We’ve prepared a list of resources and frequently asked questions for students who are currently enrolled in our Commerce or Integrated Business and Humanities programs. Don’t see the information you’re looking for? Contact us.
For some commonly required forms, please visit this link.
All sessional dates and deadlines are determined and approved by the Senate.
Fall 2023 and Winter 2024 dates and deadlines have been released by the Office of the Registrar.
We recommend that you enroll in both your fall and winter courses at the same time if you intend to take courses in both terms.
If assistance with enrollment is required, please visit DeGroote’s academic advising office for guidance regarding course selection.
Learn more from the Office of the Registrar.
All students, including OSAP students, follow the same payment deadlines.
Have questions about enrolling or dropping courses, or other questions about your program? Check out some common questions below.
We understand that course enrollment can feel confusing at times. There are two great McMaster resources to help you make sure you’re on track to meet your degree requirements.
Your Advisement Report on MOSAIC can show you which courses are required for your degree for each academic level. It can also show you which courses you are already enrolled in. Follow the steps to access your report:
The Undergraduate Academic Calendar lists your program requirements based on your year of entry into the program:
If you are interested in taking an extra course in an academic term, this is called an “overload.”
Business 1 students cannot overload.
If you are a Level 2 or 3 student, you must have a GPA of at least 7.0 in the prior academic year. To overload, you must contact the Student Experience team via email to request permission.
If you’re in your final year and need to overload in order to graduate with your class, you can register for up to 36 units. Overloading is done at your own risk, and you can’t take more than six courses per semester. Email the Student Experience team if the registration system does not let you register for the extra units.
A traditional course load is five courses (15 units) per term. Commerce GR0 and Commerce 2IN0 are zero-unit courses and are often taken as a student’s “sixth” course in a term.
Many students opt to reduce their course load for a variety of reasons. To reduce your course load, only enroll in the number of courses you are comfortable taking per term.
Please note: if you want to have full-time student status, you need to enroll in at least nine units per term.
If you are not sure that you want to reduce your course load or want to discuss how a reduced course load will impact your academic progress, please schedule an appointment with an Academic Advisor via OSCARplus.
Sometimes courses that you may be interested in taking can be full.
If a class is “closed,” it means there are no seats left available for enrollment. You can continue to monitor MOSAIC for an opening in your desired course until the end of the add/drop period each term (see Dates and Deadlines).
To ensure an optimal learning experience for registered students, faculty offices cannot over-enroll a closed course.
We recommend that you log into MOSAIC to search for other potential courses that could fit your needs.
Although a course may appear to have seats available, the seats in the reserve capacity that applies to you may be full at this time.
Oftentimes, faculties release a specific number of seats to students outside of their faculty. This may result in the error message that “Available seats are reserved, and you do not meet the reserve capacity criteria”. Once faculties are certain that their own students are able to enroll, these seats will be released. Similar to Business, students in these programs are guaranteed seats in their required courses.
We encourage you to try enrolling in a different section (if available) or a different elective with space and continue to try to swap into your preferred elective on MOSAIC once the reserved seats are released.
To confirm the reserved seat release date, you must reach out to the home faculty of the course offered.
If you receive the error message “pre-requisites not met,” please reach out to us by email so we can look into this for you further. If you are ever unsure if you are missing a pre-requisite for a course, please review the Academic Calendar.
When choosing non-Commerce electives, you may only enroll if there is a green dot beside the class indicating it is open. Be aware of any reserved seat capacity messages!
The Faculty of Business does not control non-Commerce electives and cannot enroll students in these classes.
Continue to monitor MOSAIC for an opening or contact the department that administers the class for more information! Please visit the McMaster Directory for faculty and department contact information.
If you do not have access to your Avenue content yet, please ensure that you are enrolled in the course on MOSAIC. There is a delay between when students add the course in MOSAIC and when the course appears on Avenue to Learn.
If you have been enrolled in the course for more than two (2) days and still do not have Avenue access, please contact the course instructor.
All Avenue to Learn related concerns should be directed to your course instructor. Their contact information can be found on the course outline, which should be available on the associated faculty’s webpage.
There is an additional option to withdraw after the last day for withdrawing from courses, which is called the Late Withdrawal (LWD).
A Late Withdrawal is available to students before the end of term, on the last day of classes, and before the last component of the course has been attempted (i.e., final examination or assignment).
The LWD option is to help students who have fallen behind in a course and are not prepared to write final exams. The maximum number of units you may request a Late Withdrawal for throughout your undergraduate degree is 18 units.
