INCOMING EXCHANGE STUDENTS Course Registration

and Housing Guide | 2019

ContentsYour McMaster Student Profile 3

Mosaic 3

Activate your MacID 3

View your Offer of Admission on Mosaic (Undergraduate) 3

Preparing for Course Enrollment 4

Undergraduate 4

Graduate/MBA 6

Create Your Timetable/Enroll in Courses 7

Validate Courses for Eligibility and Scheduling Conflicts 8

Error Messages when Validating 8

Troubleshooting Eligibility Issues 8

Enroll in your McMaster Courses (Enrollment Open) 9

Drop, Add, and Swap Courses in Mosaic 10

View your Class Timetable 10

Getting Set-Up 11

Enable your McMaster Email 11

Upload a Photo for your Student Card 11

Living at McMaster 12

On-Campus Housing (Undergraduate only) 12

Experience on-campus living at McMaster 12

Residence Accommodations Request 13

Move-Out and December Break Stay 13

Important Residence Dates 14

Living Off-Campus 15

On and Off-Campus Living Costs 16

Your McMaster Student ProfileMosaicThis is McMaster’s online information system. Mosaic can be used for:

• Viewing your Offer Letter• Adding/dropping courses• Viewing your class schedule• Checking final grades• Making transcript requests

Activate your MacIDYour MacID is a unique identifier assigned to you. You will use it to access all campus services, including your Student Centre on Mosaic. Follow the process outlined in your admission letter or go to the Mosaic homepage to activate your MacID.

You will need:

• 9-digit student number• 14-digit McMaster barcode• Date of birth (format YYYY MM DD).

This process will allow you to choose your own password and verify it. You will also be asked to determine challenge questions and responses in case you need to reset a forgotten password.

Your new MacID will be displayed at the end of this process. Please write it down! Once your MacID has been activated, you can then log into Mosaic.

View your Offer of Admission on Mosaic(Undergraduate)Once you log into Mosaic, you will be taken to the homepage where news and information is posted for students. Select the “Student Centre” tile to access your student information. Your Student Centre provides you with such information as your current course schedule, grades, and enrollment information. Scroll down to the “Admissions” section and select “View Offer” (pop-ups must be turned off).

Carefully read over your Offer of Admission to ensure all information is correct (name, date of birth, term dates). Originals will not be mailed.

*Graduate Offers of Admission will be sent by email.

Mosaic

Record your MacID

for future use. Please write it down!

Graduate Offers of Admission will be

sent by email.

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• Accessing McMaster email (Gmail)• Accessing financial accounts and payments• Checking final exam schedule• Updating personal contact information• Registering HSR bus pass

2019-2020 Course offering

released

JUNE 12

Send a single, finalized list of courses

to your McMaster Academic Advisor by

JUNE 16

Preparing for Course EnrollmentUndergraduateCheck-in: At this stage, you have identified courses of interest based on McMaster’s academic offering in prior years. Your McMaster Academic Advisor has done a general overview of your course selections and notified you of any concerns via your McMaster online exchange application. You have an idea of the 3-5 courses you would like to take.

Next steps: The Class Search will be updated Wednesday, June 12 with 2019-2020 course offerings. You will need to use this updated scheduling information to determine if your course selections are still offered in your term(s) of exchange and if there are any conflicts in your course schedule (two courses taking place at the same time).

Ensure that you have some backup courses for each selection, in case a course or tutorial/lab section is unavailable. Mosaic will help you “verify”’ your course selections for conflicts. More information can be found later in this guide.

Send a single, finalized list of courses to your McMaster Academic Advisor by Sunday, June 16. Please update your online exchange application to reflect these course changes as well. Academic Advisors will use this course list to apply required course waivers and permissions to your student account. If you do not update your Academic Advisor with your final schedule, you may not have the necessary permissions to enroll in that course when registration opens.

Please refer to your Admission Letter to see which Faculty you have been accepted to.

Faculty Advisor Email Extension

Humanities Jenna Gloazzo gloazzje@mcmaster.ca 24328

Social Science Meghan Bregar mbregar@mcmaster.ca 24642

Science Robyn Tebbutt smithra@mcmaster.ca 23562

Business Angela Fortino fortino@mcmaster.ca 24433

Engineering Sally Williams willsal@mcmaster.ca 27905

Health Sciences Teresa Basilio basilio@mcmaster.ca 22786

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Check your Course Enrollment Date

Your enrollment date and time is the earliest point at which course enrollment is open to you for both Term 1 and Term 2 at McMaster.

