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Course Requirements
All required and complementary courses used to fulfil program requirements, including the Freshman program, must be completed with a grade of C or better. If you fail to obtain a satisfactory grade in a required course, you must either pass the supplemental examination in the course or do additional work for a supplemental grade, if these options are available, or repeat the course. Course substitution will be allowed only in special cases; students should consult their academic advisor.
Normally, you are permitted to repeat a failed course only once. (Failure is considered to be a grade of less than C or the administrative failures of J and KF.) If a required course is failed a second time, you must appeal to the Director of Advising Services, Science, for permission to take the course a third time. If permission is denied by the Director of Advising Services and/or by the Committee on Student Standing of the Faculty of Science, on appeal, you must withdraw from the program. If the failed course is a complementary course required by the program, you may choose to replace it with another appropriate complementary course. If you choose to substitute another complementary course for a complementary course in which a D was received, credit for the first course will still be given, but as an elective. If you repeat a required course in which a D was received, credit will be given only once.
The B.A. & Sc. degree includes a required integrative course (BASC 201, 3 credits), plus electives (10–15 credits).
For a list of all programs available to B.A. & Sc. students, and full details of the course requirements for all programs as well as the locations of departmental advisory offices, program directors, and telephone numbers for further information, see Overview of Programs Offered.
Course Overlap
Course Overlap Policy
You will not receive additional credit toward your degree for any course that overlaps in content with a course for which you have already received credit at Æ»¹ûÒùÔº, CEGEP, at another university, or Advanced Placement exams, Advanced Level results, International Baccalaureate Diploma, or French Baccalaureate. It is your responsibility to consult with a Faculty Adviser in Arts OASIS, the Science Office for Undergraduate Advising (SOUSA), or the department offering the course as to whether or not credit can be obtained and to be aware of exclusion clauses specified in the course description in this publication. Please refer to the following website for specific information about Advanced Standing credits and Æ»¹ûÒùÔº course exemptions: www.mcgill.ca/transfercredit.
Sometimes the same course is offered by two different departments. Such courses are called "double-prefix" courses. When such courses are offered simultaneously, you should take the course offered by the department in which you are obtaining your degree. For example, in the case of double-prefix courses CHEM XYZ and PHYS XYZ, Chemistry students take CHEM XYZ and the Physics students take PHYS XYZ. If a double-prefix course is offered by different departments in alternate years, you may take whichever course best fits your schedule.
Credit for statistics courses offered by faculties other than Arts and Science requires the permission of the Director of Advising Services, Science, except for students in the B.Sc. Major in Environment, who may take required statistics courses in the Faculty of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences necessary to satisfy their program requirements.
Credit for computer courses offered by faculties other than Science requires the permission of the Director of Advising Services and will be granted only under exceptional circumstances.
For Arts, Science, and Bachelor of Arts and Science students
Credit for statistics courses will be given with the following stipulations:
- Credit will be given for only one of the following introductory statistics courses: AEMA 310, BIOL 373, ECON 227D1/D2, ECON 257D1/D2, GEOG 202, MATH 203, MGCR 271, MGCR 273, POTH 204, PSYC 204, SOCI 350.
- Credit will be given for only one of the following intermediate statistics courses: AEMA 411, ECON 227D1/D2, ECON 257D1/D2, GEOG 351, MATH 204, PSYC 305, SOCI 461, with the exception that you may receive credit for both PSYC 305 and ECON 227D1/D2 or ECON 257D1/D2.
- Students who have already received credit for MATH 324 or MATH 357 will not receive credit for any of the following: AEMA 310, AEMA 411, BIOL 373, ECON 227D1/D2, ECON 257D1/D2, GEOG 202, GEOG 351, MATH 203, MATH 204, MGCR 271, MGCR 273, PSYC 204, PSYC 305, SOCI 350.
- For 500-level statistics courses not listed above, students must consult a program adviser to ensure that no significant overlap exists. Where such overlap exists with a course for which the student has already received credit, credit for the 500-level course will not be allowed.
- PSYC 204 may not be taken if a grade of 75% was received in an equivalent course completed at CEGEP.
Courses Outside the Faculties of Arts and of Science
Courses Outside the Faculties of Arts and of Science
The following regulations apply to students in the B.A. & Sc. who want to take courses outside the Faculties of Arts and of Science:
- Regardless of your minimum credit requirement toward your B.A. & Sc., you are allowed a maximum of 12 credits in ELECTIVE and/or COMPLEMENTARY courses taken in faculties other than the Faculties of Arts and of Science.
- Students in certain designated programs that include a number of REQUIRED and COMPLEMENTARY courses in other faculties are permitted a maximum of 30 credits outside the Faculties of Arts and of Science. These programs are the Interfaculty and Honours programs in Environment, the Minor concentration in Environment, the Interfaculty and Honours programs in Sustainability, Science and Society, and the Major concentration in Geography (Urban Studies).
- Any courses taught at Æ»¹ûÒùÔº may be used toward the maximum allowed, except for courses taught by the School of Continuing Studies, for which you receive credits only in Continuing Studies. Courses taught by the Æ»¹ûÒùÔº Writing Centre are excluded from this rule and can count for credit in your degree (see the SOUSA website for a list of approved courses: www.mcgill.ca/science/undergraduate/handbook#basc-continuing).
- For the purpose of this policy, courses taught in other faculties and specifically listed in Faculty of Arts > Undergraduate or Faculty of Science > Undergraduate are considered as courses taught in the Faculties of Arts and of Science.
- The maximum number of credits allowed will be strictly enforced.
Distance Education Courses
Distance Education Courses
- A maximum of 6 credits of courses taught through distance education may be used as electives toward the B.A. & Sc. degree at Æ»¹ûÒùÔº.
- Courses taught through distance education from institutions other than Æ»¹ûÒùÔº will be approved as transfer credits under the following conditions:
- The combined total of regular course credits and distance education course credits may not exceed the permitted maximum number of credits per term according to the regulations for the B.A. & Sc. (see University Regulations and Resources > Undergraduate > Registration > Course Load).
- Courses taught through distance education may not be used to complete program requirements, except on an individual basis when serious, documented circumstances warrant it. In such cases, prior approval must be obtained from your program adviser and the Director of Advising Services, Science.
Courses in English as a Second Language (ESL)
Courses in English as a Second Language (ESL)
ESL courses are only open to students whose primary language is not English and who have studied for fewer than five years in English-language secondary institutions. As a student in the B.A. & Sc., you may take a maximum of 12 credits, including academic writing courses for non-anglophones, from the list of ESL courses published at www.mcgill.ca/science/undergraduate/handbook#basc-continuing.
Registration for First-Year Seminars
Registration for First-Year Seminars
Registration for First-Year Seminars is limited to students in their first year of study at Æ»¹ûÒùÔº, i.e., newly admitted students in U0 or U1. These courses are designed to provide a closer interaction with professors and better working relations with peers than is available in large introductory courses. These seminars endeavour to teach the latest scholarly developments and expose participants to advanced research methods. Registration is on a first-come, first-served basis. The maximum number of students in any seminar is 25, although some are limited to even fewer than that.
You may take only one First-Year Seminar during your first year at Æ»¹ûÒùÔº. If you register for more than one, you will be obliged to withdraw from all but one of them.
A list of First-Year Seminars is available at Faculty of Arts > Undergraduate > Faculty of Arts Degree Requirements > Course Requirements > First-Year Seminar Courses and Faculty of Science > Undergraduate > Faculty Degree Requirements > Course Requirements > First-Year Seminars: Registration.