Yeah, I totally agree with the waitlist being implemented.

Originally Posted by feonateresa

I'm honestly just a wreck over this elective business. Even if I wanted to ask some authoritative person to help me out, I don't really have a case to plead since they are only electives and not required.

It's so freaking ridiculous. So many classes only have one core this year too. This is what you get for laying off profs, and for having a shitty system. Thaaanks a lot McMaster.

I think I might be stuck taking an upper year course as well - not too sure if I want to do this as I don't know if I'm sufficiently prepared for the workload or differences in expectations from the professor.

Expectations are a bit higher, but not impossible. By the end of first year, you should know how to properly research and reference. So third year profs will nail you on things like formatting if you don't know how to do it properly -- as they should.

I have actually found that second year classes are more difficult than third year classes. I took five third year classes in second year and did well in all of them.

Originally Posted by AlchemistX

Apparently one of the only electives that I can take is some course on Native people I have nothing against the Natives but I don't see how this best utilize the first year courses I took last year or how it can help with my commerce degree.

It teaches you about how Canadian society functions. There is a lot we're not taught in high school history, and a lot that the media misconstrues. Most Canadians are incredibly ignorant to what Indigenous issues are (and not the issues portrayed by the media), and the differences between the different Indigenous cultures in Canada.

And also, the prof who teaches the first year Indigenous Studies classes is big on debate and discussion, so it'll help your abstract reasoning and debate skills.

You're all missing a huge point.

Just because it's an elective class for you, doesn't mean it's a course requirement for someone else, with a few exceptions (Language classes come to mind, French being an exception to that as well).

Elective classes aren't full, because technically they aren't elective courses. They are courses that students outside that academic program can take, but may still be requirement for someone else. Even if a course is open to students in Level II and above for example, someone in that degree program can take it to fulfill some of their requirements.

Originally Posted by lorend

It teaches you about how Canadian society functions. There is a lot we're not taught in high school history, and a lot that the media misconstrues. Most Canadians are incredibly ignorant to what Indigenous issues are (and not the issues portrayed by the media), and the differences between the different Indigenous cultures in Canada.

Isn't grade 6, 7 and 8 social studies / history all about natives and the new world? I mean, I remember we spent a lot of the time on French explorers like Jacques Cartier (who French people seem way too overly proud of in both Quebec and France, to the point of naming every school after him...), but I remember learning a lot of stuff about that Metis guy Louis Riel too and the Iroquois.

It's kind of hard for people to get interested in this stuff when there are barely any natives still around in Canada (well, compared to the rest of the population). Not to promote stereotypes or anything, but I walk home from work everyday past the native welcome center at Bathurst and Queen in Toronto and all that I see is a big bunch of indigenous men and women drunk out of their minds out front yelling profanities at people :p

Not exactly a great way to get people interested in learning about whatever cultures they come from...

Originally Posted by Ownaginatios

Isn't grade 6, 7 and 8 social studies / history all about natives and the new world? I mean, I remember we spent a lot of the time on French explorers like Jacques Cartier (who French people seem way too overly proud of in both Quebec and France, to the point of naming every school after him...), but I remember learning a lot of stuff about that Metis guy Louis Riel too and the Iroquois.

It's kind of hard for people to get interested in this stuff when there are barely any natives still around in Canada (well, compared to the rest of the population). Not to promote stereotypes or anything, but I walk home from work everyday past the native welcome center at Bathurst and Queen in Toronto and all that I see is a big bunch of indigenous men and women drunk out of their minds out front yelling profanities at people :p

Not exactly a great way to get people interested in learning about whatever cultures they come from...

I know you understand that you're stereotyping, but that's a huge generalization that you're basing on a few people in Toronto. There are vulgar and less than polite people in every ethnicity. It's kind of, well, a human thing. :]

The reason we probably learn about them is because uh, they were here first, and therefore a big part of Canada's history. The reason that there are barely any natives is because we sortakinda took over their turf, and then immigration became the like biggest trend ever.

It's unlikely that any course focusing on Indigenous studies won't be that popular, because the government has never made them a popular interest - which rubbed off on the rest of the population.

Originally Posted by feonateresa

It's unlikely that any course focusing on Indigenous studies won't be that popular, because the government has never made them a popular interest - which rubbed off on the rest of the population.