Enrollment dates and times are based on level. At McMaster, undergraduate exchange students enroll as Level 3 students.

Your enrollment date and time will be common to other students. For this reason, you should be ready to enter course registration on Mosaic on the date and time your enrollment begins.

Personal Enrollment Dates will be posted in the Mosaic Student Centre on Wednesday, June 12, 2019.

If you do not see a personal appointment, please contact your McMaster Academic Advisor.

To find your enrollment date, go to Mosaic Student Centre. On the righthand column. Select the “Enrollment Dates” panel.

Select “details.” Note the column “Appointment Begins” to find the specific date and time of your enrollment appointment. This is your appointment for both Fall and Winter course enrollment (if applicable). Once your appointment starts, enrollment will remain open for the duration of the summer.

Keep in mind that if you do not get a course you were hoping for, this is not your last chance to adjust your course schedule. You will have access to add/drop/swap courses until early September and/or early January for Term 2 students.

Registration for the 2019-2020 academic year (Term 1 and Term 2) takes place on Thursday, June 20 for all Undergraduate students.

Timeline

Wednesday, June 12 Class Search + Personal Enrollment dates released

Sunday, June 16 Updated study plan due to Advisor

Thursday, June 20 Official course registration begins

Posted

JUNE 12

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Official Course Registration

JUNE 20

Graduate/MBAGraduate students register for courses via Mosaic, similar to Undergraduate students; the timeline of course registration however, differs.

Course registration for all Graduate exchange students takes place on Tuesday, July 23. This is for both Fall and Winter terms.

Students must be in touch with their Graduate Administrator to confirm process and receive a finalized course listing. For MBA, students can find this information on the MBA website in mid-June. Go to Course Information Page Full Course Schedule.

Students are expected to email their Graduate Administrator with an updated study plan before Monday, July 15 in order that the appropriate course waivers have time to be applied. This does NOT replace the course registration process via Mosaic. For MBA, please send study plan updates to askmba@mcmaster.ca.

Contact information for each Department can be found on the School of Graduate Studies website, under Program Contacts.

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Graduate Registration

JULY 23

Create Your Timetable/Enroll in CoursesThere are two ways to enroll (register) in classes at McMaster: using MyTimetable or Mosaic. MyTimetable is the newest online self-service tool that allows you to find a conflict-free timetable and direct class enrollment. Although both these platforms allow you to plan out your schedule prior to enrolling, you have to wait until your enrollment appointment opens to actually register in the classes you’ve selected. Which platform you choose to use is up to you, but we recommend MyTimetable.

Instructions on how to enroll according to each individual platform is available on the website of the Office of the Registrar.

Option 1: Access enrollment steps using MyTimetable.

Option 2: Access enrollment steps using Mosaic Shopping Cart (we recommend you ignore the ‘MyPlanner’ function). Instructions for the Shopping Cart have also been included below.

Some tips for using the Shopping Cart:

• Use the Class Search to add courses to your shopping cart in advance of course enrollment.

• Understand how multi-term courses work.

• Ensure you validate your selected courses to check for conflicts and missing waivers prior to your actual enrollment date.

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Validate Courses for Eligibility and Scheduling ConflictsValidating courses in your Shopping Cart checks that: 1) You are eligible (have waivers) for these courses2) You do not have any course conflicts (courses taking place at the same time), and 3) There are open seats for each course.

If the class is full, it will show as “closed“ under the status. Keep in mind that it is still possible for a seat to become available again during the designated enrollment period. All students may cancel, add, or revise their course selections as necessary until the last day of enrollment.

Error Messages when ValidatingIf a green check mark appears, there are no time conflicts and you are eligible to enroll in this course.

If a red “” appears, then there is either a problem with your eligibility or there is a time conflict between courses. A message box will appear beside the course code indicating the problem.

Troubleshooting Eligibility IssuesProblem: Two or more courses have the same time slot on your schedule (Time Conflict).

Action: Please review the course schedule again to see if you can change the time for one of the classes. If the conflicting courses only offer one timeslot, you will need to drop one of them and choose another that doesn’t conflict.

If one of the conflicting courses is only a back-up option on your study plan, it may not be an issue as you will likely not choose this course if your preferred courses are available.

Problem: Enrollment Requisites are not met.

Action: Check that the course is the proper level for you (undergraduate/graduate). If so, you may be missing a course waiver needed from your Academic Advisor/Department Administrator. Please email your McMaster Advisor requesting the course waiver.

