Unlike most programs, there are very few required courses in upper years of the life science degree. Instead, there are a handful of required courses that you need to graduate, but there are no specific courses that you HAVE to take in second year, you HAVE to take in third year or HAVE to take in forth year. Instead, you need to choose courses that interest you but also that act as prerequisites for courses that you can use to meet your degree requirements. Specific requirements can be found here:
http://www.science.mcmaster. ca/lif...uirements.html but I will help explain it for you as well:
Here are the requirements for honours life science:
Levels II-IV: 90 units
3 units LIFE SCI 2A03
9 units from BIOCHEM 2EE3, BIO 2B03, 2F03, KINESIOL 2Y03, 2YY3, LIFE SCI 2C03, 2D03, 2G03, 2H03, 2N03
6 units from LIFE SCI 3A03, 3B03, 3C03, 3D03, 3F03, 3H03, 3J03, 3K03, 3M03, 3R03, 3X03, 3Z03, ENVIRO SCI 3B03, 3CC3, BIO 3DD3
36 units from the Honours Life Sciences Course List, of which at least 18 units must be Levels III, IV
0-3 units from BIOPHYS 1S03, MED PHYS 1E03, PHYSICS 1B03, 1L03 if not completed in Level I (See
Admission Note 1 above.)
0-6 units from BIOLOGY 1A03, 1M03, PSYCH 1X02, 1XX3 it not completed in Level 1
27-36 units Electives
The ONLY specific course you have to take is Life Science 2A03 (
Research Methods). Most people would take this in second year.
Then, you need to take three of the following courses: BIOCHEM 2EE3, BIO 2B03 (
Cell Bio), 2F03, KINESIOL 2Y03, 2YY3 (
Anatomy and Physiology Part I and II), LIFE SCI 2C03 (
Neural Communication & Information Processing), 2D03 (
Behavioral Processes), 2G03 (
Genetics), 2H03 (
Environmental Life Science), 2N03 (
Nutrition). Typically, I would recommend choosing the three you are most interested in, however it is important that you keep in mind what courses you want to take in third and fourth year, making sure you have the prerequisites for these courses.
You also need to take 2 of the following courses: LIFE SCI 3A03 (
Health and Disease), 3B03 (
Neurobiological Mechanisms of Behaviour), 3C03 (
Behavioural and Evolutionary Ecology), 3D03 (
Environment and Global Sustainability), 3F03 (
Applied Ecology Seminars), 3H03 (
Ecological Response to Global Change), 3J03 (
Human Biomechanics), 3K03 (
Neural Control of Human Movement), 3M03 (
Cellular Dynamics), 3R03 (
Field Inquiry), 3X03 (
Experimental Design for Life Science), 3Z03 (
Inquiry), ENVIRO SCI 3B03, 3CC3, BIO 3DD3. It is important to note that almost all of these courses have prereq's - for example, Health and Disease (Life Sci 3A03) requires that you have already taken Life Sci 2A03 and either Bio 2B03 or Biochem 2EE3. As such, I made sure to take bio 2B03 (which satisfies one third of the previously mentioned degree requirement) in second year to make sure that I could take 3A03 in third year (to satisfy (half) of this requirement)
Other than these requirements, you must take one of the physics (see above) and 12 courses from the Life Science Course List (which is very extensive), 6 of which must be from third or fourth year. Again, MAKE SURE you have the prerequisite courses to take enough third and fourth year courses to graduate.
The freedom that the program affords is both a blessing and a curse - My biggest piece of advice would be to have a general plan of what courses you would like to take to meet these requirements, and fill in the rest of your schedule with courses from the required prerequisites, classes from the Life Science course list and other courses you are interested in. Sorry this is so long but feel free to message me if this is unclear or you have other questions
