Information for Students

The Student Wellness Hub is our students' place to go for their holistic health and wellness needs. It provides access to basic physical and mental health services, as well as health promotion and peer support programs, in convenient locations at both our Macdonald and downtown campuses. The Hub offers specialized programming related to stress, anxiety, depression, addictive behaviours, and sleep issues which can have a major impact on academic performance for broad segments of the student population. Our programming is geared towards helping students overcome these challenges and meet their academic objectives.

Because ENVR courses are given on both campuses, each ENVR course is associated with a section number which corresponds to its location: Section 001 is downtown, section 051 is the Macdonald campus. Other courses have section numbers but only ENVR courses have section numbers that refer to campus location. Courses offered on Macdonald campus are shown on the Bieler School of Environment website with an (M) beside them.

You should register for your Winter term courses at the same time as you register for your Fall term courses. Otherwise, they may fill up. You can make changes in December and up until the add/drop deadline in January if needed or if you change your mind about your course selections.

There is a detailed description of how to register for courses, including an excellent Tutorial Video on the McGill website.

When you are looking up the schedule for a course using Minerva Class Schedule, or when you want to register, you are asked to select a Term. On the next page you are asked to choose a Subject (like ENVR for example). That is all the information you need to enter. Click on 'Get Course Sections' and you will find the information related to ENVR courses.

There are a number of different error messages you could receive, if you have been unsuccessful registering for a course. These messages are listed and explained on the McGill Website. As well, you will find tips and suggestions for solving common registration issues.

Enrollment in most courses at McGill is now limited or "capped". Students who are required to take a course will be able to register (if an ENVR course is full, contact Christina Zhu), but students looking for electives or complementary courses may have trouble if they try to register for very popular courses late in the registration period. If it is a non-ENVR course that you are trying to register in, and it is full, you will need to contact the Professor of the course or the Academic Adviser in that department, for assistance.

Many courses have wait-lists, including the ENVR courses. If you receive an error message saying the course is full, you will need to add yourself to the wait-list for that course. Full instructions of how to use Minerva wait-lists, including a Tutorial Video, can be found on the McGill Website.

The Environment program is only part of your degree requirements. Electives are courses that count towards your overall degree requirements but are not needed for your Environment program. Here are some popular courses that you could consider taking:

AGRI 340 - Princ of Ecological Agricult
ANTH 206 - Environment and Culture
ANTH 212 - Anthropology of Development
GEOG 205 - Global Chg:Past, Pres & Future
GEOG 216 - Geography of the World Economy
RELG 270 - Religious Ethics & the Environ

Faculty of Science students should be aware that they cannot take courses outside the Faculties of Arts or Science, unless they are Approved. Please refer to the List of Restricted Courses in the Undergraduate Handbook for students in the Faculty of Science. Minerva will not warn you if you have registered for a restricted course. Once completed, the course will be "E-flagged" (course is excluded from credits, and excluded from the GPA). You do not want this to happen, so please check the List of Restricted Courses and contact the Bieler School of Environment Program Adviser if you have any doubts.

However, that being said -- courses that are on the List of Restricted Courses AND that are approved complementary courses in your Concentration -- ARE approved for you to take and to receive credit for. 

Faculty of Arts Advisers
Faculty of Science Advisers
Faculty of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences Advisers

The Satisfactory/Unsatisfactory (S/U) option is explained in the e-Calendar. All Bieler School of Environment students may take advantage of the S/U option (according to the regulations), however students in the Faculty Program Environment (B.Arts degree), in particular, may wish to use this option to complete their program pre-/co-requisite science and numeracy requirements. If you have any questions about whether the S/U option makes sense for you to use, please contact the Program Adviser.

During several weeks in June, when new Science students are registering – the freshman courses (science and math) are closed to everyone else. They will reopen again to Arts students, for registration, on June 23 (freshman math courses) and July 7 (freshman science courses). This is further explained on the SOUSA website

Rest assured that registration has followed this model for the last couple of years, and it has not created a problem for incoming Faculty Program Environment students, even though their registration for BIOL 111 is delayed.

