MACINSIDERS' GUIDE TO PICKING YOUR COURSES AND
REGISTERING ON SOLAR

*UPDATED FOR 2014/15*
By Chad Fullerton

Selecting Your Courses For September? Here are some tips!

First be sure to take a look at the official steps provided by the Office Of The Registrar available here. However, I'll try and break things down for you to make them easier to understand as well as explain my method of selecting courses that you may be able to try!

BEFORE WE START, SOME IMPORTANT THINGS TO NOTE:

• You have 7 days from the first time you login to solar to pick and EDIT course choices
• Once you pick courses you need to do two things... VERIFY/CHANGE FOR CONFLICTS, which is the first button, and then once you do that you need to CONFIRM your choices which brings up the payment box and the list of the ones you picked. Only when you do that 2 step process does it 'lock in' your classes. If you close the window you lose everything. Also, if you reach the time limit before pressing both those buttons, you lose everything you did DURING THAT SESSION
• If you pick say... 3-4 courses and don't want to lose them, you can click the two buttons to verify and confirm those 3-4 courses and 'lock them in' and then just close the window and RELOGIN to mugsi/solar and continue where you left off. That way, those 3-4 courses you picked and confirmed already will never get erased if you reach the time limit, only the ones you add on or edit during your sessions after that
• You NEED TO COMPLETE THE PAYMENT AGREEMENT as soon as possible so that the system makes a conflict-free timetable FOR you. Aim to have it done before Aug 1st... otherwise the system won't do it for you and you have to make your own conflict-free timetable which is a pain in the butt.

1) ACTIVATE YOUR MACID

• Go to MUGSI
• Select Activate your MAC ID & Email Service
• Enter your student number, barcode number and birth date

If you've lost your Student Number and Barcode Number, contact the Office of the Registrar at 905-525-4600 or in-person at Gilmour Hall – Room 108.


2) GETTING READY FOR SOLAR

Alright, so now we are able to use our MACID to login to MUGSI and access SOLAR (the service allowing you to pick your classes for the year) as well as many of our other important features! But before you jump into SOLAR, you need to know the JUNE 2014 DATES THAT SOLAR OPENS FOR YOUR FACULTY.

MAKE NOTE OF THAT DATE. Then follow the steps below to help prepare yourself for SOLAR. You need know the courses that you want to take in September. This is because SOLAR has a time limit of 45 minutes... and this means that if you are playing around in SOLAR picking your classes and the 45 minute limit passes... SOLAR will kick you out and everything you did will be lost. Trust me, 45 minutes may seem like a long time... but it's not!

This article explains a process that can help you prepare your timetable before going into SOLAR and doing the actual course selection.

To pick your courses you use SOLAR. Everyone has a certain date when they are able to begin selecting courses, based on which faculty/program they are in. Once you reach your date to pick courses you will want to rush onto SOLAR and make your selections quickly before they fill up. In order to save time and hassle you'll want to plan your selections before going into SOLAR. The next steps will help you do that.

3) PICKING YOUR COURSES AHEAD OF TIME

NOTE: This is the step for checking what courses are required for your program, and to see how many units and which courses you need to fufill to get your degree.

NOTE: YOU WILL NOT BE PICKING TUTORIALS/LABS FOR MOST COURSES IN JULY. THESE WILL BE AUTO ASSIGNED TO YOU AND VIEWABLE IN AUGUST. SEE DETAILS HERE.

a) Go to the UNDERGRADUATE 2008-09 COURSE CALENDAR and select your faculty on the left, then scroll down to the bottom and select your program.

b) Keep going through the screens until you find your specific program. If you're in level 1 then in most cases it is just a generic level 1 section for your faculty. If you're in upper years find your specific program that you are majoring in to see the detailed course requirements.

c) You will now see a list of courses you can take within your program. There are REQUIRED courses listed, as well as a certain number of units you can take as ELECTIVES. Both need to be fufilled in order to get your degree at the end of your time at McMaster (3-4 years). Note that you can't take a course in two spots... for example you can't take a course to fufill one of the requirements and count it towards a course in another list or as an elective... each class can only be used to fufill a requirement ONCE.