Problem: Error message: “Available seats are reserved and you do not meet the reserve capacity criteria.”

Action: This message means that though there are seats available, they are currently open only to certain groups of students (for example, students majoring in that subject). This is often done to ensure that students requiring the course for their program can obtain a spot. Continue to check Mosaic regularly to see if the department opens more spots to other students as registration continues.

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Enroll in your McMaster Courses (Enrollment Open)Students can enroll in McMaster courses for 2019-2020 once their Personal Enrollment Date opens.

Undergraduate exchange students register Thursday, June 20. Graduate students register Tuesday, July 23.

If you are at McMaster for the whole year, you must register for Fall and Winter terms separately. Select the term you wish to enroll in (Fall/Winter). Courses that were put in your Shopping Cart will be viewable.

When you have validated your eligibility for each course and checked for course conflicts, you are ready to enroll in your courses, assuming availability, once your enrollment appointment opens.

On registration day, make sure that each course still has an “open” status.

Undergraduate students register

JUNE 20

Graduate students register

JULY 23

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Tutorials/labs generally begin the

second week of classes.

At McMaster, classes may begin

as early as 8:30 a.m.Evening classes may go

as late as 10:00 p.m.

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Drop, Add, and Swap Courses in MosaicStudents may add/drop/swap courses during the course enrollment period as posted by the Office of the Registrar.

The last day for enrollment (registration) and schedule changes is Wednesday, September 11, 2019 (Term 1) and Tuesday, January 14, 2020 (Term 2).

View your Class TimetableTo view your course timetable, go to Mosaic Student Centre Academics Weekly Schedule

After accessing this page, you can view your timetable two different ways: List and Weekly Calendar View.

You can choose what appears on your calendar through unchecking/checking the option boxes below your calendar. Note: Adjust your start and end times accordingly so that all classes show up on your timetable. View your timetable each week as some tutorial/labs are every other week.

Tutorials/labs generally begin the second week of classes. We recommend checking the room #’s of your courses the night before classes to make sure the location of the class hasn’t changed.

Students may add/drop/swap courses

during the course enrollment period as posted by the Office of the Registrar.

Getting Set-UpEnable your McMaster Email24 hours after you have successfully enrolled in your McMaster courses, you will be able to activate your new @mcmaster.ca email address. Your email account cannot be activated any earlier.

To activate your McMaster email account:

Login to Mosaic and select the “Navigator” in the top right corner of the screen.

Select “MacID” and Email Management. Select Activate, then save. Please note that your account may not be fully functional for 24 hours.

For the period before you enable your McMaster email services, all correspondence from university offices (Academic Departments and International Student Services) will automatically be sent to the email listed on your McMaster Exchange Application. Once your McMaster email is enabled, university correspondence will be sent to your McMaster email address only. If you wish to continue having emails sent to your personal account, you must redirect your McMaster emails.

Your McMaster email address is your “MacID”@mcmaster.ca. An example of an email address with a student’s MacID of “smithk57” would be smithk57@mcmaster.ca. Your account is powered by Google’s Gmail service and includes 25GB of space. To access your McMaster email, go to gmail.com.

Upload a Photo for your Student CardIn order to receive a new McMaster student identification card, you will need to upload a photo of yourself into your Mosaic Student Centre (under the Personal Information subsection).

Once you upload a photo, you cannot make additional changes unless you visit the Registrar’s Office in person. Choose a photo that clearly shows your face, such as a passport photo. There should not be other people in your photo.

Students residing outside of Ontario are required to pick-up their identification in person at the Registrar’s Office upon arrival at McMaster. Identification will not be mailed.

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Your McMaster email address is your

“MacID” @mcmaster.ca

Living at McMasterOn-Campus Housing (Undergraduate only)Experience on-campus living at McMaster

• Stress-free housing. Move-in ready. Bed, desk, & WiFi access. Study rooms, game rooms and laundry facilities.

• Private, shared & apartment options. Choose your living style.

• Flexible (& tax free!) meal plans for all dietary needs. Cash-fee access to food venues across campus.

• Close to the action. Lecture halls, athletic facilities, nature trails, and campus events.

• Easy transportation connections. Easy bus access to downtown Hamilton arts, culture and entertainment. GO bus access to Toronto.

• Work close to where you live. Easy access to on campus work opportunities (with a valid study permit).

40 bed spaces have been reserved for incoming undergraduate exchange students in 2019-2020.

