how i fast tracked my uni career, completing in 2 and a half years

how i stacked summer terms and transfer credits to finish in two and a half years, and what the guelph cs courses actually felt like.

courses

i kept full course loads in fall and winter, used summers a lot, and grabbed transfer credits when they helped the degree plan.

fall 2023

• cis1300, ritu
  easy intro to programming with basic c. assignments were straightforward and the final was fine.
• cis1910, pascal
  logic and proofs. pascal put quizzes and exams online before he retired. more of a brain teaser than a coding course.
• math1160, garvie
  best decision was taking this in the fall with garvie. online multiple choice quizzes and exams made it very doable. i was supposed to take it in w25 but reddit talked me into switching.
• math1200, demars
  barely passed. calculus was not my thing, but he was a great professor.
• mcs1000, mckenzie
  super easy elective. simple concepts, chill exams.

winter 2024

• cis2910, colby parsons
  challenging but fun. colby (a waterloo grad) was interactive and even hung out with us on discord.
• cis2500, ritu
  advanced c, pointers and memory. had 98% before my usual exam struggles brought it down.
• cis1050, yan yan
  html, css, and javascript basics. lost marks for spelling, which was annoying, but overall easy.
• hrob2010
• stat2040

summer 2024

all bird courses while doing ura.

• mcs2100, leslie legge
• nutr1010, joan jory
• frhd1010, susan change
• mgmt2150, mir lotfi

undergraduate research assistant @ lang school of business

fall 2024

• cis2030, gary grewel
  toughest course so far. low level programming and assembly were rough. somehow passed even though i failed the exam.
• cis2430, fei song
  java from high school helped a lot. really enjoyed this one.
• cis2520, yan yan
  one of my favorites. the concepts just clicked. even made a github repo (200+ views) to help others study for the final.
• frhd1100, robin milhausen
  bird course. clutched my gpa with this one.

undergraduate research assistant @ lang school of business

teaching assistant @ university of guelph

winter 2025

• cis2750, dennis nikitenko
  used to be a tough course with a high fail rate, but it is easier now.
• cis3190, zhao zhao
  easy, but you work with old languages like cobol and ada. tas took a while to grade. marking was pretty light.
• cis3490, joe sawada and daniel garbic
  real world stuff like shortest paths between cities. feels like cis1910 and cis2910, but focused on efficiency.
• cis3750, daniel gillis
  some people complain, but i think he is fine. just attend lectures. no coding, just figma prototypes and presenting to volunteers. closer to how pitching works in the real world.

i originally tried taking operating systems at guelph in winter 2025, but i dropped it because the prof was rlly cooked. worst course i had taken so far. lecture slides had tons of errors, and some assignments looked like they came from a different university 23 years ago. after dropping it i looked for os elsewhere and took it again in the summer at uottawa.

some stories and ratings.

teaching assistant @ university of guelph

credits achieved: 11.5 credits

summer 2025

bit of a hectic summer. a course at both waterloo and ottawa, five de courses at guelph, plus a full time job and a part time swe role.

university of guelph

• frhd1020
• mgmt3300
• mgmt3100
• spmt1120
• spmt1020

university of waterloo

wrote more about this term in thoughts on uw cs.

• cs349: user interface

university of ottawa

• cpi3131: operating systems

yes, seven courses, and that was not it. i was also working as an undergraduate research assistant, working part time as a software engineer at b&b ai, and keeping side projects moving.

undergraduate research assistant @ lang school of business

part time swe @ b&b ai

credits achieved: 15 credits

fall 2025

university of guelph

• cis3150
• cis3760
• cis4150
• cis3090

university of waterloo

notes on cs346 and cs449 are in thoughts on uw cs.

• cs346
• cs449

fall stayed heavy too. part time software engineer at b&b ai, teaching assistant for mcs2000 in person and distance education, frontend for hackcanada, and a few side projects.

part time swe @ b&b ai

mcs2000 teaching assistant @ university of guelph

frontend @ hackcanada

hub incubator program: 1k grant

credits achieved: 18 credits

winter 2026

swe intern @ td bank

university of guelph

• cis4900: research project, online with john akinyemi
• cis4650
• cis3700

for cis4900 i built cs learning map, basically google maps for learning cs. it builds a path through concepts based on what you already know, then decides if you should move forward, go back, or take another route. the project is on github.

credits achieved: 19.5 credits

summer 2026

my plan for the last semester was to take envs2210: apiculture and honey bee biology at guelph, apply for credit no credit, aim for 50 percent, and just get the credit. i kinda forgot about that plan and ended up with an 88, which is how i finished university.

software developer intern @ tangerine

by the numbers

• 20 credits across the full degree plan.
• 9 terms from fall 2023 to summer 2026.
• 3 universities: guelph, waterloo, and ottawa.
• 13 courses across summer 2025 and fall 2025 alone.

normal path vs mine

the normal guelph cs schedule without co op is built for 8 semesters. it spreads the core courses, area of emphasis, and electives across fall and winter so you can hit prerequisites in order.

the official path is paced for 8 semesters. mine ran year round and pulled in waterloo and ottawa whenever guelph timing got in the way. the course load was heavier, but the harder part was stacking it with research, ta work, part time software engineering, hackcanada, side projects, a td work term, and a tangerine internship.