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Knowing what courses to take at Brock can be daunting. There are far more options than there were at your high school; and for transfer students, it might be confusing to compare Brock’s resources to your previous institution’s. This guide will provide a handy checklist of resources for you to consult, ensuring that you have all the courses you need to complete your degree.

Brock Course Calendars 

First are the Brock Course Calendars. Here’s how to find the calendar that’s right for you:

• Select the undergraduate calendar of the year you started your program. 
• Scroll down and find the department you’re enrolled in. 
• You’ll see each category on the page listed on a menu on the left side. You can select your specific major from there, or just scroll down the page until you find it. 

There you’ll find a full breakdown of what courses you’ll need. They’re conveniently listed by what year you’re recommended to take them.However, make sure to pay attention to some important details before committing to any courses. Pay careful attention to anything listed without a course code. Some are electives, which means you can take any course to fulfil them. Keep in mind, however, that programs may have a required amount of program-related credits you must take, so you may want to focus your electives on getting those before you take a course that you think looks cool. 

Certain programs have “list” or “group” courses, which are lists of courses in similar categories. While none of the individual courses are mandatory, if you have a note on your program for these grouped courses, you’ll need to take a certain amount of credits in these groups before you can graduate.

Also remember that most majors require you to take full context credits in outside disciplines. It’s recommended you take these as early as you can, both to diversify your early course work and to make sure you have room for all your required classes in later years.

Brock Timetables 

The Brock Timetables are a useful tool for knowing what courses are available this year, and how they might fit into your schedule. When on the Timetable page, you’ll see a menu labelled “Find Courses.” Under it, select the appropriate student group (you’ll likely be under “New first-year students” this year) and session (most likely “Fall/Winter”). Once you hit “Show Available Programs”, you’ll see all the departments with available classes. Click on one you’re interested in, and you’ll see all the classes that department has available for your student group this year. When you click on a course, you can see specific information about it, such as the time, location, and instructor. This information is handy for seeing which courses might fit your current schedule.

Degree Audit

Your degree audit, which is available through your Brock student portal is a super helpful resource in keeping track of your degree progress. The degree audit is not visible when you first log in, however if you click on one of the other options in the “Favourites” tab, you’ll see it when BrockDB opens. Here, you can see how each of the courses you have registered for or completed fits into your degree, and if there are any requirements that have not yet been fulfilled. This is especially helpful for returning students, as it can be hard to track which courses you’ve completed and where they fit in.

Academic Advisors 

The last resource is your academic advisor. Each department has their own advisor, and you can schedule an appointment with them to ask any questions you might have about your program. Most advisors can be booked through the Appointment Bookings page on your student portal; if they can’t, the bookings page will generally tell you how to schedule an appointment with them. If your department is not listed on the “Bookings” page, you may need to look up the department’s web page and see if the advisor’s scheduling information is listed there. When in doubt, send an email to the advisor asking how you can book an appointment with them.

And those are the resources available to Brock students for scheduling their courses. Knowing what courses to take early on gives you more freedom with the courses in your later years, so be sure to consult these resources regularly. After all, the challenge of university should lie in the courses, not in knowing which courses to take.