Hi, I've graduated a semester early from high school and I've been accepted into McMaster's Business I program.

I really like the campus but there are a ton of questions I've been dying to ask and I appreciate any help.

(the questions are not in order of importance)

1. I never got to check out the entire DeGroote School of Business when we stopped for a visit though I did see the atrium. I was wondering how the classrooms are. I know that business facilities are usually rather nice, in some universities, the nicest of all buildings, and was wondering how they were at Mac.
2. How late might one expect to have a class? My sister attends UTM and has classes running up until 9 PM sometimes.
3. Is commuting doable in winter from the Mississauga region?
4. Is it advisable to take a few science electives? I know Mac is renowned for their sciences and I've always been very passionate about science. However, I tend to dedicate most of my time to my science work when I have any and I don't want it to overshadow any commerce subjects.
5. Is there any way I can get course outlines or even course overviews of the mandatory business courses?
6. How have people enjoyed their experiences at Mac; particularly Commerce? Would you recommend switching over to Ivey in 3rd year? Or Schulich/Rotman in 2nd?
7. When a course says "Three lectures, one tutorial, one term"...what does that mean? Does that indicate three lectures per week?
8. 
   
   Thank you so much for all of your help; I really really do appreciate it.

Originally Posted by goodnews.inc

Hi, I've graduated a semester early from high school and I've been accepted into McMaster's Business I program.

I really like the campus but there are a ton of questions I've been dying to ask and I appreciate any help.

(the questions are not in order of importance)

1. I never got to check out the entire DeGroote School of Business when we stopped for a visit though I did see the atrium. I was wondering how the classrooms are. I know that business facilities are usually rather nice, in some universities, the nicest of all buildings, and was wondering how they were at Mac.
2. How late might one expect to have a class? My sister attends UTM and has classes running up until 9 PM sometimes.
3. Is commuting doable in winter from the Mississauga region?
4. Is it advisable to take a few science electives? I know Mac is renowned for their sciences and I've always been very passionate about science. However, I tend to dedicate most of my time to my science work when I have any and I don't want it to overshadow any commerce subjects.
5. Is there any way I can get course outlines or even course overviews of the mandatory business courses?
6. How have people enjoyed their experiences at Mac; particularly Commerce? Would you recommend switching over to Ivey in 3rd year? Or Schulich/Rotman in 2nd?
7. When a course says "Three lectures, one tutorial, one term"...what does that mean? Does that indicate three lectures per week?
8. 
   
   Thank you so much for all of your help; I really really do appreciate it.

1. Some of the classrooms are nice, some are not so nice. You will probably end up having classes all over campus so just looking at the school of business' classrooms won't tell you much.
2. Classes can run as late as 10PM though most profs won't keep you that long.
5. course outlines are available on the DeGroote website: http://www.degroote.mcmaster .ca/UG/register.html
7. You will have three lectures and one tutorial per week and it will last one term.

I'll leave the rest to others as I don't commute and am not in Commerce

2. I'm pretty sure the latest you can have a day class is from 5:30-6:20 pm. There are also night classes that run from 7-10 pm, once a week.

7. This means you have 3 lectures + 1 tutorial per week.



Edited: You beat me to it!

Originally Posted by goodnews.inc

Hi, I've graduated a semester early from high school and I've been accepted into McMaster's Business I program.

I really like the campus but there are a ton of questions I've been dying to ask and I appreciate any help.

(the questions are not in order of importance)

1. I never got to check out the entire DeGroote School of Business when we stopped for a visit though I did see the atrium. I was wondering how the classrooms are. I know that business facilities are usually rather nice, in some universities, the nicest of all buildings, and was wondering how they were at Mac.
2. How late might one expect to have a class? My sister attends UTM and has classes running up until 9 PM sometimes.
3. Is commuting doable in winter from the Mississauga region?
4. Is it advisable to take a few science electives? I know Mac is renowned for their sciences and I've always been very passionate about science. However, I tend to dedicate most of my time to my science work when I have any and I don't want it to overshadow any commerce subjects.
5. Is there any way I can get course outlines or even course overviews of the mandatory business courses?
6. How have people enjoyed their experiences at Mac; particularly Commerce? Would you recommend switching over to Ivey in 3rd year? Or Schulich/Rotman in 2nd?
7. When a course says "Three lectures, one tutorial, one term"...what does that mean? Does that indicate three lectures per week?
8. 
   
   Thank you so much for all of your help; I really really do appreciate it.

I am not in business but I've finished 1st year (engineering) so I can answer you something.

1. I haven't have any course in the business building, but a lot of 1st year courses are conducted all over the campus. So you might take your linguistic lesson in the engineering building or math in social science building.

2. For most people, classes end at 4:30 or 5:30. In some special cases (maybe you can't fit your schedule), you might need to take night classes and that will end at 9 or so.

3. Commuting from Missisauga is totally doable. There are GO bus going from Brampton and Square One to Mac directly. If you are planning to drive, parking space at Mac is fairly expensive (but i heard its cheaper than most other universities).

