Hello,

Successfully completed Business 1 of the mcmaster commerce program. Applied for transfer to University of Toronto - St.George for Actuarial science. Got accepted.

Now the question is, should i go? Of course its not as easy as that and thats why i decided that i would like to hear some opinion from others.

First thing, i signed a lease for a room near-by mac for 2nd year. If i do decided to go to U of T, id need to sublet it out to someone - which is easier said than done. Also everything hear at mac is established. I know friends, got use to the environment and i even got hired by UTS as a student consultant for next year.

For actuarial science, i was wondering if its as hellish as people say it is, like hard-core math and stuff. What are the sort of things you heard about act-sci or anything you'd like to share about act-sci in general. I surfed the web many many times, and the things i hear are like act-sci is on par with utsg engineering and life sciences, so act-sci isnt a walk in the park for sure.

Since act-sci is math, you'd probably ask me about my math marks, lol. took 1f03, A-, 1m03 A-. high school stats/data management was 80+.

Please please leave a comment with anything you have in mind.
Thank you for your time and response!

All we can really tell you is why you should stay here, as this is a McMaster student forum.

Is there a way for you to get in contact with other people who would be in your program and talk to them about their experiences? Last time I checked, UofT doesn't have anything like MacInsiders, though.

I'm obviously biased, but I'd recommend staying at McMaster. I really enjoy the commerce program here, and the alternative of going to UofT is one that I wouldn't hesitate to decline. A lot of my friends go to UofT, and the story they tell me is consistent throughout all their different programs; It's really hard and competitive. On top of that, it looks as if your program that you want to go into isn't exactly basket weaving 101, which means you can expect to work your butt off to maintain strong grades.

Strictly speaking from a GPA point of view, going to UofT would be academic suicide (Not to say McMaster is a walk in the park or anything but you know). That may have been a bit overdramatic, but I'm not sure I'd want to go to a school where people are supposedly cuthtroat and where professors only consider you a number.

Your call though!

My brother goes to UofT for Linguistics, Biology and French. I wouldn't say going to UofT is academic suicide though. I won't deny that it's a lot of hard work but my brother got into UofT with somewhere around an 86-87 average. The first year was hell for him, he almost got put on academic suspension. However he learned from his mistakes (partying too much) and he has maintained an 80+ average from 2nd to 4th year. Although to be fair, I'm pretty sure he's getting mid 90s in french since we were raised in a french speaking house and a french speaking elementary school as well as an extended french programmed highschool. But it's definitively possible to get good marks if you try hard enough and get your priorities straight.

However, I don't know the differences in program difficulty at UofT. I don't know many people that go to UofT St. George.

Like it's already been said since this is a McMaster student forum people are likely going to recommend staying at Mac. Also most people likely don't have much info on programs at U of T.

Personally being unbiased about the actual school I'd say stay at Mac just because as you mentioned you already have a comfortable spot here. You have a place to live all ready, a network of friends here and you mentioned you already have a job for next year. That sounds pretty good to me.

Also since you're asking you obviously don't have your heart dead set on the U of T program otherwise you'd already have your mind made up. If it's not something you really, really want to do than it seems like a better idea not to transfer.

I agree with Stefanie. You basically have everything planned out for next year and you've pretty much already invested in next year at Mac by rented out a room.
On top of that you already have a job, big plus. Finding a job in Toronto isn't the easiest thing in the world.

put it this way...

Option A: Continue on a business degree in an economy which isn't going to be hiring business majors for a while...

Option B: Switch schools to UofT into an actuarial science program; a degree that is universally marketable, and in high demand.

the rent situation and all that is a lot less demanding than you might expect.

I would agree with Rohan here, Actuarial Sciences is a much more prestigious degree(especially in times like these) then a business degree, while Uoft's Actuarial isn't supposedly as good as Waterloo's it is still a highly rated University. Were you doing Healthsci or probably even lifesci at Mac I would have leaned towards staying here for logistical reasons, however with Business I'm not 100% sure.

Originally Posted by deadpool

put it this way...

Option A: Continue on a business degree in an economy which isn't going to be hiring business majors for a while...

Option B: Switch schools to UofT into an actuarial science program; a degree that is universally marketable, and in high demand.

the rent situation and all that is a lot less demanding than you might expect.

She's only going into 2nd year of the program so that would still leave a minimum of 3 years before she might be going out into the work world assuming she doesn't do any further studies. The economy isn't going to stay like this forever so if she still wants to pursue a business degree I wouldn't tell her to rule it out completely just because of the current situation.

It's not simply about the current situation, Actuarial Sciences is a more high paying and in demand degree because of its relative rarity(All over the world schools produce buisness graduates but people good at Math itself is not common) and the move of the buisness and banking industry towards using Actuarial models in tandem with Economic models rather then just the economic models as their modus operandi. Though on the other hand stuff like Collaterized Debt Obligations were invented by an Actuarial, there is alot of positive stuff that math geeks have done on wall street(though opinion over that is divided). In other words, the world has many buisness graduates and less actuarials, the math is simple!

The bottom line really comes down to what she is interested in doing more. We can all give advice but in the end she should choose the path that will lead her to the career she wants to do most.

Go for it!