Well, the title says it. I need advice regarding the program to choose for my 2nd year. I got into Hon Bio and Hon Life Sci and I'm still in the middle about which one to choose. I didn't like Bio 1A03 at all, but I did get an average mark (B). The thing is, I'm still planning to apply for Hon Psych after 2nd year which means I'd have/want to shadow. And I'm also worried that I might change my mind and not go through applying for Hon Psych the next year. So any advice or experiences about any of the three: Hon Bio, Hon Life Sci or Hon Psych? Thanks!

If you take honors life... you'll have more options later on. Since honors life sci is pretty broad I'm not sure about to much on the other two.

First year bio is absolutely awful. Once you get into 2nd year, the courses get a lot better.

Life sciences is probably the best if you want to keep your options open because you have so many electives. Also, a lot of life sciences courses are psych courses. If you want to play it safe, you can always shadow the biology/psych program in life sciences and see what program you like better. Upper years are a lot different than first year courses.

I would definitely suggest Honours Life Sci because you have so many more electives and thus are able to keep your options open to whatever program you plan to shadow (in case you change your mind to bio or psych). There are a few courses that are only available to students in the psych program, not sure about bio. I would say that the only downside of choosing life sci right now is that when picking courses, certain courses are left open for biology students and the spots for life sci fill up quickly (this is only from a discussion about Biology 3UU3 filling up for life sci while it is still shown as open to me on the "ugh solar" thread).

It's also true that after first year, the courses become MUCH more specific and you spend more time going over fewer topics thoroughly than a whole bunch of topics very lightly so it should be a whole different learning experience.

In terms of changing your mind about shadowing Psych, if you want to take the program, I'm assuming you have some interest in psych. Even if you decide not to go into the Psych program, you'll probably enjoy the courses you took to prepare for the program so no real harm done!!!

when transferring into a program after 2nd year, would they consider the first year mark for a specific required course or would they count the second year counter part? (eg psych 1x03 or would they count 2nd year psych courses over it if you did better?)

Don't they look at your CA? If not, then unless they specify a course code I would believe they would take your highest mark into account.

Since they're looking at your CA for selection into second year, I'm assuming they'd do the same for third year. You probably have to have a minimum mark in certain courses second year that were required for the program

While Honors Life Sciences will give you more electives, I would reccomend choosing Honors Biology just because it's a much more highly regarded, and if you don't get into BioPsych, you'll have a stronger degree to fall back on, but it really depends on what you're interested in.

Life Sciences is an interdisciplinary program that is designed to give you more of a well rounder background, whereas Honors Biology will give you the knowledge and skills required to persue further education.

If you intend to attend graduate school than you need to have done a undergraduate thesis, and life sciences students are prohibited from doing so. So you should really think about what you're planning on doing with your degree to help make your decision.

If you go into Life Science be careful and make sure you take a wide selection of courses that will serve as prereqs for upper year courses or you may find that the only courses open to you are 3rd year earth science classes :o

Originally Posted by c.thomson

If you intend to attend graduate school than you need to have done a undergraduate thesis, and life sciences students are prohibited from doing so. So you should really think about what you're planning on doing with your degree to help make your decision.

Life science students are not prohibited from doing an undergraduate thesis.

Originally Posted by JasonMcGuirk

Life science students are not prohibited from doing an undergraduate thesis.

I should mention you must be a Honours Life Science student.

What can you do with a life science degree?
I'm also debating between Hon Life Sci and Hon Psych

Hey same here except i am debating between life sci and bio-physiology..really confuseeeeed but I think at the end i will stick with Life sci because i can take almost all of physiology courses AND variety of life sci course list.

hmm any suggestions?

Originally Posted by hamza123

Hey same here except i am debating between life sci and bio-physiology..really confuseeeeed but I think at the end i will stick with Life sci because i can take almost all of physiology courses AND variety of life sci course list.

hmm any suggestions?

There really isn't anything to be confused about. Just pick the program that you find has more required courses you're interested in.

Wow why didn't i ever think it that way! that was the best advice lol thanks a lot