Welcome to Arts!
⊳ Carefully review the First Year Guide to help you prepare for your studies in the Bachelor of Arts 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.
Students who enter the BA degree with 24 or more credits of advanced standing will begin their degree in U1.
Students who enter the BA degree with 60 credits of advanced standing will begin their degree in U2.
Students who enter the BA in U1 or U2 are exempt from the Arts Freshman Program and can choose their Major/Minor/Honours programs when registering for their first semester.
If you have completed university courses at another institution prior to your registration at McGill, you may receive advanced standing in your degree. As part of the admissions process, you must submit transcripts from all previous studies. If the university studies you completed prior to your registration at McGill are not accurately recorded on your Minerva student record, please consult with Service Point to discuss any missing information.
It is important that you verify if you will be granted advanced standing and/or course exemptions for studies completed prior to entering McGill. 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. For detailed information about advanced standing transfer credits and course exemptions, please review the regulations on the Transfer Credit website and in the eCalendar.
An Admissions Officer will review your record and 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 may wish 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: Ensure that you accurately declared all previous university-level studies on your admission application. If the university studies you completed prior to your registration at McGill are not accurately recorded on your Minerva student record, please 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 an admissions officer to process your general transfer credits and 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, though 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 McGill BA 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 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. For instructions on how to use the McGill Course Equivalency system, consult the Arts OASIS 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. Please note that 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.