For New and Current Students

To begin, welcome to McGill and ECP! Beginning a graduate program can bring a lot of questions, from the big stuff like 'how do I register for my courses?' and 'where do I find a place to live?' to the little things like 'what building do I get my ID card at?' and 'what are the library's hours?' These questions can multiply rapidly if you didn't do your undergraduate degree at McGill or are from out of the city, province, or country, so we'd like to try our best to get you started with some answers.

First off, we'd recommend visiting Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies' (GPS) New Students page. It is probably the most comprehensive collection of ressources on a single page a new student would need and from it you should be able to find answers to the vast majority of your questions.

Next, we suggest making the time to attend Post Graduate Student Society's (PGSS) Orientation Session (Fall 2012 date and time TBD). It is held at Thomson House, which is conveniently located about a dozen steps down the hill from the Education Building.

As well, the following programs have their own orientation sessions which will address the more intricate details of studying in the Department. Here you'll have the opportunity to meet faculty and staff members and learn more about supervision, your curriculum, and other opportunities afforded to you in your program. Once scheduled, make sure to mark these dates in your calendar as they are not to be missed:

• Masters of Education Students
  
  • All Streams
• Counselling Psychology
  
  • Masters Students
  • Doctoral Students
• School/Applied Child Psychology
  • Masters & Doctoral Students
• Learning Sciences and Health Profession Education
  
  • Masters & Doctoral Students

Once settled in, you'll want to bookmark the following sections of our website for future visits. Here is where you'll find the necessary forms, program handbooks, and other vital administrative information relating to your program.

• Counselling Psychology
• Health Professions Education
• Human Development
• Learning Sciences
• M.Ed. Streams in Educational Psychology
• School/Applied Child Psychology

There are a wide range of offices and services available to you as a graduate student and we strongly encourage you to take advantage of as many of these as you can. Whereever possible, try not to 'go it alone.' For example, the staff in the library are extremely adept at helping you track down articles and other important information for your projects; what's even better is that they are always more than glad to help.

While we've placed at the bottom of each page of our department website links to the some of the most important and popular resources and offices you'll need, we certainly couldn't fit them all so we've collected for you, just below, some other key pages you'll want to familiarize yourself with.

Education Resources and Services

• Education Library and Curriculum Services
• Education Career and Planning Services - in partnership with CAPS
• Education Computer Lab and IT Services
• McGill Journal of Education
• Office of Student Teaching
• ABC's of the Ph.D.

McGill University Resources and Services

• myCourses (WebCT)
• Information Technology Services
• Library and Collections
• eScholarship@McGill
• Student Records
• Handbook of Student Rights and Responsibilities
• Student Services
• Student Health Services
• International Student Services
• Student Accounts Office
• Athletics

Deadlines, be they registration, an award application, your thesis submission, or otherwise, are not something you ever want to miss. On top of the many deadlines out there are many key dates you need to be aware of and the best source for just that is McGill's Important Dates webpage. This page allows you to search for dates based on category, keyword, faculty/school, or by holy dates.

If you prefer a more traditional chronological listing of upcoming events and key dates, the Important dates for students feed of McGill's Event channel might be worth taking a look at.

Our different programs in Counselling Psychology and School/Applied Child Psychology are accredited by a variety of professional organizations; links to these organizations can be found below.

• Ordre des conseillers et conseillères d'orientation (OCCOQ)
• American Psychological Association (APA)
• Canadian Psychological Association (CPA)
• Ordre des psychologues du Québec (OPQ)

Congratulations! Completing a Masters or Doctoral degree is an achievement that deserves the utmost recognition and celebration! We hope you have enjoyed your time at McGill and here at ECP and we wish you the absolute best as you embark on the next stage in your life... but before then, you will want to properly cap off your achievement by attending convocation with your fellow graduates! McGill has a dedicated Graduation and Convocation office where you can find out everything relating to graduation, from when your convocation date is to how to reserve and pick up your gown on the big day. If you have a question they would be more than happy to help!

Above (and below) is a substantial (though evidently not exhaustive) collection of links to sources and services that will prove useful during your studies at McGill. You are always welcome to get in touch with one of our staff members, but we also encourage you to take advantage of the Search function found on the top right-hand side of every page. Powered by Google, it is a very effective tool to get the information in the quickest way possible.

Conversely, it has been proven time and again that you, the students, are often the first ones to discover some of the greatest secrets the university has to offer. If there's anything you feel we might have missed or something great you've discovered and think it should be shared with your fellow students, send along your suggestion and we'd be glad to incorporate it into our website.