McGill puts a treasure chest of technology at our fingertips, but things can be difficult to access if you don’t know they exist. Perk up your ears, because here’s everything you need to know:
Although you can log into all of the school’s sites separately, the McGill portal (my.mcgill.ca) is a one-stop shop for nearly everything you need. Minerva handles course registration and tuition payments and the library page can process renewals and reserves. Don’t forget to frequently check your McGill email account – you’ll need to know if the school is threatening to put you on probation for not paying those fees that slipped your mind.
There’s also WebCT, a system some teachers use to distribute and collect assignments, as well as share material. It’s almost universally hated for being slow and for crashing two minutes before your assignment is due, so pray you’re not stuck using it.
The main McGill site has tons of information scattered about, like contact details for all staff and what to do if you encounter problems with your computer. For technological tragedies, ICS (mcgill.ca/ics) and NCS (mcgill.ca/ncs) can give you all the help you need.
SSMU’s site (ssmu.mcgill.ca) is updated haphazardly and goes down intermittently, but is sometimes necessary to check out.
Computer labs dot the campus. Unfortunately, many labs require you to be a student of a certain faculty or department to log on. The main Science computers in Burnside allow anyone to sign in, and give free printing credits to science students. There are many Engineering labs in Trottier, as well as a shiny new 24-hour access Arts lab in Ferrier. Libraries, too, have some computers, which are available to all – for finding books, not Facebook!
All you MacBook hipsters (and other laptop users) can also use wireless internet, now available across most of campus. Set it up now, before you need it, and discover a great way to stay awake through Professor Monotone’s 8:30 a.m. class.