The junior electives are those required in the first year. There are six or nine credits of junior electives required (depending on whether or not you completed Physics at Grade 12 in high school). These junior electives can be any course that you want to choose from. In general, students select their electives for a variety of reasons such as:

  • the course is of general interest
  • the course will help the student in future studies
  • the course is the only one that fits into a student’s timetable
  • the student thinks course will raise their GPA (grade point average) – sorry we cannot point you in a particular direction!
  • ECON 102 is one good junior elective to take since it is a required course in the Minor in Commerce option

ECON 102 (Principles of Macroeconomics) is a good junior elective to take since it is a required course in the Minor in Commerce option.  FRST 100 (Sustainable Forests) is another good junior elective since it is a required course for other programs in the Faculty of Forestry and provides a good introduction to important concepts in forestry.
The senior electives (sometimes referred to as “restricted electives”) must be courses taken at the 300- or 400-level and are usually taken in the third, fourth, or fifth year. There are nine credits of senior electives required (typically three 3-credit courses). These courses must be chosen in consultation with your Program Director.  Students in the Minor in Commerce program select their senior electives from among a published list of courses. Students not in the Minor in Commerce program should discuss their options with the Program Director. Please also refer to the FAQ entitled ‘What are my senior elective options’.

Answer: The senior electives are usually taken in the third, fourth, or fifth year and must be courses taken at the 300- or 400-level. There are nine credits of senior electives required in the program (typically three 3-credit courses). These courses can be any UBC 300- or 400-level course. Some students choose senior electives in topics quite different from the WOOD courses in the WPP program to broaden their education; others choose subjects in related topics to complement the WOOD courses, while others simply take courses that they find interesting. There are no restrictions on what subjects you select. However, please check the prerequisites for courses that you are considering as your senior electives. Some instructors may be willing to waive the prerequisites but you should not assume that will happen.

Students in the Minor in Commerce option select their senior electives from a published list of COMM courses. There are some general seats in most of those COMM courses (in which students not in the Minor in Commerce may register for) but those seats usually fill up very quickly once registration opens.
There are no other formal Minors or streams in the Wood Products Processing program but there are two groupings of courses shown below that may interest some students.
Wood Buildings

  • WOOD 476 (Timber Structures Design)
    This course is also cross-listed as CIVL 439. You should be able to register yourself directly into this course.
  • CIVL 478 (Building Science)
    You will likely be unable to register yourself directly into this course – you should contact your Program Director.
  • ARCH 511 (Architectural Technology 1)
    If you are interested in taking this course, you will need to contact the Program Director to assist you in your registration. Please note that since Architecture is a graduate program at UBC, undergraduates are required to have a GPA that would make them eligible for graduate school at UBC if they wish to take ARCH 511.

Data Analysis

  • FRST 430 (Advanced Biometrics)
    The Prerequisite is FRST 231.
  • STAT 300 (Intermediate Statistics for Applications)
    FRST 231 meets the prerequisite.
  • COMM 205 (Introduction to Management Information Systems)
    No prerequisites but this course is normally restricted only to students in the BCOM program. However, if there are any seats still open at the end of their registration it may be possible to gain a seat.

Other Courses in the Faculty of Forestry
Any 300- or 400-level CONS, FOPR, FRST, or UFOR course can be taken as a senior elective course.
Language Courses
Any language course at the 300- or 400-level is acceptable. Language courses at the 100- or 200-level may be taken as senior electives but six credits of courses at this level would only count towards three credits of your senior elective requirement.
Other UBC Courses

  • ECON 311 (Principles of Macroeconomics). While this course is equivalent to ECON 102 since it is a 300-level course it is fine for one of your senior electives.

Wood Products Design and Development Courses

We have recently introduced two new courses. WOOD 488 is being offered for the first time in 2018-19 Term 2 (January 2019) while WOOD 489 will be offered for the first time in 2019-20 Term 1 (September 2019).

WOOD 488 (3) Wood Products Design and Development I
Introduction to wood product design, from the product idea to the production-ready design. This course is not eligible for Credit/D/Fail grading. Prerequisite: All of WOOD 305, WOOD 482, WOOD 485.

WOOD 489 (3) Wood Products Design and Development II
Design and fabrication of wood products. This course is not eligible for Credit/D/Fail grading.
Prerequisite: WOOD 488 and a portfolio demonstrating competence in the operation of woodworking machinery.