Ya, good point. It's unfortunate, but I guess that's just how it is :p

On a side note, I've always found it interesting how countries in central and South America have a pretty high concentration of mestizos and indigenous people, even though the Spaniards pretty much killed them all, while in Canada and the US there are hardly any around when the French and British sort of spared them more.

(Yay for run on sentences)

Originally Posted by Ownaginatios

Isn't grade 6, 7 and 8 social studies / history all about natives and the new world? I mean, I remember we spent a lot of the time on French explorers like Jacques Cartier (who French people seem way too overly proud of in both Quebec and France, to the point of naming every school after him...), but I remember learning a lot of stuff about that Metis guy Louis Riel too and the Iroquois.

We didn't really learn much about them though. There are six distinct groups in the Haudenosaunee which we are taught are the Iroquois. From what I recall we are taught that they are one cohesive group, but they are not. Also, some of the other Indigenous groups in Quebec (Micmac and Innu for example) are treated as Iroquoian, and they are even more dissimilar than the six Haudenosaunee groups are to each other.

To this day, I still can't really tell the differences between the Oneida and Mohawk for example, and I'm sure others don't know the differences between the Cayuga and the Tuscarora.

And yes, we did learn about Louis Riel...but again, most people don't know anything about Metis culture.

Originally Posted by Ownaginatios

Ya, good point. It's unfortunate, but I guess that's just how it is :p

On a side note, I've always found it interesting how countries in central and South America have a pretty high concentration of mestizos and indigenous people, even though the Spaniards pretty much killed them all, while in Canada and the US there are hardly any around when the French and British sort of spared them more.

(Yay for run on sentences)

The pre-contact population for Mexico is estimated between 5 and 10 million, if I remember correctly. I'm pretty sure the population in Canada in the US was much lower, around 3-5 million. Either way, if 90-95% of the pre-contact population was killed, there would have been more Indigenous people left in Mexico than in the US and Canada.

And the British and French didn't spare them either, they definitely tried to kill the Native population in the past, and the current governmental system has tried to forcibly assimilate Indigenous people and get rid of their cultures and languages.

You know what Mac should do? I know lots of people are having a difficult time finding electives that they can actually take.

They should have a sort of thingamajig that compiles a list of courses that you can take - based on the courses you've already taken that count as prerequisities for those courses as well as open courses. And then seperate them by faculty/department as well. It should also include what term it takes place in, and a short description and professor.

It would make this process a lot easier, especially after finding out the electives you actually want are full.

Originally Posted by feonateresa

You know what Mac should do? I know lots of people are having a difficult time finding electives that they can actually take.

They should have a sort of thingamajig that compiles a list of courses that you can take - based on the courses you've already taken that count as prerequisities for those courses as well as open courses. And then seperate them by faculty/department as well. It should also include what term it takes place in, and a short description and professor.

It would make this process a lot easier, especially after finding out the electives you actually want are full.

That sounds like a good idea but I think it may be a bit much. For the system to go through all our courses and figure out which courses you can and cant take apart from your core courses could also cause problems. It may make classes too large for 1 or 2 professors to handle. Other than that I think it would be pretty cool.

Originally Posted by feonateresa

You know what Mac should do? I know lots of people are having a difficult time finding electives that they can actually take.

They should have a sort of thingamajig that compiles a list of courses that you can take - based on the courses you've already taken that count as prerequisities for those courses as well as open courses. And then seperate them by faculty/department as well. It should also include what term it takes place in, and a short description and professor.

It would make this process a lot easier, especially after finding out the electives you actually want are full.

What would be even better is if McMaster had preregistration. Where you can do a mock-registration. This would allow McMaster to see which courses are the most popular and can then allocate resources to ensure that these courses have more sections.

Opening up extra cores in popular classes based on demand for that year would be pretty amazing. Seems unlikely though. :(

Originally Posted by PTGregD

Opening up extra cores in popular classes based on demand for that year would be pretty amazing. Seems unlikely though. :(

Yeah, unlikely because McMaster has to do it and it costs money as well.

Originally Posted by jhan523

Yeah, unlikely because McMaster has to do it and it costs money as well.

Money that could go towards getting an upgraded Casio calculator for SOLAR.

Originally Posted by PTGregD

Money that could go towards getting an upgraded Casio calculator for SOLAR.

They could upgrade to a graphing calculator! :o

Originally Posted by jhan523

They could upgrade to a graphing calculator! :o

TI-83 would be sweet!