You're here because you recently received your offer from McGill - Congratulations!
This site is here to help you confirm your offer, and to get you started as a McGill graduate student. It will refer you to the departments and resources you can use throughout your entire graduate experience. Explore this site, and if you're ready to confirm your offer, here's what's next:
- Accept your offer of admission online using Minerva (Minerva is McGill’s web-based information system). Also, update your address, telephone number, and personal information.
- Review the steps to a successful registration, and then use Minerva to register
- Send in any outstanding legal documents that could affect your tuition status
- There may be conditions attached to your Offer of Admission. Check the reverse of the offer letter to be sure.If you foresee a problem in clearing a condition, get in touch with our office (see e-mail address below)
- Create your personal McGill email account(for help with this or other IT services, contact IT Services)
- Come to Graduate Orientation! Students on the downtown campus, please visit your First Year Office website. Students on Macdonald Campus, you will receive your invitation and schedule from your department coordinator.
Welcome from McGill's Principal
We are hoping that you join us as an integral part of the McGill community and that we have many opportunities to meet during your years at the University! The pages of this USB guide are filled with information about the many people who stand ready to help you with whatever challenges you may encounter.
The University’s mission is to advance learning through research, teaching, scholarship and service to society. At the heart of this mandate is knowledge - learning, contributing to the development of knowledge and helping to make this knowledge available to the communities of which we are a part. And central to this are people like you: our students.
You come with commitment and also with questions: about faculty, courses and facilities, about your fellow students, and about your future. This is all a natural part of the ongoing collaborative process of learning. McGill is rich in opportunity. I know that you will contribute much to the McGill community, both through your dedication to your program of study and your involvement in the wide variety of networks and extra-curricular activities which McGill can offer you.
May your experience at the University help you to develop your talents and interests, broaden your community and your understanding, and enrich your life. I wish you all the best in your studies.
Sincerely,
Heather Munroe-Blum
Professor Heather Munroe-Blum, O.C.
Principal and Vice-Chancellor
Welcome from Student Services
On behalf of all staff within Student Services, I would like to congratulate you on your acceptance to McGill University. We hope you choose McGill for your graduate education and are looking forward to welcoming you and to providing you with support throughout the duration of your academic
career here.
Within McGill’s Student Services you will find a support system that is there to help you with your academic and personal needs. During your time at McGill, we would like to ensure that you thrive both intellectually and socially.
Located mainly in the William & Mary Brown Student Services Building at 3600 McTavish Street, you will find the First-Year Office, International Student Services, Health, Dental and Mental Health Services, Counselling and Tutorials, Career and Placement Service, Chaplaincy, and the Office for Students
with Disabilities. McGill also offers Off-Campus Housing Services and a First Peoples’ House. Macdonald Campus Student Services are located in the Centennial Centre.
I work closely with representatives from student groups to make sure that our services are in sync with your needs. This USB key is an excellent source of useful information on the Student Services available to you during your stay at McGill. These resources are here for you to use from the beginning right through to the end of your academic career.
You can contact us at either the downtown campus (514-398-8238) or the Macdonald campus (514-398-7992), or via e-mail at student [dot] services [at] mcgill [dot] ca. A full list of our services is available on our website, at www.mcgill.ca/studentservices. We are here for you and look forward to meeting and working with you.
Sincerely,
Jana Luker
Executive Director
Student Services
Welcome from the Post Graduate Student Society (PGSS)
Congratulations and Welcome! I hope that you will consider beginning your graduate studies at McGill and that you are looking forward to beginning a productive, stimulating, and fun experience here.
At the PGSS, we will be working with you to enliven our McGill experiences. Apart from our role in administering your insurance policies, we provide money for events through the PGSS-GPS Grants Program, emergency funds through our Trust Fund for Graduate Student Support, and need-based bursaries through the PGSS Education Fund. We offer courses in languages, dance, and physical fitness. We host off-campus outings ranging from forest adventures to VIP tours of art exhibitions. We provide an ongoing series of trivia nights, karaoke nights, and three-floor dance parties. The PGSS also represents graduate students to the academic governance structures of the university, and is the appropriate venue for graduate students to bring issues and concerns with university policies.
In short, the PGSS works to provide both interesting cultural and social activities, and effective representation as graduate students, and stakeholders in the business of the university.
We are always working to improve life in the classroom and laboratory as well, and not only by producing internationally-recognized research and earning top marks. The PGSS holds seats on almost every administrative committee at McGill: student services, academic policy, libraries, and physical development. I encourage all of you to volunteer for any of these committees or any of our many internal committees. Please do not hesitate to get in touch about how you can help.
Finally, the PGSS uses Thomson House, a heritage building reserved exclusively for graduate students and postdoctoral fellows at McGill that is the envy of student associations across Canada. Have lunch at our popular and tasty restaurant, relax with your friends at our spacious bar, enjoy the afternoon sun on our new terrace, book a major event in the stunning ballroom, or take some quite study time in the meeting rooms upstairs.
This House is our house while we are here, and I look forward to meeting you there.
With my warmest wishes,
Alexandra Bishop
President