Course Registration Guide

Registration Dates & Other Key Dates

NOTE: Returning students who fail to register in at least one course by 14 August 2024 may continue to register after this date and until the end of the registration period, but with late registration penalties (see Student Accounts website).

Minerva

Minerva for students is your entry point for class schedules, course registration, student record, and more. Consultez aussi les instructions sur le processus d’inscription Minerva, étape par étape. A moins d’un avis contraire, Minerva est accessible 24 heures par jour, 7 jours par semaine, à l’exception de périodes d’entretien mensuelles nocturnes et des périodes spécifiques avant lesquelles vous recevrez un avis.

Priority Registration

To facilitate access to small enrollment courses and ensure equity among students, registration priorities have been programmed in Minerva. These priorities, established after consultation between the Faculty and the Law Students Association, occur on a rolling basis with 4Ls registering first.

Exact registration dates are finalized by the Student Affairs Office and posted on McGill’s Important Dates website and the SAO’s Key Dates & Deadlines page. Generally, priority registration opens in early June with a credit limit of 9 credits per term. The limit then increases to 16.5 credits per term in the week following priority registration, reaching a final total of 18 credits by late August.

*NOTE: * The 9 priority registration credits include non-law courses (including joint degree, major, and minor courses).

Pilot – Registering for 2024-2025 Clinical Legal Education Program Credits

Based on feedback provided by students over the course of the last academic year, the SAO has changed its procedure surrounding the registration of students in CLE programs*. In the 2024-2025 academic year, students who have been selected for participation in CLE programs will be required to register in the associated courses as part of their 16.5 course credit limit at a date set and communicated by the SAO.

Students will not be required to use their priority registration for CLE program credits. Students must register in the appropriate course(s) by the date communicated by email from the SAO. Failure to register in CLE courses will result in students being de-registered from other courses at random until they are within the 16.5 credit limit.

*For the purposes of this process, credited CLE opportunities subject to this pilot include the Legal Clinic Course, Clerkships, Competitive Mooting, courses related to the International Human Rights Internship Program, Law Journals, Major Internships, Group Assistants, and Legal Methodology Tutorial Leaders.

Structuring your BCL/JD program

Tracking and compliance

Students are responsible for the correctness and completeness of their records:

• Fill in a degree audit form to see if you are on track with your BCL/JD program, or if you are about to graduate.
• Verify your record: Find out how on our Verification and Access to Student Records page.
• Consult our section on the BCL/JD Program Structure and Requirements.
• Read the Faculty of Law's Handbook of Academic Regulations, Resolutions and Policies.

For Graduating Students

Keep track of your degree requirements and ensure that you can meet them in the number of semesters remaining before you graduate. You can do this and see if you are on track to graduate by completing in a degree audit form, and registering for the remainder of the courses you need to graduate. Students are strongly encouraged to send degree audits to the sao.law [at] mcgill.ca (subject: Degree%20Audit) (SAO) for verification.

For more information, see our Graduation Guide.

Building your Course Schedule

McGill has released a Visual Schedule Builder. The Visual Schedule Builder takes information from Minerva to show you what your schedule can look like. Courses added to the Visual Schedule Builder are not added to your Minerva schedule. You must still register for courses on Minerva.

• Students should verify their student record on Minerva prior to registration to ensure there are no HOLDS that may block access to registration.
• Students should be familiar with course restrictions and prerequisites, current deadlines, the S/U option, and all other course related information.
• Tout cours ayant moins de 10 inscriptions risque d’être annulé. Les cours ayant 12 inscriptions ou moins immédiatement avant le début de la session seront très probablement annulés.

Equalization in multi-section courses

When a course has two or more sections, students they must ensure that they register in the right section. No unofficial section changes will be recognized. Although the Faculty does not precisely equalize enrolment numbers among various sections of a course, each section is assigned a maximum enrolment figure with availability determined on a first-to-register basis. In addition, if the registration in one section of a course is more than double the registration in any section, sections may be equalized.

Course Restrictions and Registration Errors

Try to plan your course selection over the long term. Take account of the mandatory degree requirements applicable to you and make plans to meet those requirements over the course of your studies. Do not leave all the required and complementary credits for the last term of your last year! Many advanced courses that may be of interest to you may only be taken after the basic course in the area has been successfully completed, e.g. JICP. Students entering second year, in particular, should be sensitive to these requirements, and should select their courses accordingly.

Course Prerequisites

Course pre- and co-requisites can be found in the eCalendar and should display on Minerva. Generally, Minerva will not allow you to register for courses for which you have not met the pre- or co-requisites; even if Minerva does not restrict your registration, it is still the student’s responsibility to ensure that nothing prevents the validity of their registration. You should not register for a course in which you have not completed all the prerequisites or are not registered in the co-requisite(s).

Registration Errors

Course sections can have restrictions/controls resulting in registration errors when you are registering on Minerva. You can find a list of common registration errors linked here. If you need to write and report an error to the SAO, please ensure to include your name, McGill ID, and a screenshot of the error being experienced. Without this information, we are unlikely to be able to help effectively.

