Faculty of Humanities
Discussion thread

Considering Humanities at McMaster?
Humanities at McMaster covers a wide range of academic areas. The Faculty has built on the strengths of traditional disciplines such as English and History, while embracing new or interdisciplinary areas such as Multimedia, Peace Studies and Communication Studies.

At McMaster we believe in providing our students with an academically rich and rigorous education that prepares them for careers after graduation, and for lifelong learning. In Humanities, you will learn critical thinking, communication and reasoning skills that are essential for today's global 'knowledge society'. Our faculty members are outstanding teachers and dedicated scholars on the leading edge of their disciplines. With their guidance, you will discover diverse cultures, traditions and languages of the past and present, realize your artistic and creative talents, and develop the ability to think problems through clearly and come up with imaginative solutions.

Pay Us a Visit
Campus tours with McMaster student guides run Monday - Friday except during exam periods. They begin at 10.30am and 1.30pm, last 70-90 minutes and include a visit to a residence. You can book your place on a tour through the Student Liaison Office.

http://www.humanities.mcmast er.ca/prospective/index.html

Note: Humanities students are referred to as "HUMMERS"

Questions about CMST (Communication Studies) or Multimedia? I'm here to answer your questions! I can also discuss first year courses I took.

Courses I took in first year include:
- Inquiry
- Peace Studies
- Theatre & Film
- CMST
- English/Cultural Studies
- MMEDIA

Or Ask me! One of my majors is cultural studies!

Courses I've taken
- spanish
- philosophy
- CSCT

I'm planning to major in visual arts, but i would also like to do some graphic design classes, so I am also considdering doing a minor in multimedia. I was wondering if the multimedia program allows you to choose a stream of media that you would like to study (ie graphic design) or if you have to study all the types (video, animation etc). I would really just like to focus on graphic design, so i don't really want to get into those other areas. And I have looked through the course calendar, and it doesn't seem that there are many courses that relate to graphic design... I kind of get the feeling that its not what the multimedia program is geared toward...
any information would be appreciated.

definately a Chad question...where is that boy...

To take MMEDIA you'd have to take both 1A03 and 1B03. Once you take those, you are then officially able to do a double major in Multimedia.

Multimedia doesn't let you major in it by itself... you need to combine it with another major.

You can't minor in Multimedia... only double major. So you end up getting two majors... one in Multimedia and the other in any other Humanities subject.

MMEDIA starts getting more into graphic design in second year. There is a course just for graphic design, there is also a course on the history of graphic design (great for learning about typography, different styles, etc). I took it.

As for streams... there are no streams in Multimedia, just the general program. So you'd end up having to take the required courses (video, etc). But after that you get to pick from a wide range of multimedia courses to take... including audio design, more graphic design, web, animation, gaming, interactivity, textual stuff... theres plenty to pick from. So if animation is not your thing.. just take something else. As long as you have enough units to fill the degree requirement.

You can also combine it with a program in social sciences...except for Kinesiology

I'm in the social science faculty right now (first year) but I'm now thinking of switching to Humanities because I've decided I want to pursue advertising copywriting.. I'm thinking I'll need to take multimedia and communication studies though. Is it possible for me to switch over? Also, I've been looking around the Mac website and I can't find anything about someone I can talk to about this... is there someone from the humanities faculty that I can contact regarding switching faculties and all this stuff?

Originally Posted by sylviag

I'm in the social science faculty right now (first year) but I'm now thinking of switching to Humanities because I've decided I want to pursue advertising copywriting.. I'm thinking I'll need to take multimedia and communication studies though. Is it possible for me to switch over? Also, I've been looking around the Mac website and I can't find anything about someone I can talk to about this... is there someone from the humanities faculty that I can contact regarding switching faculties and all this stuff?

Hi sylviag!

Absolutely you can switch over to Humanities! I know people in Engineering who have switched over, so if they can do it, you can too

First people to get in contact with would be the Humanities Faculty office. You can visit the office and book an appointment (or call to book one at 905-525-9140 extension 27532), or if they aren't busy you may be able to speak to someone straight away. Their contact details are:

Location:
Chester New Hall 112
McMaster University
1280 Main Street West
Hamilton, Ontario
Canada, L8S 4L9

Telephone: 905-525-9140 x 27423
Fax: 905-528-6733
Email: [email protected] a

The academic advisors are:
Darlene Hayward x 24328
Jackie Osterman x 23122
Jennifer Richardson x 24326

You mentioned you wanted to go into Advertisement Copywriting, so you would definitely be looking at taking Communication Studies. You also mentioned Multimedia, which focuses more on designing the advertisement and types of web media (websites in Dreamweaver, Flash, 3D Animation, Video Production, Audio Production, Game Design, etc). If this type of stuff interests you, then I highly suggest you do the combined honors program in Communication Studies and Multimedia (which is what I'm taking right now). Otherwise, you can just take Communication Studies full honor by itself, or combine it with something that has more to do with writing, such as English/Cultural Studies.

You will need to take the first-year required courses for Humanities I (see requirements for first year here, and the requirements for CMST here). You may be able to use some of the Soc Sci classes you already took as electives (talk to an academic advisor about this).

Best of luck!

Wow that was really helpful! Thank you so much! Are you enjoying that program and was it really hard to get into it?

No problem Sylvia, MacInsiders is all about students helping students!

Yes, I'm enjoying the program since I am really interested in the multimedia side of things, but I like having Communication Studies in my degree because it is a very strong skill to have and can venture off into many jobs that pay well (marketing, research, business, etc). Having both the skills from Communication Studies and the creative skills from Multimedia makes it, in my personal opinion, a great combination.

Getting into first-year Humanities isn't hard. Once you're in you'll have to focus hard on getting top marks in your Multimedia first-year classes, as well as your Communication Studies ones, as they are averaged and you need a certain percentage to get into the Multimedia Program in second year (they only accept a very limited number of students each year, so competition can be high). As long as you have good marks, you'll be fine

Hey,

I'm in the faculty of science, and I was looking to take an elective for next semester. Right now, I've taken Philosophy 1C03 because it seems like the only course that's available and will fit into my schedule. What's the course like? Is it fairly easy? Are there any other bird-course electives I can take?

Thanks in advance.

You can check out our huge thread on 'easy first year electives' at McMaster here.

oh, thanks!

Hey!
I just got an offer of acceptance for McMaster's Humanities.
I am planning to go into the Combined honours communications & multimedia, and I was wondering if anyone could give me a little bit more info on the program, what to expect, etc. Any information is helpful!

Thanks!