Your school year is broken up into two terms (aka. "SEMESTERS"). Basically your entire year will be 8 months (eg. September to April) and a semester is 4 months. You have two of them, thus 8 months. A class that is 3 units runs for one semester (eg. 1A03) and a class that is 6 units runs over 2 semesters (eg. 1D06). The number at the end is the number of UNITS the course is worth.

In most programs you are looking to pick 30 UNITS (NOTE: your faculty may vary). You then divide them evenly between your two semesters. Each course is usually grouped into 3 or 6 units.

Course codes look like this: ENGLISH 1A03

The "1" means it is a first year course. Don't worry about the letter too much... what is most important is the UNIT NUMBER and what TERM the course is offered in. The 3 at the end tells you how many UNITS that course is worth. So English 1A03 would be worth 3 units. If it has a 6, it means it is a class that runs over BOTH semesters.

EXTRA HELP

Still confused about course codes and what 'units' are, and how they have to add up? Check out Danielle's article here. Or read the ongoing discussion here with a real life example.

d) Get out a lined piece of paper

e) Go through your faculty undergraduate calendar and start reading through the descriptions of the courses and write down the course codes of the classes you're most interested in. BE SURE TO WRITE DOWN ALL REQUIRED COURSES FIRST.

Your paper should start looking like this:

CLASSICS 1A03
CLASSICS 1B03
CMST 1A03
CMST 1B03
COMP LIT 1A03
ENGLISH 1A03
ENGLISH 1AA3
ENGLISH 1B03
HISTORY 1A03
HISTORY 1M03

NOTE: Keep in mind when picking your courses that you need to plan out for the future of what you're wanting to get into for second year. Most second year courses will be PREREQUISITES, which are classes that you may need to take in order to get into that program. Make sure to plan ahead and take the courses you need to get into what you want. For example, to get into English second year you may be required to have taken BOTH English 1A03 AND English 1B03 in first year.

f) Now make two columns beside those courses. One column for TERM OFFERED and another column for DAY/TIMES.

g) Remember, you want to have an even balance of courses, so you'll want to know which term each of your favorite classes are offered since most of the time they are only offered in term 1 or term 2, but not both. ALSO, you want to know what times the classes are at so that you don't have any conflicts (overlapping classes).

NOTE: YOU WILL NOT BE PICKING TUTORIALS/LABS FOR MOST COURSES IN JULY. THESE WILL BE AUTO ASSIGNED TO YOU AND VIEWABLE IN AUGUST. SEE DETAILS HERE.

4) USE THE MASTER COURSE TIMETABLE TO SEE WHEN YOUR CLASS TIMES ARE

CLICK HERE TO GO TO THE MASTER COURSE TIMETABLE

From here, begin by picking the subject (eg: ENGLISH) and for course code type the number 1 and press the FIND button. This will show you all the courses in level one for that subject.

Find the course codes you wrote in step "e". Click on the course code to see more information.

THE 24 HOUR CLOCK

	HOUR	24 HOUR
A.M.	8:30	08:30
	9:30	09:30
	10:30	10:30
	11:30	11:30
P.M.	12:30	12:30
	1:30	13:30
	2:30	14:30
	3:30	15:30
	4:30	16:30
	5:30	17:30
	6:30	18:30
	7:00	19:00
	8:00	20:00
	9:00	21:00
	10:00	22:00

BUILDING ABBREVIATIONS

ABB	A.N. Bourns Science Building
BSB	Burke Science Building
CB	Commons Building
CNH	Chester New Hall
DC	Divinity College
DSB	DeGroote School Of Business
GS	General Science Building
HH	Hamilton Hall
HSC	Health Sciences Centre
IAHS	Institute for Applied Health Sciences
IWC	Ivor Wynne Centre
ITB	Information Technology Building
JHE	John Hodgins Engineering Building
KTH	Kenneth Taylor Hall
LS	Life Sciences Building LS/B130A = Lobby Level Room B130A LS/B130E = Lobby Level Room B130E
MDCL	Michael G. DeGroote Centre for Learning
PC	Psychology Complex
REF	Refectory
T13	Preliminary Laboratory Building
T26	Scourge Building
T28	Tennis Court 1 - Temporary Building
T29	Tennis Court 1 - Temporary Building
TSH	Togo Salmon Hall
UH	University Hall

At McMaster you have a LECTURE (CORE) and most of the time a TUTORIAL as well. Some science and engineering classes also have LABS. You attend both your lectures, tutorial, and lab each week (or every other week if it says EOW beside the lab/tutorial).