Taking Graduate Level Courses

The following is the policy regarding enrolment of BCL/JD students in 600-level courses:

A BCL/JD student will be permitted to take 600-level courses, subject to the following conditions:

• The student has a minimum CGPA of 2.7.
• The student is in U3 or higher.
• Requires SAO approval, which will only be provided upon the completion of a Course Change Form and a satisfactory reason why the course(s) is to be taken at this time.
• A maximum of 6 credits of 600-level courses are allowed towards the degree. Credits will not count toward a graduate degree or diploma in the future. The actual course number appears on the transcript.
• The course evaluation methods are the same for all students, whether graduate or undergraduate.
• The regulations and practices of the Faculty of Law are also applied to such a course.

How to request permission to register in a graduate level course:

• Complete the Course Change form, preferably well in advance of the start of classes.
• Get approval from the professor of the course.
• Submit the form with the approval to the SAO before the end of the course Drop/Add period. Requests made on the last day of this period risk not being approved.
• If the conditions and procedures are met, the request will be approved and the SAO will issue a registration permit. It is the student's responsibility to register for the course on Minerva before the end of the course Add/Drop period.

It is the responsibility of the student to start the procedures well in advance of the term and to undertake the various steps along the way to final approval so that the documents can be completed before the end of Drop/Add. Late requests are likely to be refused, but if they are approved, the student will be subject to the Late Add Fee.

Course Registration Changes

Waitlists

Course waitlists will open for eligible 2024-2025 academic year courses within the Faculty of Law on July 3^rd, 2024. Students are only permitted to register for one waitlist per term.

For more information and frequently asked questions about course waitlists, please see McGill's Courses and Programs: Waitlisting.

Please note that the Waitlist Process is put on hold during the Winter holiday season.

Add/Drop Period & Course Change Requests

The Course Change (Add/Drop) period allows students to modify and finalize their programs of study taking into account factors such as changes in scheduling, course sections, and courses offered.

All students must use Minerva to change their course selection during Course Change period. During that period, you may access Minerva and drop and add courses as many times as you wish. During the Course Change period, you may add or drop courses for the Fall and Winter Terms. For any course change requests that are made following the Course Change period, students must fill out the Course Change Form found on the SAO website

After the Course Change period, for a limited time, students can drop courses through Minerva and receive a grade of "W" for any course so dropped. "W" indicates "withdrawal with approval" and is not factored into the GPA. All students must use Minerva to withdraw from a course during the withdrawal period.

Late change fee: If the change is approved, there is a $50 fee for each course change made by the Student Affairs Office after the end of the Course Change period.

Satisfactory/Unsatisfactory (S/U) Option

• The S/U Option is applicable to Law and non-law Electives and Law Complementary courses within the BCL/JD Program.
• The S/U Option is not applicable to Required Courses.
• The S/U Option is limited to one course in the program for a max of 4 credits.
• Students who decide to have a course graded as Satisfactory/Unsatisfactory (S/U) must do so before the Course Change deadline on Minerva as part of the Student Menu > Registration Menu > Quick Add or Drop Course Sections Menu.
• Students cannot make any changes after the Course Change deadline even if the option was selected by mistake. No exceptions.
• The instructor will report grades in the normal fashion. Grades "A" through "C" are converted to “Satisfactory” (S), and "D", "F" and "J" grades are converted to “Unsatisfactory” (U).
• Courses taken under the S/U option are excluded from the grade point average (GPA) calculations, but are included in the attempted credits total. Credits for courses with a final grade of S will also be included in the number of credits earned.
• The Satisfactory/Unsatisfactory option is not open to LLM, DCL, or GC students.

For more information, please refer to the Satisfactory/Unsatisfactory Option on the main McGill Programs, Courses and University Regulations site.

Course Withdrawals

Until the Course Change (add/drop) deadline in the Fall and Winter terms, you can modify your course load without penalty.

After the Course Change deadline in the Fall and Winter terms, there is a period of a few days during which you may withdraw with a grade of "W" and a full refund of course fees. After the Withdrawal (with refund) deadline, there is a period during which withdrawal from a course will also result in a grade of "W", but no course fees will be refunded.

After the final withdrawal (without refund) deadline, students in exceptional circumstances may receive permission to withdraw from a course with no impact on their GPA. For more information, students sao.law [at] mcgill.ca (contact the SAO).

See also McGill Courses and Programs: Withdrawing from courses (with FAQ), and Academic Dates.

Important disclaimer

Withdrawing from one or more courses during a semester may – where applicable – affect your government aid and/or McGill work-study eligibility.

In the case of international students, it may also impact their immigration status and/or permission to work in Canada.

Please ensure that you are aware of any consequences that may arise from a course withdrawal: consult with McGill's Scholarships & Student Aid Office, and International Student Services.