I personally love Mac after 1st year. Great campus, great libraries, very useful classes and labs, funny profs (LOL). Though its quite a lot of work (common in all university), I enjoyed what I am studying.

Hope it helps

Just a few of your q's

I commute from Mississauga, it's definitely possible in wintertime.From Square One, I would take the go bus (the 47). There is an express bus which is 45 minutes long and goes straight to McMaster (or Square One) and then there is the normal one which makes a few stops and is generally 55 minutes long. You can check the schedules on the go bus website but now they have summer schedule with is limited. I would say the bus comes 3/4 times an hour from september - april.

I don't think I would take science electives, my friend in business felt like that and did poorly in the science credit but if you think it will be useful as a minor then maybe. Keep in mind, more than one science courses would be required for some upper level science courses (ex. bio 1a03, chem 1a03, chem 1aa3 are required for some second year bio courses... do you really want to use 3 electives for that? Those three courses are pretty heavy btw in workload in my opinion.)

Originally Posted by goodnews.inc

Hi, I've graduated a semester early from high school and I've been accepted into McMaster's Business I program.

I really like the campus but there are a ton of questions I've been dying to ask and I appreciate any help.

(the questions are not in order of importance)

1. I never got to check out the entire DeGroote School of Business when we stopped for a visit though I did see the atrium. I was wondering how the classrooms are. I know that business facilities are usually rather nice, in some universities, the nicest of all buildings, and was wondering how they were at Mac.
2. How late might one expect to have a class? My sister attends UTM and has classes running up until 9 PM sometimes.
3. Is commuting doable in winter from the Mississauga region?
4. Is it advisable to take a few science electives? I know Mac is renowned for their sciences and I've always been very passionate about science. However, I tend to dedicate most of my time to my science work when I have any and I don't want it to overshadow any commerce subjects.
5. Is there any way I can get course outlines or even course overviews of the mandatory business courses?
6. How have people enjoyed their experiences at Mac; particularly Commerce? Would you recommend switching over to Ivey in 3rd year? Or Schulich/Rotman in 2nd?
7. When a course says "Three lectures, one tutorial, one term"...what does that mean? Does that indicate three lectures per week?
8. 
   
   Thank you so much for all of your help; I really really do appreciate it.

Hi, I'm going into 3rd Year Commerce, so I'll do my best to answer your questions!

1. The Facilities are really nice, although in first year, none of your classes actually take place in a business classroom. This changes as you go into 2nd/3rd/4th year.

2. The latest I had class was 5:30, but I avoided taking night classes. (You have the choice of taking the class earlier in the day)

3. I would imagine commuting might become a pain during the winter if you have early classes, because it would mean that you would have to get up even earlier to make it to them on time. But this is of course personal preference.

4. I was never into sciences, but I would advise taking whatever interests you so that you do as well as possible. Personally, I would suggest taking economics electives in 2nd year and beyond in order to complete an economics minor, which is VERY easy to do for a commerce student as you only need to take 4 additional economics electives.

5. Course Outline are available for most classes at the DeGroote website, which someone previously posted above.

6. Personally, I love McMaster. Would I recommend switching over to Ivey or Schulich? I'd say no, but I mean it's obviously personal preference. I could have easily switched, but by 3rd year you really get a feel for McMaster and I'm sure you'll love it here and not want to switch. And in the grand scheme of things, Ivey/Schulich are not necessarily any better than DeGroote.

7. This means you have three lectures as well as a tutorial every week, so 4 total classes. And that it's a half year course (One Term).

Hope this helps, and I hope you enjoy Commerce @ Mac!

Thanks so much for the detailed response
After reading your comment about night classes, I had another thing to ask:
http://www.math.mcmaster.ca/~sazgin/...rseoutline.pdf
I was browsing and found the above website. It mentions a late night course. But when registering, I wouldn't be confined to selecting a timing such as that, right?

all night courses are from 7pm to 10pm

Originally Posted by FireDragoonX

all night courses are from 7pm to 10pm

Professors usually let you go between 9:30 and 9:45 though.

Originally Posted by goodnews.inc

Thanks so much for the detailed response
After reading your comment about night classes, I had another thing to ask:
http://www.math.mcmaster.ca/~sazgin/S1L03/courseoutline.pdf
I was browsing and found the above website. It mentions a late night course. But when registering, I wouldn't be confined to selecting a timing such as that, right?

That particular syllabus you are reading is about the night class. However, when I searched that course in the Master Timetable, there was another time you could take it that wasn't at night.

I haven't yet found a class that is only a Night Class, but some may exist. Usually classes allow at least some choice of what time to take it.

Hey sinthusized,
by commuting from Mississauga, are you still able to get involved around campus (i.e. extracurricular activities)

Yep, a lot of my friends who commuted were very involved with a few clubs and athletics. Most clubs stuff are in the afternoon so if you don't mind sticking around definitely doable.