C01, the C stands for CORE. This is your LECTURE. You'll usually have lectures 1-3 times per week. You'll see the days (eg: Mo = Monday, Th = Thursday) as well as the start and end time of the class, the term (eg. 1), and the location (eg. JHE room 376).

WRITE ALL OF THIS DOWN

For the Tutorials and Labs, these are less important, but if it shows you a list of possible choices, pick one and write it down. You'll want to pick tutorials/labs for each class and make sure they also don't conflict with one another or your classes.

LEGEND:
__
C0# = CORE, this is the lecture where your professor will teach at the front of a large lecture hall each week, depending on the class it could be once a week or multiple times a week.
__
T0# = TUTORIAL, this is where you are split into a small group of 5-20 people and are assigned a "Teaching Assistant" (aka. a T.A.). These are upper year students who will be there to answer questions and help you understand the material. They usually mark your assignments, so be friendly with them!
__
L0# - LAB, mainly for classes in sciences, labs are where you will go to a lab on campus and complete an assignment that you have to prepare for such as an experiment or practical lab and then hand in a report with your findings, etc.

EOW - EVERY OTHER WEEK. Thats right... you only take this lab or tutorial every other week. So be sure to keep track of what week it's on! Sometimes classes alternate tutorials and labs or locations.

COMMON QUESTIONS ON MACINSIDERS

Q: WHAT IF THERE ARE MULTIPLE CORE OR TUTORIALS? DO I GO TO ALL OF THEM?
A: NO! 99% of the time you will only have ONE core lecture and ONE tutorial and/or lab. When you get to the SOLAR step you will be able to PICK which section you want to be placed in. If you organize your schedule well in advance you can plan it out so your classes are spread out and balanced well, and if you're lucky... sometimes can plan it out so you get a day with no classes or tutorials!

Q: HOW TO I PICK WHICH SECTION I WANT TO BE IN?
A: SOLAR!

It will list all of the sections and you click a dropdown box and choose which you want to be in. However... as classes start to fill up the sections will get filled. If a section is full, it will say (FULL) beside it and won't let you pick it. So register in SOLAR early!

h)Now you'll have a list of courses you want to take, what term they are in, and what day/time they are offered.

5) PLAN YOUR SCHEDULE OUT IN A CHART

Make a course timetable/schedule using Microsoft Word. To do this, download MacInsider's Word Document file and start filling it in with the course codes and room numbers for each of the timeslots on the grid. You'll end up with a nice week overview of what classes to go to at what time, as well as which room number to go to.

NOTE: YOU WILL NOT BE PICKING TUTORIALS/LABS FOR MOST COURSES IN JULY. THESE WILL BE AUTO ASSIGNED TO YOU AND VIEWABLE IN AUGUST. SEE DETAILS HERE.

6) LOOK FOR CONFLICTS

The next step is to LOOK FOR CONFLICTS. Use the schedule that you made in the last step.. when making the schedule you'll quickly realize if you have any conflicts since classes will overlap. See if you spot any classes that are overlapping in day and time, since you can't be in two places at once!

Remember to look at the term numbers carefully, because you may have two classes both on Monday at 9:30AM, but if one class is term 1, and the other class is term 2, then you're ok because they won't overlap (they are in different semesters!)

7) USING MCMASTER'S SOLAR SYSTEM (MCMASTER STUDENT ON-LINE ACADEMIC REGISTRATION)

WATCH THIS VIDEO TO WALK YOU THROUGH ALL THE STEPS IN SOLAR:



LOGIN TO SOLAR by:

a) going to http://mugsi.mcmaster.ca
b) clicking MUGSI on the left
c) login with your mac id and password
d) in the popup that opened, click MY ACADEMICS on the left
e) click SOLAR on the right
f) You'll see a list of options, choose the one for FALL/WINTER 2008-2009

NOTE SOLAR'S HOURS OF OPERATION:

Regular Hours:	Monday to Friday: Open daily except from 3:00am to 3:30am.
Weekends:	Saturday and Sunday open 24 hours daily

Once you've selected your courses in SOLAR and you've confirmed your Payment Agreement then you are officially registered!