WOOD 488 will be more of a regular lecture-style course and as such more students can be accommodated in the course than in WOOD 489. WOOD 489 will run more as a lab-based course with students working in groups fabricating wood products (similar to how some directed study courses have operated recently). As such, enrolment will be regulated since the course instructor(s) can only supervise a limited number of students in this format.

Directed Studies
A directed study is usually an individual project carried out by a student under the supervision of a faculty member. The directed study gives you the option of exploring a particular topic of interest when no regular course is available. Most recent directed studies have been performed by fourth- or fifth-year students as one of their senior electives. Faculty members are not obliged to supervise directed studies. You should, therefore, contact a faculty member with the appropriate knowledge of the topic concerned in order to discuss undertaking a directed study. You and your supervising faculty member are required to prepare and sign-off a written plan for what the directed study will involve, including the project deliverables; the workload should be equivalent to a regular 3-credit course. The signed plan should then be submitted to the Program Director. The course number used for a directed study is usually WOOD 449C. You cannot register yourself into this course; your Program Director must do this for you. WOOD 449C is a 3-credit course and the normal tuition fees apply.

Courses Offered by Thompson Rivers University Open Learning Division
Courses offered by TRU-OL can be viewed on their website. Information on which of the courses offered by TRU-OL transfer for credit to UBC can be found on the BC Transfer Guide website. The transfer credits must be at the UBC 300- or 400-level for the TRU-OL course to qualify as a senior elective. Students sometimes take advantage of TRU-OL courses while they are on one of their co-op work terms. TRU-OL courses that transfer to UBC as COMM credits are the most common TRU-OL courses selected.

Emily Carr University of Arts and Design
UBC Wood Products Processing has a long-standing relationship with a faculty member at Emily Carr (Dr. Christian Blyt) who regularly teaches a relevant course in each term. In the Sep-Dec term, he teaches a course covering Furniture Design and in the Jan-Apr term, he teaches a course covering Wood Product Development and Marketing.

The professor is happy to accept a limited number of WPP students in his courses each year. Students taking one of these courses would register as an Emily Carr student and then transfer the relevant credits to UBC. The courses each run as six-credit courses and the classes meet on Monday and Wednesday afternoons. However, it is possible for WPP students to take only part of each of the Emily Carr courses for three credits. Please note that the Emily Carr classes are held at the Great Northern Way Campus (located at 520 E 1st Ave, Vancouver) and students are responsible for their own transportation to and from Emily Carr.
For more information please contact Simon Ellis, Program Director, Wood Products Processing.

Please refer to the UBC Calendar for a list of required courses, as well as the course sequence for students in the co-op option. You can identify which courses to take by comparing the courses you have completed and the courses required. However, the order will be different from the “official” sequence if you have not taken courses in the order specified by the UBC Calendar.

To help you plan your courses and track your progress, you can view your academic record online at the Student Services Centre.

In order to be eligible to register in the next academic session, all first-year students must achieve at least 60% (including failed grades), AND pass a minimum of 60% of the credits taken during the Winter Session AND complete an approved schedule of required courses.

For full details, please refer to the Faculty of Forestry academic regulations in the UBC Calendar. The “Examinations and Advancement” section (paragraphs 6 and 7) is the most relevant for first-year students. Please contact your Program Director if you have any questions concerning these regulations.

If you have failed a UBC first-year science course and need to retake it because it is a required course, you normally do not have to retake the laboratory section if you passed that section in your first attempt at the course. If you are in this situation, the course coordinator will usually register you into a “laboratory exempt” section for the laboratory requirement.

It is standard UBC policy that students are only allowed two attempts to take a course. If you fail a course twice you should not anticipate being permitted to take it for a third time at UBC. In these circumstances, you should investigate taking an equivalent course at a local community college or through distance education (see Transfer Credits and Distance Education).

If you have failed a WOOD or FRST course, you should consult the instructor for the year in which you are planning to retake the course to determine the course components that you will be required to attempt again.

You are strongly advised to review our Minor in Commerce webpages for an overview of the program, as well as details on admission, course requirements and course descriptions. Additional information is available in the UBC Calendar.

