Freshman/Foundation Course Selection

Course Selection

You will not have a departmental academic advisor until your second year (U1 year). You are, however, encouraged to contact departmental academic advisors if you have specific questions about prerequisites or about the requirements of the program(s) you are considering.

You cannot use the S/U (Satisfactory/Unsatisfactory) option for any course in the B.A. Freshman/Foundation Year Program. You also cannot use the S/U option for courses which are required for admission to professional programs, such as medical school, or for courses which you intend to use toward your programs next year at the departmental level.

If this is the first time you are studying in English, we strongly recommend that you take only 4 courses (12 credits) during your first term and that, as one of these, you consider taking an English as a Second Language course. If you discover that 4 courses are quite manageable, you may wish to take 5 courses during the second term.

If you would like to improve your writing skills, you should consider taking one of the undergraduate courses offered by the McGill Writing Centre, such as WCOM250. You may take a maximum of 6 credits of these courses.

As the B.A. Freshman/Foundation Year Program is intended to provide you with a broad foundation for a three-year degree program, you should take this opportunity and select courses in a variety of disciplines, keeping in mind the guidelines outlined for the program. Don't limit yourself to only one or two disciplines — explore and keep your options open. You may be surprised to find out that you have other interests. You may even discover an area of study you had never considered before, or you may learn that you are not as keen on a particular area as you had previously thought.

Courses which are chosen as part of your B.A. Freshman/Foundation Year Program may also count towards your intended departmental programs. For example, it may be possible to count a Political Science course taken this year towards the Major Concentration, Minor Concentration or Honours program in Political Science.

Advanced Standing credits may exempt you from part or all of the Freshman / Foundation program requirements. For example, if you passed the Art History AP (6 credits) with a grade of 4 or higher, you will have fulfilled the Humanities category of the B.A. Freshman/Foundation Year Program. For further information about advanced standing credits, please read Advanced Standing Credits.

Points to keep in mind when selecting courses for Option 1:

1. A minimum of 3 of the 4 categories must be completed;
2. To fulfill a category, a minimum of 6 credits must be completed in that category;
3. A maximum of 18 credits in any one category, and 12 credits per department is permitted;
4. Courses must be selected from the list of approved courses for the B.A. Freshman/Foundation Year Program;
5. You must not register for courses which are scheduled to meet at the same time.

Points to keep in mind when selecting courses for Option 2:

1. Contact the French Language and Literature department or French as a Second Language department for placement tests and departmental approval;
2. A minimum of 18 credits conducted in French is required;
3. Remaining elective courses must be selected from the list of approved courses for the B.A. Freshman/Foundation Year Program;
4. You must not register for courses which are scheduled to meet at the same time.

Examples of Course Selection

Option 1

Example 1: You're a student admitted into the B.A. Freshman/Foundation Year Program with no advanced standing credits.

In this instance, you are admitted into a 120-credit degree program, and are not permitted to exceed the maximum of 18 credits in any one category and 12 credits per department.

Use the B.A. Freshman/Foundation Program Approved Courses list to decide how you intend to fulfill the B.A. Freshman/Foundation Year Program requirements.

The normal course load per term is 5 courses for a total of 10 courses per academic year. Therefore, you have 10 courses to divide among the 4 categories: Social Sciences, Humanities, Languages, and Math Science. In order to fulfill the B.A. Freshman/Foundation Year Program core requirements and still adhere to the limitations set out above, some examples of the course distribution are as follows:

In all these examples, you are fulfilling at least 6 credits in 3 out of 4 categories without exceeding the maximum of 18 credits in any one category, keeping in mind that the maximum number of credits per department is 12.

Example 2: You're a student admitted into the B.A. Freshman/Foundation Year Program with advanced standing (on the basis of Advanced Placements) in French Language and in Microeconomics.

In this instance, you are admitted into a 111-credit degree program with 9 advance standing credits and could fulfill the B.A. Freshman/Foundation Year Program core requirements for Option 1 as follows:

The minimum of 6 credits in one of the categories has been fulfilled thanks to your AP French Language credits (6 credits in languages). In addition, you have been granted 3 advanced standing credits in a second category, Social Sciences, and therefore only need to complete another 3 credits in Social Sciences to fulfill the minimum of 6 credits in a second category. You must also complete 6 credits in a third category.

In this example, let us suppose that you register for 3 credits in the Social Sciences, 12 credits in the Humanities and 6 credits in Languages. At this point you will have registered for 21 credits and will have fulfilled the minimum of at least 6 credits in 3 out of 4 categories. If you wish to register for 30 credits in your Freshman/Foundation year, you still have another 9 credits to select. You may select these credits from any category, including Humanities or Languages.

In sum, keep in mind the following when selecting your courses for Option 1:

• Advanced standing credits + McGill credits = minimum of 6 credits to a maximum of 18 credits in each of 3 out of 4 categories
• Advanced standing credits + McGill credits = 24-30 credits for the Freshman / Foundation year
• Translation: Once you have successfully completed 24 credits, including advanced standing credits, you may proceed to your U1 year.

Option 2

Example 3: You're a student admitted into the B.A. Freshman/Foundation Year Program with no advanced standing.

In this instance, you are admitted into a 120 - credit degree program and required to complete 18 credits of core courses conducted in French. Depending on your degree of language proficiency, this may include a maximum of 12 credits of Intensive French Language. A Placement test is required before admission to any French language course including Beginner's French. Once you have chosen courses to fulfill the core requirement, the remainder of the courses can be selected from the Approved Freshman/Foundation Course List.

Example 4: You're a student admitted into the B.A. Freshman/Foundation Year Program with advanced standing (on the basis of Advanced Placements) in French Language and in U.S. History.

In this instance, you are admitted into a 108 - credit degree program and are required to complete the B.A. Freshman/Foundation core requirements for Option 2.

Keeping in mind that the normal course load for the academic year is 10 courses, use the Approved Freshman/Foundation Course List to select your remaining elective courses.

Advanced Standing Credits

Six credits out of 18 credits in French have been fulfilled. In addition, you have been granted 6 advanced standing credits as elective courses. Therefore, you must complete 12 credits in French Language to fulfill your B.A. Freshman/Foundation Core requirement.

In sum, keep in mind the following when selecting your courses for Option 2:

• Advanced standing credits + McGill credits = 18 credits in French and 12 credits elective courses.
• Advanced standing credits + McGill credits = 30 credits for Freshman / Foundation year.
• Translation: Once you have successfully completed 24 credits, including advanced standing credits, you may proceed to your U1 year

Still confused?

For both Options, an adviser will be able to help you determine how many credits you must take to complete your Freshman / Foundation program requirements. Please view the drop-in hours of our Arts OASIS advisors.