New Students

Welcome to the School! This page features a few key resources to get you started at SIS and McGill.

McGill links

• New Students Website, Graduate & Postdoctoral Students Office. Info on how to proceed through your registration, get your McGill ID, etc.
• First Year Office - Your first stop for info about settling into Montreal & Mcgill. Support that lasts for your whole 1st year.
• Off Campus Fellow Program - For students in their first year at McGill living off-campus.

SIS Wiki

You're able to access the SIS Wiki as soon as you have a McGill email address. This is a collaborative SIS community information spot where you can check out upcoming events, read student tips, learn more about student groups @ SIS, and more.

Student associations, chapters, & groups

Before or soon after your arrival at the School, you'll want to learn more about Student Associations & Groups. These groups offer an array of leadership, service learning, mentorship, networking, and professional development opportunities.

SIS history

Interested in learning about the School's history? Have a look over the timeline for an overview of the history and development of this long-established program.

IT

• IT Services Orientation for new McGill students

Workstations

In addition to the SIS/Graduate Student IT Lab, students can access workstations in the Education Computer Lab, Education Library, and at library locations throughout McGill. For info on SIS and Faculty of Education workstations, visit the Technology in the Faculty page.

Email @ McGill

Accounts

• Students at McGill are given a 200MB mailbox on McGill's central Exchange server and a McGill email address.
• Students can access their email over the web from any computer with using Outlook Web Access.
• Read more @ Email for Students.

Size limits for individual messages:

• Messages sent between mcgill.ca accounts have a maximum size of 30MB.
• Messages sent between mcgill.ca and accounts on other domains have a maximum size of 10MB.

Email Policy

McGill University has instituted a policy that establishes McGill email as an official means of communicating with students to ensure timely and efficient communication. It is your responsibility to ensure that time-critical email sent to your McGill email account is accessed, read and acted upon in a timely fashion. Policy on Email Communication with Students

Virtual Private Network (VPN)

McGill's Virtual Private Network allows for secure communications over the Internet to the McGill network.

Many of the electronic resources available through McGill's libraries (i.e. databases, ejournals, etc) are only available on PCs that are connected to McGill's network. In order to access these resources from your home PC, for example, you need to create a VPN (virtual private network) connection to McGill's network.

Software available through McGill

McGill Software Site

McGill has acquired site licenses for a small number of software applications, making them available to students at no charge. Two applications you may be interested in include antivirus software and bibliographic software.  For more information and to download software, please visit the McGill Software site for students.

McGill Computer Store

Students with a valid McGill ID card can purchase software from the McGill Computer Store, often at discounted educational prices. Only a partial listing is available on their web site, so students are recommended to drop by the store to see what titles are available. If the title you are looking for is not on the shelf, be sure to ask the staff if they can special order it for you.

Microsoft DreamSpark

Microsoft offers free software to students on their DreamSpark page. You will be required to verify your student status using your McGill log-in.