You should start with the four 200-level core ENVR courses:
ENVR 200 - The Global Environment
ENVR 201 - Society,Environ&Sustainability
ENVR 202 - The Evolving Earth
ENVR 203 - Knowledge, Ethics&Environment

In addition, if you compare the Concentrations, you will notice courses that are common amongst them, for example:

ENVB 305 - Population & Community Ecology (at Macdonald Campus)

Statistics - GEOG 202 - Statistics & Spatial Analysis (Downtown Campus),
or MATH 203 - Principles of Statistics 1 (Downtown Campus),
or AEMA 310 - Statistical Methods 1 (Macdonald Campus);
(or equivalent statistics course)

Microeconomics - ECON 208 - Microeconomic Analysis&Applic (Downtown Campus),
or AGEC 200 - Principles of Microeconomics (Macdonald Campus)

Also, if you are in the Faculty Program Environment, you will need to complete the program pre-/co-requisites, regardless of which Concentration you choose to go into.

One factor behind the popularity of the courses in your program is the interdisciplinarity of the Environment programs. They comprise courses from units across different departments, and faculties, and both campuses of the university. This means that from time to time you will come across courses that have restricted registrations. Just as the Bieler School of Environment will restrict non-Environment students from taking our courses (when they start to reach capacity), other units will do likewise.

Rest assured that if you add yourself to the wait-list(s) for the courses as soon as you are able (wait-lists normally all open before the end of June), there is a very, very good chance that you will secure a spot in the course before September).

Note that returning students (i.e. non-CEGEP students who did their U0 year at McGill) are able to register before U1 students who are new to McGill. Next May, you will be considered a returning student and will be able to register ahead of the incoming class.

Ideally you will have completed both these requirements before you enter McGill, but if that is not your situation then the next best case would be for you to complete one or both in your U0 (freshman year). But still, if this is not possible, then you should try to complete both by the end of your U1 year. A common combination is BIOL 111 and MATH 139. Both courses are offered ONLY in the fall term. If this is your situation, it is acceptable to take one in the fall of U1 and the other in the fall of U2.

Did you know you are allowed to complete these requirement(s) using the Satisfactory/Unsatisfactory option? See the FAQ #11 above!

Faculty Program Environment students are restricted to a maximum of 30 credits outside the Faculties of Arts and Science. This includes courses counting towards your Environment program and any other program (e.g. Minor or Minor Concentration), as well as electives. It does not include ENVR courses, even if taken on the Macdonald campus. Normally, this restriction will not affect your course selections since the Faculty Program Environment Concentrations comprise mainly downtown course. You will receive no warning if you register for too many credits outside Arts and Science. The course(s) will be "E-flagged" (course is excluded from credits, and excluded from the GPA). You do not want this to happen, so please refer to the Programs, Courses, and University Regulations e-Calendar for more detail, or speak with the Bieler School of Environment Program Adviser if you have questions.

There are science course offered on both campuses; however, B.Science students are in the Faculty of Science and must take most of their courses Downtown.  Specifically, B.Sc. Major Environment students are restricted to a maximum of 18 credits outside the Faculties of Arts and Science. This does not include the ENVR courses, even if taken on the Macdonald campus. Any credits over 18 credits must be complementary or required courses for your Environment program.

Faculty of Science students should be aware that they cannot take courses outside the Faculties of Arts or Science, unless they are Approved. Please refer to the List of Restricted Courses. Minerva will not warn you if you have registered for a restricted course. Once completed, the course will be "E-flagged" (course is excluded from credits, and excluded from the GPA). You do not want this to happen, so please check the List of Restricted Courses and contact the Bieler School of Environment Program Adviser if you have any doubts.

BA&Sc students are restricted to a maximum of 30 credits outside Arts and Science (only 12 of which can be electives). This does not include ENVR courses, even if taken on the Macdonald campus. You will not receive a warning if you register for courses that cause you to exceed this limit. The course(s) will be "E-flagged" (course is excluded from credits and excluded from the GPA). For further information, please refer to the Programs, Courses, and University Regulations e-Calendar for more detail, or speak with the Bieler School of Environment Program Adviser for clarification.

There are science courses offered on both campuses, however, B.Sc.(Ag.Env.Sc.) students are in the Faculty of Agricultural & Environmental Sciences and must take most of their courses on the Macdonald campus. Specifically, Mac students must take 2/3 of their McGill credits from courses offered by the Faculty of Agricultural & Environmental Sciences. This does not include ENVR courses, even if taken on the Downtown campus. With careful planning, you can take the downtown courses you want and need, including the required and some complementary courses in your Concentration. Also, it does not preclude taking a Minor or Minor Concentration from one of the downtown Faculties. For more information, refer to the Programs, Courses, and University Regulations e-Calendar, or ask the Bieler School of Environment Program Adviser.