DeGroote School of Business

Academic Handbook

The MBA Academic Handbook is your key resource as a student. You’ll find information about:

  • Academic Policies and Procedures
  • Specializations
  • Student Clubs
  • Staff Directory
DeGroote MBA Academic Handbook 2023-2024

The information in the handbook takes precedence over information from other sources (including this website) if there’s a conflict.

Frequently Asked Questions

"Reserve Capacity Criteria"

  • Although a course may appear to have seats available, the seats in the allotted "reserve capacity" that you have access to may be full at this time.
  • Oftentimes, faculties release a specific number of seats to students outside of their faculty. Once faculties are certain that there are enough seats for their students, these seats will be released.
  • We encourage you to try enrolling in a different section (if available) or a different elective with space and continue to try to swap into your preferred elective on Mosaic once the reserved seats are released.
  • To confirm the reserved seat release date, you must reach out to the home faculty of the course offered.
"Pre-requisites Not Met"
  • Please refer to the course website (Course Descriptions and Outlines - MBA Program (mcmaster.ca)) to view the prerequisites.
  • If you do meet the prerequisite, reach out to us at askmba@mcmaster.ca so we can investigate this for you further. Please include your full name and student number in your inquiry.
"Department Consent Required"
  • This error message means this course is currently full.
  • Course enrollment will be monitored carefully.  Please try back often to see if a seat has become available.
  • In the meantime, we also suggest you register in an alternate course.
Note: You may get the "Department Consent Required" message even when the course does not appear to be full. This means someone has dropped the course and a seat is being given to the next student on the wait list.

  • To defer a final examination, you must fill out a Deferred Examination Form.
  • Please submit this form and supporting documentation to the Student Experience Office. You have five (5) business days from the date of the missed course work to complete this process.
  • If approved, you will be required to write the deferred exam in the next deferred examination period (see Dates and Deadlines).

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