WOOD 305 (Wood Machining Skills)
This is an 8 or 9-day course held in the wood machinery lab at CAWP. It is a required course for all Wood Products Processing students. There are usually two or three sections held each year. The first section usually starts at the end of April and the other sections run in May. We try to accommodate student requests for their preferences for which section of WOOD 305 they wish to take but that may not be possible in all cases. More information about WOOD 305 is distributed each year during the second term. WOOD 305 runs during the summer session and registration usually opens in early March. There will be a waitlist section for WOOD 305 where all students planning to take the course can directly register themselves. We will then manage the placements of students into one of the sections based on requests that we receive from students.

WOOD 353 (Mill Site Visits)
This is a one-week field trip around part of the Interior of British Columbia visiting manufacturing facilities. It is a required course for all Wood Products Processing students. WOOD 353 usually starts after the first section of WOOD 353 has ended, at the beginning of May. The Department of Wood Science will make all of the travel and accommodation arrangements. There is an additional fee to cover these expenses. More information about WOOD 353 is usually sent out in January or February as the details are confirmed with the companies that will be visited on the tour.

With the exception of WOOD 305, there are no WOOD undergraduate courses offered during the summer term at UBC. Some other UBC faculties do offer summer courses. To browse summer courses, please use UBC’s online course schedule.

If you are in enrolled in the Minor in Commerce, you will have a specialization code which permits you to enroll directly into the relevant COMM courses. The COMM courses you select count as your senior electives.
The Sauder School of Business (Faculty of Business Administration and Commerce) applies course prerequisites strictly and it will not permit you take courses if you do not have the prerequisites. For assistance with Commerce courses, please refer to the Sauder School of Business for advising information to request registration assistance.
Please note that ECON 102 (Principles of Macroeconomics) is required for admission to the Minor in Commerce and is a prerequisite for some of the required COMM courses. You must therefore ensure you complete ECON 102 in time to take the courses you desire. Possible options include:

  • Plan ahead and take ECON 102 as one of your first-year (junior) electives.
  • Take it as an additional course in second or third year.
  • Complete an equivalent course through Thompson Rivers University Open Learning (distance education).

If you are a registered student and plan on taking a course at a community college or through distance education, you must request permission from your Program Director before enrolling in the course. If permission is not granted prior to enrolling in the course, it cannot be guaranteed that transfer credits will be granted towards your degree requirements.

The BC Transfer Guide is a great resource to determine transferability of courses between post-secondary education institutions in BC. Unfortunately, there is no equivalent website that contains information relating to Canadian institutions outside of BC.

The most common option for distance education courses is Thompson Rivers University–Open Learning. Students interested in taking a distance education course should check using the BC Transfer Guide to make sure that the course will give them the right transfer credits at UBC. Students should contact their Program Director prior to registering in a distance education course (or a course at any other institution) to confirm that they will receive credit towards their degree program. Formally, students are required to be granted what is known as a Letter of Permission that confirms that they will receive appropriate transfer credit upon successful completion of a course taken at any other institution. Upon completion of the course the student should arrange to have an official transcript sent directly to the Program Director (rather than to UBC Enrolment Services) who can then initiate the processing of the transfer credit.

Many UBC courses have prerequisites. These are courses that must be taken before taking other courses. In the past, if you were missing a prerequisite for a WOOD course you would receive a warning when you registered in the course but you were not blocked from registering in the course. Some prerequisites have now been made “hard” – meaning that if you do not have the formal prerequisite courses as specified in the UBC Calendar then you will be blocked from registering in the course. If this happens to you and you do think that you have completed the prerequisite course material (e.g., by a course completed somewhere else or by another course at UBC) please contact the Program Director to discuss your situation.
In some other Faculties (e.g., Applied Science), the lack of a formally required prerequisite will prevent you from registering in any course. In other cases (e.g., Commerce), you may be permitted to register initially but a prerequisite check will be performed at the start of the term and you will be dropped from the course if you do not have the formally required prerequisites.
A co-requisite course is a course that is to be taken before or at the same time as the course in reference.

Please refer to the Forestry Financial Aid page on scholarships, bursaries and prizes. Detailed information is available on the UBC Tuition, Scholarships & Support webpage.

Wood Products Processing students are required to take 3 credits of first-year English. You will be able to choose from ENGL 110, ENGL 111, FRST 150, and WRDS 150B. Please note eligible courses DO NOT include ENGL 100 and ENGL 140.WOOD 225 is also required in the second year of studies and it requires completion of one of the above English courses before it can be taken.

