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Chemistry Graduate Courses

Most of our graduate courses are offered on a two-year rotation. Please refer to the current Graduate Calendar or Mosaic for the most complete information.

Fall Timetable

Winter Timetable


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Taking Courses In Other Departments

As long as you obtain permission from your supervisor and the Grad Chair, you can use courses from other departments to count toward your Chemistry degree requirements.  Be sure to check that the course you want to take is acceptable beforehand.  To request permission to use courses from other departments, complete the Request for In-Program Course Adjustments and submit the fully signed and completed form to the Grad Admin (chemgrad@mcmaster.ca).

Taking Courses At Other Universities

Use this form to apply to take a graduate course at another university in Ontario and receive credit at McMaster. Submit the completed form to the Grad Admin (chemgrad@mcmaster.ca).

Use this form to apply to take a graduate course at another university elsewhere in Canada and receive credit at McMaster. Submit the completed form to the Grad Admin (chemgrad@mcmaster.ca).

Auditing

Graduate students may audit courses, in which case a record of the course appears on the student’s transcript (as audited, but with no grade). For a course to be audited, the student is required to attend >80% of the lectures, or the equivalent for non-lecture-based courses. Note: it is only possible for grad students to audit grad courses, not undergrad courses.

In order to audit a graduate course:

  1. Obtain a copy of the course outline from the course instructor and discuss the requirements for auditing the course.
  2. Before the start of the course, fill out the top part of auditing form, sign the form, and obtain signatures from their supervisor and the course instructor.
  3. At end of the course, the instructor will check the appropriate box on the auditing form to confirm whether the student attended at least 80% of the lectures (or equivalent for courses with a non-lecture-based component).
  4. If the course was successfully audited, the form is then provided to the Graduate Program Administrator (chemgrad@mcmaster.ca), who will obtain a signature from Grad Chair and then send the form over the graduate studies, who will manually input the record of auditing into Mosaic.
  5. If the course was not successfully audited, no further action is taken and no record of the course appears on the student’s transcript.

Failing A Course

A minimum grade of B- is required to pass a graduate course.  If you should receive a grade lower than B-, the situation will be reviewed by the Associate Dean who, with the input of the department, will make a decision as to whether you should repeat or replace the course or whether you should withdraw from the program.  For more details about what happens when a course is failed, see section 2.6.11 of the Graduate Calendar.