Guidance for Recent Admissions
Congratulations! You have received admission to MUN. Now what? There are a couple of things you should know about the process of registration for courses in your first term at Memorial.
You register for courses by following the SGS instructions for recent admissions, i.e., after you have completed steps 1 to 7 of SGS’s guide for New Graduate Students at Memorial: https://www.mun.ca/sgs/newstudents/
All new students must register for COMP 9000 (Graduate Registration).
This zero-credit course is not part of your program of studies, but signals that you are a grad student at Memorial. However, you should register for courses only when you are certain that you will be able to start your program of studies at MUN. This usually means that you should wait until you obtain your study permit before starting to register courses. Once you have your permit, you are advised to register as early as possible after the Registrar’s Office announces that registrations are open for your expected start term.
In general, it is a personal decision to decide whether to register for courses without a study permit, but we discourage this, as there is no guarantee you will obtain a study permit in time for the start of your admission term. Our advice is that you should not register for courses if you have not secured a study permit. This goes hand in hand with the question of deposits and fees paid in advance of the start of studies at MUN, discussed at the bottom of this guide.
Check the program schedule for the degree you are pursing under the section “Program of Study”.
Most students advancing at a regular pace will complete 2 courses each term. Thus, it is reasonable for you to register for 2-3 courses at the beginning of each term.
MAI students are expected to finish their program in 4 terms. To achieve that, a MAI student needs to complete 3 courses each term. Thus, it is expected for you to register for 3 courses at the beginning of each term if you are in the MAI program.
Do not register for more than three courses each term, as seats are limited, and you may be preventing others from registering in courses they are interested in taking. If you register for more than three courses, you may be requested to drop one of those courses. Also, please note that in the first term, you cannot register for COMP601W, COMP6999, or COMP7000, even if it seems like those courses are available in the registration website.
Once you are ready to register for your desired courses, you must also register for COMP 9000 – Graduate registration. All grad students need to register for COMP 9000 in their first term at MUN. This registration will allow you to access the COMP900 online shell which has additional supporting guides to help you complete your degree. For subsequent terms, you will be automatically re-registered in COMP 9000, so usually, you only must do this only once. Registration in COMP 9000 does not count for credit and is not part of your program of studies.
Deferral of Admission & Deferral Policy
If you are in a situation where you are unable to join Memorial at the intake date mentioned in your admission letter, you can ask for a deferral of admission by emailing the CS graduate admissions office (cs-gradapply *at* mun *dot* ca).
When you are granted a deferral of admission, you receive a new letter from SGS (the School of Graduate Studies) with the deferred date of admission. We have a policy of granting only one deferral per applicant. If you fail to arrive by the date in your new letter of admission, you will have to reapply for admission to our program, starting from scratch.
Deferrals work differently for different programs as follows:
- Course-based route deferrals: For the course-based route, you can either defer to the next Fall or Winter. Whatever your choice is, you only have one deferral, so you need to choose wisely, depending on your personal circumstances and the likelihood that you will meet the new deferred date of admission.
- Work-term route deferrals: If you received admission to the Work term route, please note that you can either defer to the next Fall or Winter, but you can only defer to the course-based route. This is because starting in the Fall of 2023, students are no longer admitted directly in the Work term route.
- M.A.I. deferrals: For programs with a yearly intake, you can only defer to the next year. The M.A.I. program has a Fall intake only, therefore deferrals are only available for the following Fall term. Deferrals for M.A.I. are only available after you accept the offer of admission and pay the deposit, which is possible up until the End of Regular Registration Period for the Fall term, as indicated in the University Diary.
- Thesis routes deferrals (M.Sc., Ph.D.): For thesis routes, you can only defer if your supervisor agrees with a new start date for your research program, and you could defer to the next Fall or Winter, or if requested by your supervisor, to the Spring term.
Whatever your deferral choice is, you only have one deferral, so you need to choose wisely, depending on your personal circumstances and the likelihood that you will meet the new deferred date of admission. Once you receive a deferral, your seat will be kept until the registration for the term you are supposed to arrive closes. The deadline to request a deferral is one week before the end of the registration period for the intake term you are supposed to start, according to the date mentioned in the University diary for “End of Regular Registration Period and last day for undergraduate and graduate students to add courses.” After this date, a student who did not register for courses and did not ask for a deferral is considered a "no show" and is deemed to have declined their admission to MUN, i.e., the file is closed.
Refund of Deposits & Fees
In the unfortunate situation where you are unable to start your program at Memorial for a definitive reason, such as the inability to secure a study permit or vista from the IRCC (Immigration & Refugees Canada), you can receive a full refund of your deposit or the fees you may have paid for the first year of studies at MUN. The conditions you need to meet to receive a refund are the following:
- Your study permit application is rejected.
- You are not registered or have not registered for courses in your planned start term.
- You decline the admission offer.
To decline the admission offer and request a refund you will need to email SGS via SGS *at* mun *dot* ca to request the deposit and/or fees refund.