I am a returning student to HS ( a semester) and will finish with an average ranging from an 80 to an 82. I would like to attend Mac for the Social Sciences, though not sure which one yet (it IS general first year right?).
Do you think an 80-82 could get me into the program?
Also, what is the average required for a spot in residence?
Does this average reflect on the type of room or rez I'll get (is it a lottery system or something else) ?
I want to go to a uni where I can work my ass off when I want to and party my ass off when I'm not so busy, is this possible at Mac?

Thanks for answering and thanks for having an awesome forum!

P.S, I just realized that I might want my major to be in the humanities, how hard is it to change between Social Sciences and Humanities? Is it possible to have courses from each or to double major with a program from each faculty?

Yeah, you'd get in with that. I know of people that have gotten in with much less. As for working and partying, that is definitely possible at Mac.

from the following link you can see that to get into social sciences program in mac, you require only about 77 :http://registrar.mcmaster.ca /future/cut-offs.html ....so you should be able to get in fairly easily

Last time I checked (which wasn't all that recently), the minimum average for a guaranteed spot in residence is 78. Your average doesn't impact your room assignment, it is done on a lottery basis.

Your average only impacts your room assignment if its 95% +, if you get a 95% or higher you are guaranteed a single room. If not in first year you're most likely to get a double or triple room aka a room with 1 or 2 roommates.

80% of residences spaces are guaranteed for first years so there's lots of space but as has been said it is a lottery system so you might end up on the waiting list. That said I've never heard anyone from first year complain that they applied for residence and didn't get a spot. As long as you apply on time and complete the necessary channels (paying for deposit for example) and have over a 78% chance its likely you'll get a space in residence, not guaranteed but likely.

As for partying vs not partying people might have different opinions on this but I lived in residence in first and second year and didn't have too many issues. I'm not a partier so I never really wanted to party but it wasn't too loud or too distracting for me to study/sleep when I needed/wanted to. Noise is supposed to be controlled in residence and generally is, sometimes people get out of hand with the noise level and partying in first year but it is generally dealt with by CAs. If you have issues they have a pager number and stuff you can call at night if people are being too loud and obnoxious and you are unable to study/sleep. I had good experiences with residence at Mac.

does anyone know about any discussions/debates that happen during the humanities/social science classes? I've heard it varies from university to university but haven't heard if it happens at Mac or not.

Originally Posted by akbadak

does anyone know about any discussions/debates that happen during the humanities/social science classes? I've heard it varies from university to university but haven't heard if it happens at Mac or not.

what do you mean? as in part of course content or validity of the degrees?

What I meant was: Are there any discussions or debates during the social science or humanities lectures (does the professor ask for opinions etc.)?

It depends on the class - in first year it didn't happen so much, but in my second year courses some of the profs asked quite a few questions, and a third year course I took last semester was pretty much all discussion-based

It depends on the Professor mostly. Some will just lecture and some will ask questions to the class throughout. Sometimes brief debates go on but its generally just ask and answer during lectures, especially in first year since there is limited time for the Professor to cover the material.

In Humanities you will mostly get debates and discussion during your tutorial slots, not lectures. You're in much smaller groups and you go over the week's material from the lecture/readings and you have time to ask questions, discuss the material and debate with your peers on questions raised by other peers and the TA.

So most first year classes will be two 50 minute lecture sessions per week and 1 50 minute tutorial session, in lecture your Professor will cover relevant material for the course and in tutorial you will discuss that material, as well as assigned readings with your classmates and an older student (generally a graduate student in Humanities courses), the TA.

Hope that answers your question.

It does vary course by course and with different Professors so if you're wondering about specific courses ie History it would be beneficial to ask specifically and anyone whose taken those courses could answer specifically about if there is often debate in those lectures. In my experience though there isn't a whole lot of debate in lecture but questions do get asked by some Professors and students have the opportunity to voice opinions on the material.