8) CONFIRMING THE PAYMENT AGREEMENT

You have your courses selected but until you agree to pay for your tuition then you won't be fully registered.

After you've completed your course selection SOLAR will take you to the PAYMENT AGREEMENT step which will show you the total amount to be paid.

YOU DON'T NEED TO PAY RIGHT AWAY! You just need to ACCEPT AND CONFIRM the payment agreement to promise McMaster you will pay the tuition costs.

If you're doing payment in full (which is the BEST option since you don't pay any interest). Then it is due September 1, 2008. You accept the payment agreement then have until that date to submit to the office a check in the full amount.

OTHER payment options I found in a PDF on the STUDENT ACCOUNTS AND CASHIERS WEBSITE HERE.
__
COMMON QUESTIONS ON MACINSIDERS:

Q: DO I HAVE TO CONFIRM THE PAYMENT AGREEMENT?
A: YES. You need to agree to paying your tuition and choose a method of payment to complete your registration process

Q: CAN I CHANGE MY PAYMENT AGREEMENT?
A: YES. You can change it in MUGSI later on if you wish and are able to 'reconfirm' it

Q: CAN I CHANGE MY COURSES AFTER I AGREE TO THE PAYMENT AGREEMENT?




A: Yes! After you confirm your courses in SOLAR you get 7 DAYS to make changes to your course list.



9) CHECKING OUT YOUR NEW TIMETABLE!

AFTER SOLAR you will have a timetable AUTOMATICALLY generated for you and available on MUGSI's main page (http://mugsi.mcmaster.ca) by clicking the "Undergraduate Personal Timetables" link. The timetable will show the classes that you chose, so it is customized to the sections you picked in Step 3. Clicking the link in MUGSI will open a popup window with a CALENDAR that has your courses automatically filled into the days/times that you have them. NOTE: It may take 24-48 hours for your timetable to update, so if no courses show up or you've changed a course and it isn't updating, wait until tomorrow.

10) GETTING FURTHER HELP

Hopefully this MacInsiders guide has helped you. If you have any questions or just want to say comments about this guide, click here and add your reply. I'd love to hear from you! Also be sure to check out the many other amazing articles on MacInsiders that we've written with our advice and tips... there are over 1000 in our archives!

If you still are confused and require help, faculties are running Academic Counseling Sessions on various days that you can attend.

Q: What is an Academic Counseling Session?
A: Basically you get to go on a computer with a whole bunch of other people in your faculty and get help from academic counselors/advisors with picking your courses in SOLAR. They go through the steps (similar to what we've outlined above) and help answer any questions you have in person. If you have questions I suggest you go to your session, if your faculty is offering one. Also note that your session day may be AFTER your SOLAR opening time... if that's true then be sure to follow the guide above and quickly pick your courses first on SOLAR so that you don't get in the situation where you wait until your academic counseling session and it turns out the electives you wanted to take are all full because you waited too long!!!


YOU'RE ALL DONE! YAY!

--


GETTING READY FOR MCMASTER

Getting Ready For McMaster Overview - Start Here http://bitly.com/getreadyformac

Getting Ready For McMaster: 1. Activating Your MacID http://bit.ly/1pOZHXc

Getting Ready For McMaster: 2. The New Student Form http://bit.ly/1kSfU66

Getting Ready For McMaster: 3. Course Planning & Mock Timetable http://bit.ly/1oryTu5

Getting Ready For McMaster: 4. Picking Your Courses & Registering On SOLAR http://bit.ly/1mZupbs

-- Common Issues With SOLAR (and how to solve them!) http://bit.ly/1mmZCUa

Getting Ready For McMaster: 5. Calculating Fees & How To Pay http://bit.ly/1hnOydb