A few things to note:
A course approved for Late Withdrawal will be:
If a LWD is required, it must be requested by meeting with an Academic Advisor via OSCARplus, no later than the last day of classes, and before the last component of the course has been attempted.
Approval of a late withdrawal is final. Requests to be re-enrolled in a withdrawn course will not be considered.
If your course load is below 60% for your program, you are a part-time student. If your course load is above 60%, you are a full-time student.
If you want to have full-time student status, you need to enroll in at least nine units per term. If you enroll in only three or six units per term, you will be considered a part-time student.
If you have any questions about your course load, please schedule an appointment with an Academic Advisor via OSCARplus.
Each specific program and entry year has its own number of electives available. Within your Commerce degree, you will take required Commerce courses, Commerce electives, and non-Commerce electives.
Each year of your program, there are a different number of Commerce and non-Commerce electives available to you.
Your program requirements for each year can be found in the Academic Calendar or on your Advisement Report in MOSAIC. To do this, please follow the instructions below:
If you have fast-tracked your degree or taken courses off-cycle, it is important to review your Advisement Report each year for confirmation.
Students may repeat a course twice (i.e. attempt a course three times). Cross-listed courses count as attempts.
Grades from every attempt will appear on the academic transcript.
The Cumulative GPA will include only the grade earned on the most recent attempt.
Units earned will be counted once toward the student’s program requirements, regardless of the number of times the course is repeated. Prior to September 1, 2018, the grades from all attempts were included in the GPA calculation.
Your Major is Commerce; however, you can choose an Area of Focus by selecting your Commerce electives accordingly.
During your Bachelor’s of Commerce at DeGroote, your required courses fall into a few different disciplines:
You have the option of ‘specializing’ in any of these areas. During your third and fourth years of study, you are required to take what are referred to as ‘commerce electives‘. Commerce electives are business classes you get to choose from. Remember when you were in first year and selected from a list of electives, including anthropology and sociology? This is the same idea. So when you select an area of focus, all that really means is the majority of the commerce electives you take are from one of the disciplines listed above.
To learn more about the different Areas of Focus, please visit this webpage.
No. Many students at DeGroote choose to take courses from several different disciplines. They may choose to do this because they have diverse interests, aspire to have a more flexible education, or simply aren’t interested enough in any one area or for other reasons!
What’s great about DeGroote is that the choice is yours. If you would like to pursue certain careers, it may be beneficial to focus on one area. For example, taking more accounting classes is probably very valuable in pursuit of a CPA designation.
To answer a couple of common questions:
An area of focus doesn’t appear on your transcript – so why should you care?
Here’s why:
While enrolling in courses for your third year, choose classes that are related to your area of focus. In the undergraduate course outline, you’ll find a list of available classes. In the right column, you’ll see the area of focus each class corresponds to. You can also check the undergraduate course calendar to find DeGroote’s newest classes.
For example, if you are concentrating in finance, consider enrolling on International Finance, Security Analysis, Financial Modelling, and other related courses.
The first letter in a class’s course code can also be an indication of what area it corresponds to. While this isn’t always accurate, it can be a quick way to find what courses you might be interested in.
For example:
| Area | Letter |
| Accounting | A |
| Human Resources | B |
| Finance | F |
| Information Systems | K |
| Marketing | M |
| Operations | Q or O |
| Strategic Management | S or P |
It’s important to keep in mind that, even if you aren’t ready to make a decision at the end of second year, you can change your mind later.
The DeGroote Student Experience team and area faculty host webinars to share more information about each Area of Focus. You can now access each of these webinars on DeGroote’s YouTube channel.
Yes, whether you’re in the Bachelor of Commerce or Integrated Business and Humanities program, you can work towards a Minor.
Learn more about how to use your electives toward a Minor.
If you are interested in pursuing a Minor, you should review the requirements of the Minor on the Academic Calendar.
You can complete the academic coursework requirements for various professional designations throughout your undergraduate degree. You can learn more about professional designations here.
At McMaster, you have the opportunity to explore new and unfamiliar topics through Personal Interest Courses (PIC). PICs were designed so you can explore interests outside of your program without affecting your Cumulative GPA.
What you need to know:
For more information about the PIC option, visit the Registrar’s website.
As per the Registrar’s notation, the Deans’ Honour List (DHL) status for the current year of study is based on a minimum 9.5 GPA on at least 30 units since last assessed (may not exceed 6 units assessed with a non-numeric grade). Subsequent assessments are based on all units completed since the previous review. You will be named to the Deans’ Honour List when a minimum average of 9.5 is achieved.