All exchange students (term 1 and term 2) must submit an online application by the deadline of June 3, 2019 at 4:00 pm EDT. Applications received after this deadline will be added to an existing wait list in order of date and time of submission.

Results of the room lottery will be released via email one week following the residence deadline. If you are successful in receiving a space on campus, you will be required to submit a $600 deposit online by the specific date noted in your email.

Before applying, check out the pages on room types, room fees & meal plans, and the residence agreement contract (Exchange students – see page 2).

Move-in weekend for Fall and Full Year students will take place August 24 and 25, 2019.

40 bed spaces for incoming

Undergraduate exchange students

in 2019-2020.

On-Campus students must purchase a

Meal Plan.

Move-in weekend for Term 1 and Full Year

exchange students will be August 24 and 25,

2019 based on room assignments.

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Residence Accommodations Request

Students complete an Accommodations Request when applying to McMaster residence for a variety of reasons. If you have a medical, dietary, disability, or religious need that may necessitate specific residence accommodation needs and/or are over 6'2" tall, you must indicate this on your residence application by answering “Yes” to requiring residence accommodation and complete the required sections which includes an explanation of the student’s situation and documentation from an attesting professional.

Move-Out and December Break Stay

Students are responsible for leaving their residence room by 12 p.m. the day after their last exam.

For those full year students who will remain at McMaster over the winter holiday, there is an option to request access to your room in residence over the December break at an additional cost. Please indicate on your residence application under the December Break section that you would like to apply for this option. When residence room assignments are released in the summer, this will indicate whether you have been approved for a December break stay and we recommend you make plans accordingly. Please note that all food and service center operations are suspended during this time.

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Important Residence Dates

Term 1, Term 2 and Full Year

Residence Application deadline Monday, June 3, 2019 at 4:00 p.m. EST

Deadline for Special Accommodation requests Monday, June 10, 2019 @ 4:00 p.m.

Room Assignments completed one week following residence deadline

Deadline for residence cancellations to qualify Tuesday, July 2, 2019 for a partial ($300) deposit refund at 4:00 p.m. EST

Move-in by building (Tentative) August 24-25, 2019 and January 4-5, 2020

Residence move-out 12:00 p.m. after your last exam

Important residence policies can be found on the Housing Services website.

Contact Residence AdmissionsEmail: resadmissions@mcmaster.ca

Phone: 905.525.9140 Ext. 24342

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Living Off-CampusIn addition to opportunities for living on-campus, the nearby community also offers off-campus housing options for incoming exchange students. Most student housing is within close proximity to campus, in a safe neighbourhood, and is fairly affordable with rents averaging around $500 per month + the cost of utilities (electricity, heating, water, internet – approximately $60 per month). The majority of students live in a “student house” with their own private bedroom (which may or may not be furnished), but share the common areas such as kitchen and bathrooms with the other student tenants in the house.

The Off-Campus Resource Centre is a McMaster resource available to help students search for safe, student-friendly off-campus housing. In addition to the housing database, the OCRC also provides advice in regards to lease documents and other housing resources. Please note that any landlord can advertise; they are not screened by the university. It is important for you to still do your research before you decide to live there.

• Off-Campus Housing Database

• Where to Live

• Info on Deposits and rent

In addition to the Off-Campus Resource housing database, students may also conduct their search using the housing websites/social media pages below.

• Facebook page: McMaster Off-Campus Student Housing Postboard

• Facebook page: M.I.X. International & Exchange Club

• Facebook page: McMaster Student Housing Exchange

• External provider: Airbnb

• External provider: Kijiji.ca

• External provider: Yomes (Verify the validity of a Kijiji listing – this site is new, content is still building!).

Buy/Sell household items

• Facebook page: McMaster Student Furniture & House Items board

• Facebook page: Free & For Sale

• External provider: Kijiji.ca

Short-term housing

• External provider: Airbnb

• External provider: Hamilton Guest House

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On and Off-Campus Living CostsThe following is an estimate (in Canadian dollars - CAD)

Accommodation (shared) On campus $ 3,200 – $ 4,000

Off campus $ 2,200 – $ 3,000

Food On campus $ 2,000 – $ 3,000

Off campus $ 1,400 – $ 1,600

Public Transport HSR is free for exchange students (HSR – Hamilton Street Railway) (Except MBA)

University Health Insurance Plan (UHIP) $ 212

Personal Expenses $ 1,000

Textbooks $ 300

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1 Term (4 months)