 490/846 'Software Design Methodologies'. Requires 'C-' in CISC 332 or CISC 326. Can serve as a SOFT_Design option in SODE.
  4. AI courses not offered: CISC 453, CISC 467, and CISC 473 will not be offered this year. In response, the AI and Data Analytics option lists in COMP and CSCI now allow these courses to be replaced with a 400-level course in CISC or CISC_Subs. Suitable courses include CISC 457 'Image Processing and Vision', CISC 471 'Computational Biology' (requires CISC 271), CISC 486 'Game Engine Development' (requires CISC 226), CISC 422 'Formal Methods in Software Engineering', and CISC 451 'Topics in Data Analytics' (requires CISC 351 or CISC 372). These courses either present techniques that are also relevant to many AI applications (e.g., image analysis, genetic computing, constraint solving, search space exploration, data analysis), or use AI techniques (e.g., gaming).

Danger! Avoid Deferring Courses

The leading digit of a course is the year in which it is expected to be taken; thus 300-level courses are expected to be taken in 3rd year, for example. Do not defer a course to a later year if at all possible; this may require that you give up taking a desirable optional course in favour of a required core course.

The reason is that we cannot guarantee a conflict-free timetable between courses intended to be taken in different years.

Enrolment Restrictions

Until Open Enrollment starts (August 27) there are restrictions on who can enroll in certain courses. For 2nd year courses it is critical that you enroll during this time, lest you be locked out by non-Computing students during Open Enrollment.
  • 1st year courses except Fall CISC 124 are reserved for 1st year Arts and Science students; this is a blanked policy of Arts and Science.
  • Core 2nd year courses 203, 204, 221, 223, and 235 are reserved for CISC students, along with popular options CISC 226 and 271.
  • Winter 221, 223, and 235 are reserved for 2nd year CISC students. Upper-year students should take Fall 221, 223, and 235. The only exceptions are for dual degree, 2nd degree, and minors, who are often in their "second year of computing" while actually being upper-year students; if you are in this category, contact Karen Knight stating your exceptional circumstance for an override.
  • Fall CISC 365 is co-taught with CMPE 365 and is a slightl different course that would normally risk overflowing the classroom if CISC students were free to take it. For both reasons we normally only permit graduating students, and those on exchange in Winter of their 3rd year, to enroll. Because the class is online for Fall 2020, we are able allow other students with unusual circumstances to take it (but not if it is just a preference). Contact the Undergraduate Chair if you qualify for an exception.
    Winter 365 is open to all Computing students.
  • A limited number of places are reserved for students in certain plans for courses required in those plans that are not core in the major or CSCI.
All 3rd and 4th year CISC courses except those for the Data Analytics Certificate are permanently reserved for CISC students via a prerequiste; this is separate from enrolment reserves.

COGS course limits

For COGS students wishing to take Linguistics courses as one of their three options: LLCU can only offer a few reserved spaces each year in required course LING 340 and optional courses LING 310, 320, 330. If you do not get in, please put yourself on the waiting list during the restricted enrolment period. It may prove necessary to use the other two COGS options (Philosophy and Psychology), or to switch to the more technical AI option within the Computing major, possibly combining it with a minor in one of the three COGS-related disciplines.

Grade Requirement in Prerequisite Courses

As of July 2017 enrollment in any Computing course required a C- or better in all its prerequisite courses, but we used to waive this requirement (during 2017-18 and 2018-19) to give people time to raise their grades. As of July 1, 2019, we now enforce the C- requirement, and do not waive it, as was announced back in 2017.

Statistics and the Analytics focus

The Data Analytics focus requires 3rd year course CISC 371, which requires statistics. If you don't take statistics in 2nd year, you will need to defer CISC 371 and CISC 372 to 4th year. This will affect your workload in 4th year but doesn't jeopardize graduation unless CISC 372 conflicts with a required 4th year course; we can't guarantee that 3rd year courses won't conflict with 4th year ones.

Enrollment for COCA students

SOLUS can't tell when someone intends to take a COCA degree, since COCA students are officially in Arts degrees instead of Computing degrees, so can't qualify for enrollment in CISC courses during the period when enrollment is restricted to Computing students. Contact Karen Knight (karen@cs.queensu.ca) if you are in this position.

Internship Requirements

You must have a maximum of 90 units of courses completed by the end of the academic year just before the start of your internship. School of Computing policy requires you to agree to return for a full academic year after an internship.

Plan Selection

Program/Plan Selection for students entering 2nd year (with 24 or more units) took place between May 27 and June 5. Second year in Computing is now full. If a student has successfully completed (C- or better) all 2nd year core courses and also meets the grade requirements for Computing plans (2.6 or better GPA in all courses, B in CISC 121 or 124), it may be possible to admit them to 3rd year.

First Year Information Session

PDF of First Year Information Session Slides (last updated April 9, 2020)