Ph.D. Courses

• PhD program course requirements:
  • Students must successfully complete eight formal graduate courses (excluding COMP 604, 700, 701), of which at least five are computer science courses.
  • All students are required to successfully complete COMP 604 (Graduate School Fundamentals; a one-credit course that introduces graduate students to the fundamental skills needed in computer science), COMP 700 (the Ph.D. comprehensive exam) and COMP 701 (the PhD proposal and area exam).
• Course reduction:
  • Graduate-level courses taken in the past during graduate studies (e.g. Masters), however, may count towards this requirement. Course reduction requests are considered only in the first few weeks of the beginning of the fall and winter terms and require the student to submit a course reduction request form well in advance. The forms must be sent to the Graduate Coordinator.
  • While the students can use the course reduction request to reduce their course requirement to only two courses, we strongly recommend the students view the possibility of taking several courses during their Ph.D. as an opportunity. The students should take advantage of the many graduate courses that are offered in the department and build a solid and broad foundation for their knowledge of computer science.
  • Regardless of the result of the course reduction request, every Ph.D. student must take at least two courses from the School of Computer Science at McGill.
• According to a GPS rule, no more than one-third of the McGill program formal coursework can be credited with courses from another university.