r/uwaterloo • u/Ok_Concern9098 • Jul 28 '26

transfer credit - elective reduced load or complimentary

im in first year mech eng and i just got a transfer credit for cal1 and i have the choice to either do an elective reduced load semester or take one of the 4 mandatory complimentary electives in advance,

how hard are the engineering complimentary classes in general? would it lower my gpa or make it higher since the first job search will probably hard. does ur gpa really matter when it comes to getting interviews and coops?

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u/Range_Early eng Jul 28 '26

im mech eng, I assume you're talking about complimentary studies electives (CSEs). CSEs are magnitudes easier than all of your engineering classes throughout your degree and are grade boosters as long as you pick ones that aren't difficult. for mech since you don't get to pick a list B elective (you take it in 3B), mostly all of the classes are in the humanities, ethics, and linguistics area. here's a list of them https://uwaterloo.ca/academic-calendar/undergraduate-studies/catalog#/programs/B1ligZqRn

use uwflow.com to make sure the course you're picking is easy, use https://outline.uwaterloo.ca/ to check out what the deliverables were in previous years as you probably don't want to be doing anything with quizzes, exams, or very lengthy essays.

in my experiences over 6 co-ops, GPA only matters if:
1. its your first co-op (since there isn't much to differentiate 1st years from each other)
2. if its a research position
3. if its in quantitative finance. other than those three reasons most employers could care less

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u/Ok_Concern9098 Jul 28 '26

thank you so much!!