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This is a very useful page to have bookmarked for all questions related to course planning and registration:  

Some of the topics include; when to register, course load, how to declare your major/minor, deadlines, registration holds and MANY other helpful tips.

Visit the "Orientation materials" section on the cognitive science registration and orientation page: .  

Also visit the SOUSA First year registration page for important degree advising help:  

Most important guidance: it will all work out eventually! 

Almost all registration issues get resolved before the start of classes. Students are adding and dropping courses all summer and into the add/drop period at the start of the term. Keep checking Minerva regularly for availability, most likely a seat will open over the summer. While you wait, have a “plan B” set up by registering for something else.  

First year students:

Registration as a first year student can be stressful as many courses may already be full once you gain access to the registration menu.  Keep in mind you will have until the end of the course add/drop period each semester to finalize your course schedule. As there is a large amount of turnover in enrollment numbers for first year courses in over the summer.  You may still have good chances of getting a seat in the course if you keep a close eye on Minerva over the months leading up to the start of each term.  Make your best effort to fill your schedule even if this means taking electives courses.  Each year, you will have an earlier pick at registration, meaning registration will become progressively easier as you progress with the degree!  

Some departments put holds on seats to limit access in courses that are in high demand.  This is done to ensure that the students in programs that really need the course to graduate will be able to get seats.  

If you receive the "reserved closed" message in  Minerva when trying to add a course, it means that the seats set aside for your program are all currently taken.  Or, it could mean that there are no seats reserved for your program.  

Important tip: Minerva or VSB will likely still show that there are open seats available when you get this message. This is because there are seats available for students in other programs that are part of the reserved seating allocation.  The cogsci major does not have seat reserves for most of the courses in our programs as it is not needed.  

Where cogsci students will mostly encounter this issue at registration is for PSYC courses.  PSYC courses are in very high demand so the department has to carefully limit access to the seats. There are a limited number of reserved seats for cogsci students in many of the PSYC courses in the cogsci program (most of the 200, 300 and 400 level courses have reserved seats).  Minerva reserves seats for each of the cogsci programs separately. This means that the Interfaculty and Honours cogsci majors have separate seat allocations.  If you are trying to get into a 200, 300 or 400 level PSYC course that is giving you the “reserved closed” message the department can adjust the allocation of seats between the two cogsci programs to get you into the course.  To contact Psychology about reserved closed courses please use  .

To contact other departments see question below.

The cognitive science program advisor cannot open seats for classes that are offered by another department.  So if you are trying to get into a course please contact the advisors in the department offering the course:
Science department advising resources
Arts department advising resources

(If you are looking for help with NSCI courses, these are offered by different departments. For NSCI 201, contact Psychology and for NSCI 200 and 300 contact Physiology)

• When emailing departments make sure to include your full name and ID, your major and your grad year.
• Be patient in awaiting replies, DO NOT send repeated emails and be sure to read the automated email reply from the department that is likely to answer your questions.

Some courses offer waitlists.  For details on how to use waitlists and troubleshooting visit:

If you see this on a course, assume that is will not be offered and find something else to take.  Sometimes departments will close a course to make changes to it and it could reopen later, so you can check back to see if it ever opens again, but it is best to find another course as it is likely to not be offered.  

For general help with Minerva including adding and dropping courses, when and how to register, troubleshooting, visit:

Visit this page: .  Go to the "Changing your courses" section for details and all deadlines.  Be sure to pay attention to the different deadlines for when you can or cannot get a refund.  

These research courses are only open for registration once you have a research project approved.  Everyone who has a project approved will be allowed to register - you don't need to worry about capacity for these courses.