Hey everyone. I'm currently trying to figure out which courses I'll be taking next year. I'm heading into Life Sciences in September, and just wanted some tips on which branch to choose for second year. Do most people continue in Honours Life Sciences, or they choose something specific like Biochemistry or Chemical Biology. The reason I'm asking is that Honours Life Sciences now requires both psych 1x03 and 1xx3 and that would take out one of my electives, so I just want some advice for the future. Thanks a lot!

It doesn't matter what other people go to! What matters is what YOU want =)

What kind of career do you want after graduating? Are you planning to go to med school? Maybe you can start from there and then you can plan which major you want to get into.

In my experience, the ratio of people to biochem, chemical biology, honours life sci, etc. is pretty equal. It really just depends on what you want to do. Honours life science is more broad - there are some requirements, but you get to pick 36 units (12 courses) from the "life science course list," which includes courses from departments like biology, chemistry, biochemistry, kinesiology, math, medical radiation, medical physics, psychology... There are lots of options. If you want to study a little bit of everything, Honours Life Science would probably be more for you. In biochemistry or chemical biology, there are more required courses that would just focus on your area of study. It might be helpful to check out the requirements for each degree and look up some courses, see what interests you. Remember that you get electives for each degree. Also, you don't have to decide until next April, so you've got time! What happens is you pick a maximum of four programs to apply to, and when you get notice of what you've been accepted to, you can make a decision.

Here are the requirements for some of the degrees you mentioned:

Life science - http://registrar.mcmaster.ca /CALEN...nt/pg1957.html
Biochemistry - http://registrar.mcmaster.ca /CALEN...nt/pg1469.html
Chemical Biology - http://registrar.mcmaster.ca /CALEN...nt/pg1471.html

For biochem and chem bio, you can choose to specialize in a variety of areas if you like.

Also, here's the link to the Faculty of Science's page in case you wanted to look for something else: http://registrar.mcmaster.ca /CALEN...nt/pg1466.html

If you're still not sure, it wouldn't hurt to take PSYCH 1XX3 just in case. Unless you have another elective you'd really like to take?

If you have any other questions, just let me know! Good luck.

Only take psych if you're genuinely interested in it! You can add or drop it until the beginning of January, because it's a second term course, so there's plenty of time to change your mind

Your plans could change, too, when you take courses in first year and figure out what you like/don't like. For example, I thought I really liked biology, but after taking first year bio I realized that I don't like it THAT much, I only like certain parts of it (like anatomy, a LITTLE bit of physiology, and genetics). I also thought I liked neuroscience, and was even considering going into psych or biopsych, until I took Psych 1XX3.

Many people seem to go into something other than Life Sci after first year, but there are still many people who stay in Life Sci, either because they don't have the marks to get into their specialization of choice and are 'shadowing', or because they like the freedom of Life Sci and having such a huge number of electives--you can really tailor your courses to what you enjoy. There are also some more general 'specializations' that don't have many required courses in 3rd/4th year.

Personally, I chose to specialize even though I'm not really sure what I want to do after university. I picked a major that interests me, knowing that I could switch out if I ended up not liking it. This way, I can hopefully find a career that I'm interested in, that I have the specialized skills to do. Also, my program is pretty unique, which (depending on the job) gives us an edge over many other degrees out there--I really like the 'uniqueness' of it.

When deciding on a program for second year, make sure you look at the required courses in the programs you're considering. Pick the program with the most interesting required courses--it's a good indication of what you'll enjoy most.

I advise you to just stick to your Honours Life Sci course requirements. That'll give you basically all the pre-requisites you need for selecting a major next year.

I decided sometime in Nov. that I didn't want to continue in an Hon.Life.Sci program, so I went into solar and dropped Psych 1XX3, and took Phys 1BB3 instead for the second semester. For me, that was a great decision and I definitely dont regret it any one bit. I eventually went into chem bio, and when i spoke to the person in charge of admissions to chemical biology, he said he looks at your chemistry mark, your biology mark, some of your physics mark, but he doesnt give a flying **** what you got in psych (my impression was that he didnt like psychology all that much, and tbh, neither did i. hated psych 1X03, maybe even more than math 1b03 <linear algebra>).

I'm actually not THAT interested in med school (I know it's hard to believe). I was thinking more along the lines of pharmacy, or optometry.