A directed study is usually an individual project carried out by a student under the supervision of a faculty member. A directed study gives you the option of exploring a particular topic of interest when no regular course is available. Most recent directed studies have been performed by fourth- or fifth-year students as one of their senior electives.

Faculty members are not obliged to supervise directed studies. You should, therefore, contact a faculty member with the appropriate knowledge of the topic concerned to discuss undertaking a directed study. You and your supervising faculty member are required to prepare and sign-off a written plan for what the directed study will involve, including the project deliverables; the workload should be equivalent to a regular 3-credit course. The signed plan should then be submitted to the Program Director. 

The course number used for a directed study is usually WOOD 449C.  You cannot register yourself into this course; your Program Director must do this for you. WOOD 449C is a 3-credit course and the normal tuition fees apply.

Please contact the Chemistry Department’s Undergraduate Advisors for more information.

Please review the Department of Mathematics’ online FAQs for advising information.

For most first-year courses (other than WOOD 120) there are multiple course sections offered. Keep trying various combinations of the sections available in an attempt to develop a conflict-free timetable.
A general recommendation is that if you cannot obtain a seat in your desired section of a particular course but you can obtain a seat in another section, it is to register in the sub-optimal section. You can then contact the undergraduate advising office of the department concerned and attempt to swap sections. It is better to have something to offer in such a swap rather than simply asking for a seat in a full section without having something to offer in return.
If you cannot obtain a seat in any section then you should register into the Wait List section that exists for most first year courses. You will normally be contacted by the department concerned to inform you whether or not you have been placed into a regular section of the course.

If you are not following the course schedule exactly as outlined in the program course requirements then you do run the risk of timetable conflicts (e.g., if you are taking some third-year courses at the same time as some fourth-year courses in the same term). The timetables are established so that all required courses in any given term of a particular program year do timetable conflict-free. It is impossible to ensure that all WOOD courses from adjacent years are also timetable free. We do make an effort to avoid timetable conflicts between certain courses from the third and fourth year which have affected a number of students in previous years.

The following information outlines the English language regulations regarding admission to UBC and continuation in undergraduate programs in the Faculty of Forestry:

UBC Regulations
For your application to UBC to be evaluated, you must meet UBC’s English Language Admission Standard (ELAS) before the document deadline. The options for meeting the ELAS requirement are listed at the youbc website for prospective students.

Students in the Wood Products Processing program must take 3-credits of first-year English. You can choose one of ENGL 110 (Approaches to Literature), ENGL 111 (Approaches to Non-fictional Prose) or ENGL 112 (Strategies for University Writing) is acceptable; however, ENGL 112 is strongly recommended. Course information is available at the Department of English website.

How does this regulation affect me?
– If you have completed less than 30 credits, this regulation does not apply to you.
– If you have completed 30 credits by the end of Term 1, you will be permitted to continue your Term 2 courses.
The regulation will be applied (if appropriate) when your academic progress is reviewed in May of each year.  
“Students who have not completed at least 3 credits in each of first-year English and mathematics (calculus) by the time they have completed 60 credits will be required to withdraw from the Faculty unless there are sufficiently extenuating circumstances.”

How does this regulation affect me?
– You must satisfy the first-year English requirement no later than the year in which you complete 60 credits.
– If you have completed 60 credits by the end of Term 1 or Term 2, you must have completed the first-year English requirement by the end of Term 2 to meet this regulation.

You should usually register for second term courses at the same time that you register for first-term courses. Waiting until later in the year might result in there not being a seat left for you in a course. Tuition fees for second-term courses are not due until after the start of the second term so it does not cost you anything to register for the courses as early as you can.

Please review the Department of English’s website for more information.

You can use UBC’s online course schedule to browse current courses, save them to a worklist, view them in a timetable, and even register for them!

All course information is available online. Please visit the UBC Calendar for official course descriptions and prerequisite information. For current course sections and schedules, please visit UBC’s course schedule.

Please refer to the Department of Physics’ registration guide for advising information.

Cr/D/F stands for Credit/D/Fail. The Credit/D/Fail grading site explains the option in some detail.

As the website indicates, this option was created to:

  • Encourage exploration of subject matter outside their program of study
  • Emphasize learning and academic exploration of the new and unfamiliar
  • Expose students to a broader-based curriculum

One key point is that you can only take elective courses for Cr/D/F. You cannot take any of the required WOOD courses under this option.