Being on the Dean’s Honour list does not result in any financial/or physicals awards. However, this achievement is noted on your transcript.
To see if you qualify for the Dean’s Honours List, view your unofficial transcript. Follow the steps below to access your unofficial transcript:
Please use the instructions below to schedule an Academic Advice appointment. Be sure to select the correct appointment type: Academic Advising In-Person OR Academic Advising Virtual.
If you have any issues scheduling an appointment or if you need to cancel an appointment, please email buscom@mcmaster.ca with your appointment details and include your full name and student number.
Yes!
McMaster’s RISO policy applies to all students enrolled in a course or program of study as approved by the University Senate and who are seeking accommodation as a result of academic obligations that conflict with their religious, Indigenous or spiritual observances (RISO).
The policy defines an observance as a commemoration, tradition, or event of religious, Indigenous or spiritual significance. The multi-faith calendar on the HRES website provides examples of what may fall under this definition.
As not every personal manifestation of creed is capable of invoking the Ontario Human Rights Code, the RISO policy is intended to only cover significant aspects of religious practices. Discretionary or voluntary events are not seen as falling under the policy.
Student Process:
Students requiring a RISO accommodation should submit an MSAF-AR form online with their completed RISO form to be attached to the MSAF-AR form within ten working days from the beginning of each term in which they are anticipating a need for accommodation.
The completed RISO form should include:
RISO accommodations for a final exam or during a deferred exam period must be submitted to the Registrar’s Office at least two weeks prior to the Examination Period.
The McMaster Student Absence Form (MSAF) Self-Report may only be submitted once per term. It is a request for relief for:
The McMaster Student Absence Form (MSAF) Administrative Report is a request for relief for:
All absence forms must be submitted to the Student Experience Office within 24 hours of the last day of absence.
Please take the time to review our Missed Coursework Policy.
Although every effort is taken by the Faculty Office to ensure that Commerce midterms do not conflict, there may be a situation where you have a conflicting midterm date or time. Sometimes, Commerce midterms can also conflict with a non-Commerce course.
If you expect to miss a midterm exam with a known conflict, you must provide our office ten (10) business days’ notice to be eligible for an alternate sitting.
To defer a Final Examination, you must fill out a Deferred Examination Form.
If approved, you will be required to write the deferred exam in the next deferred examination period (see Dates and Deadlines).
Reach out to your instructor immediately via email. Failure to do so may negate the opportunity for relief. Their email address can be found on your Course Outline or through Avenue2Learn.
Do not submit an MSAF. The MSAF cannot be used for academic work that has already been completed/attempted.
This includes the viewing and/or partial completion of an online assessment (quizzes, tests, etc.).
Student Accessibility Services (SAS) provides academic accommodation assistance and related support to students with disabilities at McMaster.
SAS is available to assist students transitioning from high school, other post-secondary institutions, undergraduate, continuing and graduate students.
Note to all students seeking academic accommodations: Please be advised that the process for activating academic accommodations must be completed at the start of every term.
For any questions related to this process, please contact SAS.
If you have concerns about the grade received on an academic component, a midterm or final exam, or your final grade, you must reach out to the instructor of the course directly.
Their contact information can be found on the course outline.
If you would like to review a midterm exam or final exam that you have written in a Commerce course, you must complete a Request to View an Exam form and return it via email to buscom@mcmaster.ca. Once received, we will review your request and connect you with the instructor to confirm the next steps.
It is an exciting time when you make the decision to explore your learning options abroad. More information on the steps and to understand your eligibility for exchange can be found via the Student Success Centre.
Once you have reviewed your eligibility and have started your exchange application, please contact the Student Experience Office via buscom@mcmaster.ca and request permission to be added to our new DeGroote-specific Avenue to Learn page. This is a new resource to keep you informed and updated about the exchange process and required steps. This is not where you will create and submit your exchange application – this is for information purposes only.
The Office of the Registrar has created a Graduation Checklist to guide you through the process of declaring your intention to graduate.
Some important points about the graduation process:
New Paramount Studios is holding grad photo appointments at their studios in Mississauga and Toronto. We hope to see New Paramount on campus in the future, but we do not have any dates yet. Stay tuned to the bulletin and DCS social media for updates.
To book your appointment:
Once registered, you will receive an email from the studio outlining their safety protocols and other terms.
If you have any questions about your graduation photos, please reach out to the DeGroote Commerce Society directly via info@degrootecommerce.ca.
The Student Experience team is here to talk to you about anything related to your time at the DeGroote School of Business. Didn’t see what you need in the FAQ above? Contact us.
