<p>Hey folks,</p>
<p>I am almost freakin' out cause of this terrible "information" on their website or more what they proclaim to be information. When does the fall semester 2012 begin and end, the same for the following semesters until the next fall semester?</p>
<p>The 2012-2013 calendars are not finalized yet I imagine. They will be posted in the future.</p>
<p>Chill. Even if McGill had the ending dates for semesters, your own personal end date will depend on your exam schedule which isn’t determined until about 2 months before exams begin (so for Dec. 2012 exams, you will know your own end date around the beginning of Oct. 2012). Even then, instructors sometimes (with the consent of the class) move exam dates ahead.</p>
<p>For semester beginning dates, usually they are similar to those in prior years.</p>
<p>What is the “terrible ‘information’ on their website”? I’m curious.</p>
<p>It’s just about the official times for my scholarship. They require some data and I don’t want to give them random pieces. Does anyone know the time of semester beginning and ending at McGill? Exams are totally irrelevant for this. Most times, lectures begin a bit later than the official semester begin.</p>
<p>McGill has 3 semesters all year round:
Fall: Sep 1st - Dec 31st
Winter: Jan 1st - Apr 30th
Summer: May 1st - Aug 31st</p>
<p>I’m not joking.</p>
<p>Of course you are not joking and you helped me very much. Thank you for this information!</p>
<p>The summer terms may be different for some folks though (most courses seem to be held for one month at a time so in a sense, it’s not a traditional three-term school).</p>
<p>I don’t think that FreedayFF’s dates are official, and from NorthernFlow’s thread title (“Official semester dates”), I think he wanted that. They are approximations. NorthernFlow: I’m glad that you are happy with these approximations, but if all that you wanted was some approximation, then I don’t understand why you wrote “official” in the title.</p>
<p>Several examples of how “unofficial” (i.e. plain wrong) the listed dates are:
<p>The official dates will vary by the school/college/faculty that you are in. You haven’t mentioned what you are in, so it would be difficult to help you, in any case. For example, here are the most recent official “semester dates” for McGill’s School of Continuing Studies:
Semester Dates
Summer 2011
•Session 1: May 9 to June 17
•Session 2: June 27 to August 5
Fall 2011
•Session 1: September 12 to October 21
•Session 2: October 31 to December 9
Winter 2012
•Session 1: January 16 to February 24
•Session 2: March 5 to April 13
Summer 2012
•Session 1: May 7 to June 15
•Session 2: June 26 to August 3 </p>
<p>The following link provides the principles that McGill has for setting its official dates:
[Calendar</a> of Academic Dates | Office of the Dean of Students - McGill University](<a href=“http://www.mcgill.ca/deanofstudents/calendarofdates]Calendar”>http://www.mcgill.ca/deanofstudents/calendarofdates)</p>
<p>I remember that I barely had 10 days of vacation last year (christmas and new year). It’s a little different from other universities in Canada, and very different from those in the USA. There’re no “official” holidays, so school goes on for the whole year. Summer classes might be short or full-semester. But you can basically go to school every week of the year.</p>
<p>You all three guys are completely right about your individual aspects. First, the dates of FreedayFF might be exactly enough by the reason that it is not necessary to explain the foundation when my courses will begin but to tell them the official semester borders. </p>
<p>The data have to be quite official cause they will check it out. But concerning violindad, you are right that the courses never begin and never end on the first and last day of a semester. But I asked for the complete semester which means I wanted to know when the semester turns to the next officially. Imagine an official McGill plan: when is the day on that the name of the semester changes from fall to winter? This day is what I wanted to get. </p>
<p>Can one of you tell me the specifications of the summer classes? I heard from other people there that they use the time for internships or in other cases travelling to Asia. Isn’t it necessary to spend the time there? Or is it possible to spend a few weeks there and have a long break?</p>
<p>As I said, summer classes might be short or full-semester. If you pick a one-month course, you’re free to go anywhere for the remaining 3 months. Summer classes in Engineering are short because profs want to do research in the summer. I don’t know much about other faculties but I know management has some full-summer classes. </p>
<p>Internships normally last for 3 - 4 months depending on your faculty. It’s recommended to travel somewhere during your first summer, unless you found an internship. But generally, students will give half a kidney to get an internship in the subsequent years.</p>
<p>Most McGill students do not go to school in the summer (so they have a full four months off of school). Most work during the summer to pay for school. This is typical in Canada.</p>
<p>I was told by email today that I am not expected to be at McGill on summer terms. So this would change my information. But I still wonder what I could write about my semester times? Occasionally it would be fine to have a longer period cause it means more money. But on the other hand I don’t want to lie or write down a random date cause I will surely not be the only applicant from McGill. So am I really totally wrong with writing 1st September-30th May?</p>
<p>You are not wrong if it includes summer classes.</p>
<p>I was wrong and should use April. Well, I will try this way.</p>
<p>I think that Sept. 1 to April 30 should be fine; it is as accurate as anyone can be at this time. If anything, the Sept. 1 date is conservative: most students arrive at least a week prior to Sept. 1 and some programs have compulsory activities during the week prior to the start of classes.</p>
<p>I wrote an email to them concerning the problems caused by compulsory acitivites on August. So I will check it later.</p>
<p>For now I have another question about the lectures. There is something like this on the timetable “Time: TR 08:35-09:55”, “Time: R 14:00-17:00” or “Time: MWF 13:35-14:25”</p>
<p>What can TR, R or MWF be? There are some other examples too.</p>
<p>Yes, Frosh is compulsory, just don’t end up in the hospital with an alcohol poisoning case.</p>
<p>MTWRF: Monday -> Friday</p>
<p>Sometimes answers are so plain and simple that I just wonder why I needed to ask for them. I expected a lot but not simple days. I guessed it might be something like “cum tempore” (latin and means with time). </p>
<p>Well, to say it honest. If I am not interested in any “party course”, I don’t need to be there until September?</p>
<p>No. But it’s suggested that you come in a few days before the first class starts (sept 1st) to sort out admin stuffs.</p>