Petition for Course Overload - Academic Services

If you are using one the Generative AI tools (Chat GPT, Llama, Gemini, etc.) to help create your letter:

1. You should NOT submit what is produced without editing it;

2. You need to ADD the details specific to your case. The committee needs to know dates and circumstances, and it needs to hear YOUR voice;

3. Petition letters lacking the necessary details will lead to unsuccessful petitions – while you can use LLMs to help create a draft, they should only be used as a tool to get you started.

A petition is a formal written request submitted by the student to waive a Faculty’s academic regulation, degree requirement or academic deadline. Before initiating a petition, you are advised to review the University and Faculty rules and regulations in the Undergraduate Calendar.

Considering a petition or appeal? We encourage you to speak to an academic advisor.

A Petition for Course Overload

is a request to exceed the 120% course load maximum that the system will allow.

The system will allow you to enrol in up to 36 credits in the Fall/Winter session, and up to 18 credits in the Summer. You may petition to increase your course load to up to 42 credits in the Fall/Winter and 21 credits in the Summer.

Most of the time, it is more reasonable to keep your course load at a maximum of 100% and plan to take any additional courses in a future term – even if this delays your graduation.

If, however, there are specific circumstances that require you to consider a course overload, you can submit this petition as soon as the York Course Schedule is released for the relevant academic session.

It is highly recommended that you seek a degree progress report from the Academic Advising Office before planning for a course overload.

Personal Statement(s): You will be asked to explain the reasons for your overload request and how you plan to manage the course load, as well as questions about your planned schedule and your academic record.

Supporting Documentation: You will be required to upload a timetable with all of your proposed courses included – the Visual Schedule Builder is a good tool to show all of the courses you wish to add in one timetable. You can upload any documentation that supports your reasons for requesting the course overload.

While there is no specific deadline, you should submit the petition as early as possible ahead of the relevant academic session. The Petitions Committee only meets once per month, and the petition decision does not guarantee you a seat in any course. Therefore, you need to plan ahead in order to receive a response ahead of your enrolment access date/time. You can submit the petition as soon as the York Course Schedule is released for the relevant academic session.

If your enrolment access date/time opens before you know your petition decision, you should go ahead and enrol in as many courses as the system will allow while you wait for the decision about the remaining credits you wish to add.

Your petition will be reviewed by Academic Services for completion and then anonymized and sent to the Petitions Committee for a decision.

Only completed petitions will be forwarded to the Committee for review.

The Petitions Committee meets once a month, from August-June.

You will receive a decision letter by e-mail, normally within two weeks of the Committee meeting.

Your petition could be:

Granted, and you may enrol in your requested number of additional credits
Partially Granted, and you may enrol in some of your additional credits
Refused.

Note that a decision from the Petitions Committee does not guarantee you a space in any specific course. If your petition is granted, you will be given instructions for the procedure to seek departmental help to enrol in any overload.

It is highly recommended that you prepare your responses in a word processor and copy/paste them into the form. Note that you can save your progress and resume later if you need time to write your responses or gather documentation.

Submit Your Petition

Do you have a quick question that you would like an immediate answer to? Check out our FAQ page!