HKUST Course Registration/ Course Validation

My Insights:

1.  Assume the worst and be prepared with alternatives. Your key courses/the prerequisite courses may not be available when you go abroad. Try to take the basic courses like Marketing Management (aka Marketing/Principles of marketing/etc etc.) at your home university first so you can take advantage of HKUST's more unique courses like pricing strategy, global marketing, new product planning and product management, promotional and advertising management, etc.
2. Narrow down your courses early & choose quickly. There is a very short period of time between the day the timetable is released and the day the online course selection form is due. I only had about 5 days and the tentative course list was very different from what was actually offered that semester. You will also be required to put down alternative courses/times.
3. No prerequisite? Email your professor. Mention you're a study abroad student only here for X period of time and that you really want to take advantage of their great course. If you have pertinent work experience or have taken a course similar to the prerequisite, include that information as well. I mentioned a principles of marketing class I took in high school as well as the several marketing internships I did over the years. I also included an old but good recommendation letter from the teacher I took principles of marketing with and eventually I had my pre-requisite waived. 
4. Register for the courses you want first, regardless of the pre-requisites. Like I mentioned earlier, pre-requisites can actually be waived depending on the amount of relevant work experience you've had,  courses you've taken, etc etc. They don't tell you this and even though they emphasize not choosing courses you don't have the pre-req. for, I think exchange students have more leeway with this. Keep in mind, some classes are harder to get into than others.
5. Upload everything you think will be relevant to the course selection form. For students who don't have any problems with pre-requisites, you'll only be required to upload an unofficial copy of your university transcript. If you're trying to register for courses without having the necessary pre-requisites, you'll need to upload anything you think can get you in the course. They forward all your materials to the professors, and the professors are the ones who actually decide which ones can enroll in their course and which ones can't. Some professors are very strict with their pre-requisites so it's a good idea to email them before the course selection deadline to get an idea of which classes are possible for you to get into. I sent them an unofficial copy of my university transcript, a highlighted copy of my high school transcript of pre-requisite-similar courses, a resume with relevant work experience, and a letter of recommendation letter from my high school marketing teacher mentioning some of my accomplishments relevant to the course (FYI: The recommendation letter doesn't have to be written specifically for this purpose, I just used an old rec. letter from a scholarship I was trying to apply to.) Exchange students -- if you don't get a chance to upload these materials before the course selection deadline, the program adviser will email you again later and ask for them.

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My Experience:

So coming into the HKUST course selection process, my original plan was to take two key courses during the Fall semester: MARK 2120 Marketing Management and MARK 2110 Organizational Behavior. These two courses are the basic underlying prerequisite courses for nearly all of the Marketing and Management courses offered by HKUST and without them, you won't be unable to register for anything. If you've already taken a basic marketing course at your university, you should be able to override this prerequisite easily. I, however, did not have enough time to take a marketing course before going abroad and this has made initial course registration period (or as HKUST likes to call it the "Course validation" period) quite a bit more stressful.

A tentative list of the courses they were supposedly going to offer during the year was actually released earlier in the beginning of July. But the actual timetable wasn't released until 5 days before you are required to submit the course selection form online. Many of the courses on the tentative list were also not available on the actual timetable for the Fall semester, MARK 2120 Marketing Management, being one of them.

After freaking out for a couple of days about how I wouldn't be able to register for any the marketing courses I had purposely studied abroad to take, I came across a great tip about emailing the professors from someone on the internet. I would have actually done that earlier if it weren't for the program advisor that had told me there wasn't anything I could do without the prerequisite. This turned out to be completely wrong advice but anyways, I emailed all of the professors about the Mark 2120 Marketing Management prerequisite for their courses. Here were the results:

MARK 3220 Marketing Research

• Emailed: VAN DER LANS, Ralf J A
• Result: 

  Thanks for your interest in my course. There are different requirements for exchange students to be accepted for a course. At the start of the semester, the school will send the transcripts of all exchange students that want to attend my course. Based on the transcripts, I will then decide whether the exchange student is allowed to attend my course. So please register for my course.

  
  

  Note that Marketing Research is a required course in our marketing program. Usually there are many students registered and there are only a limited number of places for exchange students (which is not under my control). So approval of transcript does not guarantee a position in this course.

  
  

  Looking forward to seeing you in Hong Kong the coming semester.

  
  

  Kind regards,

  Ralf

MARK 3430 Global Marketing

• Emailed: HELSEN, Kristiaan
•  Result: Agreed to waive pre-req.

MARK 3480 Pricing Strategy

• Emailed: GUO, Liang
• Result: Suggested I add class during the Add/Drop period

MARK 3450 New Product Planning and Product Management

• Emailed: MUTHUKRISHNAN, Anaimalai V
•  Result: No exemptions given for pre-req.

MARK 3410 Promotion and Advertising Management

• Emailed: GALLI, Maria
• Result: Agreed to waive pre-reqs after looking at my transcripts, work experience & letter of recommendation.