WHAT DO WE MEAN, WHEN WE SAY...?

Undergraduate: a student who has not yet completed a Bachelor's degree or a program that leads to a Bachelor's degree. A graduate student has completed a Bachelor's degree and is working toward a Master's degree or Doctorate.

Bachelor's degree: a degree that normally takes 3 or 4 full-time years to complete depending on the educational system you come from. An Honours program demands a high degree of specialization and requires a student to satisfy specific requirements while maintaining a good academic standing. Students generally complete a first academic year and can then select an Honours program. An Honours program can be a requirement for certain graduate programs.

Major: your primary area of study. For example, you could be pursuing a Bachelor of Science degree with a major in Biology. An area of secondary concentration is called a minor. Some faculties also offer a concentration within a bachelor degree program, for example, in International Business.

Multi-track: The Faculty of Arts offers students a chance to design their own program of study that can lead to a BA with a major concentration and a minor concentration, a double major concentration, and a major concentration with a double minor concentration.

Faculty: As a student at McGill, you will be part of a faculty, such as the Faculty of Arts or the Faculty of Engineering. There are 11 faculties at McGill, each headed by a Dean. Faculties are divided into departments and schools:

• Departments are devoted to a particular area of study, such as the Department of Philosophy or the Department of Chemistry.
• Professional Schools, like the School of Architecture or the School of Nursing, are part of a faculty, but offer more intense, specialized programs usually leading to a professional career.

Term: The academic year is broken into three terms: Fall (September to December) and Winter (January to April), with some courses available during the Summer term (May to August). Most programs do not require students to register in the Summer term

Scholarships and awards: Entrance scholarships, also referred to as awards, are awarded on the basis of academic achievement or a combination of academic achievement and leadership qualities, and financial need is not considered. A bursary is an award based on financial need and does not have to be paid back once you have completed your studies.

Co-op programs: Students alternate study terms with terms working in industry, gaining valuable on the job experience and training. For example, McGill's Co-op Mining Engineering program involves 7 study terms and 4 work terms.

Internships also provide an opportunity for practical experience in the workplace and can sometimes earn academic credit.

Field studies offer you the chance to spend up to a semester in Panama, Barbados, or the Arizona desert, on the Bay of Fundy, in the Canadian Prairies, in rural Quebec or Africa with other McGill students studying the human and physical environment. Plus, some McGill summer courses are offered in Italy, China and Greece.

Exchanges: You can spend 1 or 2 terms of your degree program at a university in another country. McGill has partnerships with hundreds of schools around the world to add an international dimension to your studies.

Credits: Each course you take is assessed on the basis of a certain number of credits. Most half-year courses are worth 3 credits and full-year courses are worth 6 credits. A full course load for the September to December and January to April terms is usually 5 courses each term, which, at 3 credits each, is 30 credits in total. Students can take a minimum of 12 credits per session and still be considered full-time.

Transfer: If you've already been a student at another university, you can apply to transfer your credits to McGill. If you're a McGill student and you've changed your mind about what you'd like to study, you can apply to transfer from one faculty to another.

Advanced standing: If you're applying from a school system outside North America, or from another university, you may be eligible to receive up to 30 credits for university-level work you've already completed. Some students applying from outside Quebec may be able to earn exemption from taking basic science courses by writing placement exams before classes start.

Minerva: By logging into Minerva, McGill's on-line administrative system, you can apply for admission, register for courses, check your exam schedule, update the status of your tuition, and look at your grades, 7 days a week, 24 hours a day, from the comfort of your own computer.

University Calendar: The Calendar is the official listing of requirements for degree programs and courses offered by the University. It also describes the University's academic and administrative regulations, policies and procedures.