Yay! So refreshing to find ppl who don't want to go to med school! lol

Pretty much any program can get you to pharmacy or optometry. The only thing I don't have for pharm at UofT by the end of my second year was stats, so I took that in the summer--I also had to take math 1AA3 as an elective. Optometry would require either physics 1BA3 or 1BB3, which also aren't required for most 2nd year programs. If you choose your electives carefully, then you can definitely do pharm or optometry from any program you want.

Originally Posted by nerual

Yay! So refreshing to find ppl who don't want to go to med school! lol

Pretty much any program can get you to pharmacy or optometry. The only thing I don't have for pharm at UofT by the end of my second year was stats, so I took that in the summer--I also had to take math 1AA3 as an elective. Optometry would require either physics 1BA3 or 1BB3, which also aren't required for most 2nd year programs. If you choose your electives carefully, then you can definitely do pharm or optometry from any program you want.

I would say that for optometry don't go into my program. I will have exhausted all my electives next year which means my fourth year is going to be super hard if I don't get into optometry after 3rd year.

Unless you only want to apply to one optometry school, then you'll have plenty of electives, but your OAT scores get sent out to 5 schools automatically. This means that to make it worth the amount you paid (which was 213$ this year), you would want to meet all the prerequisites for those 5 schools.

Hm...well I kind of screwed myself over for high school, since I took absolutely no physics. At the moment I have Physics 1L03 down, and I'm going to need one or two more physics for pharmacy...*Dreads*. I'm wondering whether I should do two physics in first year, as well as two maths. I'm going to need A03, AA3, and the two physics by the time I apply. How unsound is it to take first year courses in second/third year, given that they are prereqs for professional school :(.

Edit: Hm, on the UofT site, it doesn't say that we need physics. It just says SPH4U or university, but on the list of courses, there's no mention of any physics prereqs. Strange.

Originally Posted by Angoose

Hm...well I kind of screwed myself over for high school, since I took absolutely no physics. At the moment I have Physics 1L03 down, and I'm going to need one or two more physics for pharmacy...*Dreads*. I'm wondering whether I should do two physics in first year, as well as two maths. I'm going to need A03, AA3, and the two physics by the time I apply. How unsound is it to take first year courses in second/third year, given that they are prereqs for professional school :(.

Professional schools generally don't care what courses you take when. They like to see you take full course loads though (not mandatory but HIGHLY recommended). If you look at professional school course loads they are SUPER heavy compared to undergrad.

I would take 2 physics and 1 math this year and next year take the last physics and last math.

I'm assuming you are unsure if Physics 1L03 will be accepted as a physics prerequisite. If that's the case then you should send an e-mail right now. It usually takes some time for them to reply.

Physics 1L03 will not be accepted, since it does not contain a lab component :(. I'm wondering if I even need the other two physics for pharm. Since I haven't taken any in high school, I"m a little hesitant, since every single mark counts toward my GPA XD.

Originally Posted by Angoose

Physics 1L03 will not be accepted, since it does not contain a lab component :(. I'm wondering if I even need the other two physics for pharm. Since I haven't taken any in high school, I"m a little hesitant, since every single mark counts toward my GPA XD.

Oh right, I keep on forgetting that it doesn't have labs. Not sure about the prerequisites, just do a quick search at the school you want to apply to.

. I appreciate how helpful the community is. Also, I see that everyone's been posting their mock timetable recently. Are students actually given the freedom to arrange the order of their classes, or is it just planning courses out to reduce the number of conflicts?

It depends, usually it's a bit of both. It's a good idea to plan it out beforehand so when you get into SOLAR you know which courses to go for right away instead of wasting time trying to see which courses won't give you conflicts. It's also good to see how it's going to look, because in upper years, a lot of courses will only have one available core section, so you can't choose between morning lectures or afternoon lectures. It's not really desirable to have, say, 5 hours of class in a row, and if that's unavoidable with the courses one wants, that's usually something to consider - would you sit through 5 straight hours of lecture, or would you switch one of the courses to give yourself a little space? It's just something some people like to think about, because waiting until SOLAR gives you a timetable and seeing this problem there might mean your backup courses are full, and you'll be stuck with 5 straight hours of lecture.

Originally Posted by Angoose

. I appreciate how helpful the community is. Also, I see that everyone's been posting their mock timetable recently. Are students actually given the freedom to arrange the order of their classes, or is it just planning courses out to reduce the number of conflicts?

It's possible to get the sections you want but sometimes it takes some work and a lot of patience. It all depends on your fellow class mates and what sections they want. But there are always people moving around their sections, especially first years. So it's always worth it to check everyday when SOLAR reopens in August right up until the drop/add deadline.