Getting Ready For McMaster: Buildings http://bit.ly/1mZubAR

Getting Ready For McMaster: Residence http://bit.ly/1nri15C

Getting Ready For McMaster: Course Lingo http://bit.ly/1p5FzAf

hey ive taken 37units in the first year for engineering
i guess thats what the level1 page says... is that right?
or did i just go 7 units more than i need

ENGINEERING I: 37 UNITS
http://registrar.mcmaster.ca /calen...04/sec_170.htm

Looks like you're going to be just fine with 37 units, as that is the requirement. Thanks for bringing it to our attention!

oh boyy..i def didn't realize we had to make our own schedule:S i thought we got them assigned and they're being released on aug 3??

Originally Posted by caitters

oh boyy..i def didn't realize we had to make our own schedule:S i thought we got them assigned and they're being released on aug 3??

Hi Caitters,

Thanks for pointing this out, I have rephrased the last step because it is completely optional. I prefer making my own schedule in calendar format, since I've had to do this for the past two years I've been at Mac.

HOWEVER, this year is different and we are all lucky because McMaster is releasing the new timetable scheduling system that automatically generates a schedule in calendar format. It will be available via MUGSI as you said on August 3rd.

View the ongoing discussion about timetables here.

hey when choosing a tutorial from a section are we only allowed to choose from that specific list? for example, math 1a03 ..if i choose CO1..am i onli alowed to choose from one of the tutorials upto TO9? or can i choose it from the second list?

Yes Amara*, as Professor A may only be teaching Core 01 and not 02, so being a tutorial section for Professor B could potentially be not helpful in any way, shape or form.

Hey,
is there a unit limit for second year as well? Or can we take more than 30 units

You could only take 30 units unless you're faculty requires that you take more. For Social Science and Humanities, you take 30 units only for sure. If you'd like to have more courses taken you should do summer school.

Hi! I would like to take music in my first year. The article really helped but I was wondering if I could clear a couple of questions up? I'm not enrolled in a music program, which courses can I take where I can play music, not just history? Thank you very much! Have a nice day.

Do we register our courses first through SOLAR then choose our timetables?? or is it the other way around??


From reading this article, what I understand is that you don't have to tell the university and register somewhere about your schedule (where you put ur courses on First term or second term). Is that correct?

You actually CAN take more than the 30 units once you're in level two or above. But you need to have your grades over a certain average and permission from your faculty office to do so.

Originally Posted by Amara

hey when choosing a tutorial from a section are we only allowed to choose from that specific list? for example, math 1a03 ..if i choose CO1..am i onli alowed to choose from one of the tutorials upto TO9? or can i choose it from the second list?

If you are in C01 for example and not allowed to take other tutorial sections, then it will indicated on the master timetable. It would clearly section out what tutorials are avaliable for what section. But majority of courses allows you to take whichever tutorial is avaliable. Therefore, remember to read and check! tutorials are smaller classes, so less spots. Please remember to enroll in them as soon as you can to ensure the spot you want.

Originally Posted by Sparkling

Hi! I would like to take music in my first year. The article really helped but I was wondering if I could clear a couple of questions up? I'm not enrolled in a music program, which courses can I take where I can play music, not just history? Thank you very much! Have a nice day.

You can join the McMaster Concert Band and play an instrument there. A bunch of friends do it and they get to play in concerts, plus get a credit for their time. There are regular practices, and you have to audition to get in.

hey...i have few questions here...(i m getting nervous now due to course selection!!..but srsly help through this article n couple more were really good..n thanx for dat! )
now to the questions..

~how can i make my courses/timetable flexible for level 2 course selection in life science I?..i mean from where can i get the list for level 2 courses?

~n well wat about electives?..can they be from the same program and wat about choosing from other programs?..how can i get a list of all programs offered for 1st yr students?

~while following these steps for choosing my courses i encountered this problem..it says
"Prerequisite: Grade 12 Biology U and registration in one of Science I, Arts & Science I, Kinesiology I, Mathematics and Statistics I, Medical Radiation Sciences I, Chemical Engineering and Bioengineering, Electrical and Biomedical Engineering, any program above Level I"

but i have life scienceI as my program..so does it just automatically fall under science I or is it different?