For new students as of Fall 2025: you must complete at least one Faculty of Arts program - as part of your Multi-Track, Honours or Joint-Honours requirements - to graduate with a B.A. degree.
University transfer
If you enter the B.A. degree:
- with 24 or more credits of advanced standing you begin your degree in U1.
- with 60 credits of advanced standing you begin your degree in U2.
- in U1 or U2 your are exempt from the Arts Foundation Program and you can choose your Major/Minor/Honours programs when registering for your first semester. For new students as of Fall 2025: you must complete at least one Faculty of Arts program to graduate with a B.A. degree.
Consult our Degree Planning Guide, Degree Planning Timeline and your program/Departmental advisors to confirm that you're taking the right courses for your programs.
Advanced standing credits:
- You're eligible if you have completed university courses at another institution prior to your registration at McGill.
- You must submit - as part of the admissions process - transcripts from all previous studies.
- If your prior university studies are not accurately recorded on your Minerva student record, consult with Service Point to discuss any missing information.
You will not be given additional credit towards your degree for any McGill course if you have already received a course exemption for this course as part of your advanced standing.
- Verify if you will be granted advanced standing and/or course exemptions for studies completed prior to entering McGill.
- Refer to the Transfer Credit website and to the Course Catalogue.
- Admissions will assign any eligible advanced standing credits as general (TRNS XXX) transfer credit as illustrated in “EXAMPLE A”.
- If you were granted a lump sum of transfer credits as "TRNS XXX" upon your admission to McGill Faculty of Arts:
- You request to have these credits articulated in order to use them towards program requirements as illustrated in “EXAMPLE B”.
How do you transfer credits completed at another university, prior to your registration at McGill, towards your McGill BA degree ?
Step 1: Declare all previous university-level studies on your application for admission.
- If the university studies you completed prior to your registration at McGill are not accurately recorded on your Minerva student record, consult with Service Point to discuss any missing information.
Step 2: Ensure that your previous college/university sends your official transcript to McGill
Step 3: Wait for Admissions to process your general transfer credits and to update them on your unofficial transcript in Minerva as per “Example A”.
- Your Minerva record will be updated by October if you were admitted for the Fall term. In most cases the information will be showing on your record during the summer and prior to starting classes.
Step 4: Decide which programs of study you want to complete for your B.A. degree.
- Review the Degree Planning Guide and meet with your departmental advisors to discuss whether courses completed prior to McGill can be used towards your program(s) of study.
Step 5: Use the Course Equivalency System.
- If the departmental program advisor has assessed that the transfer credit articulated on your Minerva transcript includes courses that can be used toward a McGill program of study, you will need to have these courses assessed individually for course content using the Course Equivalency System.
- Consult the Transfer Credit Policy.
- If you have taken a French-as-a-Second-Language course, you will have to take a post-test at the French Language Centre.
Step 6: Complete the Pre-Admission Transfer Credit form.
- It may take up to 10 working days, or longer during peak periods, to process your request.
NOTE: It is not necessary to add every university-level pre-McGill course that you took on this form. This form should only be used for pre-McGill courses that are counting towards the completion a McGill program of study.