Hey guys! I'm new to this forum and was wondering if I could get some questions answered. Firstly, my program of choice is Mac's business program but I'm interested in their software engineering program as well. I was wondering if it was possible to do business and minor in software engineering, or do software engineering and minor in business? Or should i just not do that and focus on just one thing? Is this even a possible combination?? Answers would be greatly appreciated!! and if any of you are in mac's business or engineering program right now, would you mind telling me how the program and courses are like and how you're enjoying it (or not enjoying it lol) so far, the best part of your program in your opinion, etc. I'm applying tomorrow (ouac website is under maintenance atm :( ) and plan to apply to nursing, business and engineering at mac so i was just wondering if integration between business and engineering was possible XD Thanks in advance!!

I'm in Commerce at Mac...don't know a whole lot about the Eng program but there is a 5-year "Engineering Management" program, which is in the faculty of engineering but you take many Commerce courses and graduate with a special degree I believe.

Hi CoolCatG! Welcome to MacInsiders Thanks for posting.

As similar question was asked here:
http://www.macinsiders.com/showthrea...ing-28116.html

The short answer as far as I know is that you can't minor in the Engineering streams. And from what I hear from engineering students, you probably would want to do one or the other. Software Engineering, or any type of Engineering for that matter, is a large course load and there isn't a lot of room for electives, the streams are very well laid out and structured.

There is Engineering and Management, if that interests you, which you essentially take courses in business like a business minor.

But the real question is... what interests you more? Why are you thinking of software eng + business? Are you hoping to build software and be the founder of your own business? Explain a bit about what your goals are, what you hope to do in the future, and then the members here can give you some insights and suggestions

@Commie42 Thanks for the reply! I've heard about the engineering and management program and was considering that but what I want out of the business program is the accounting and finance aspects, not so much management, so I'm not sure that would be right for me. How is commerce at mac? Is it challenging or exciting at all? I have friends who ask me why I would choose to apply for business at mac instead of a different school with a "better" business program. Do you think it's an awesome program, and does it prepare you well for a job in the business industry after graduation? A question I really wanna ask is HOW IS THE TRADING FLOOR??? sorry, so many questions XD Hearing mac has a virtual trading floor really got me excited and I just wanted to hear from someone who was a commerce student at mac if this facility was as cool as they make it seem

@Chad hey! thank you for your quick reply as well! yes, I thought as much :( my friend's sister is currently an engineering student there and I heard how tough her course load was, so it would probably be too much to do business and engineering together as a 4-year thing XD I've heard about the engineering and management thing but I'm not sure yet if that's for me :p I'm thinking of applying for engineering to keep my options open though. So to answer your question, an accountant is what I'm aiming to be in the future and programming and building software are sort of just hobbies/interests that I hoped I could develop while at university. No I do not really see myself building a software and making a business out of it XD I wanted to take some of the courses offered to software engineering students like programming and software development to name a few but I know not all courses are available to just anyone. So I guess my real question should be, if I was in the commerce program, would I be able to take software engineering courses like the ones I mentioned earlier as electives? Or if the real advanced stuff isn't available for anyone not a software engineering student, would at least the basic courses be available?

Originally Posted by CoolCatG

@Commie42 Thanks for the reply! I've heard about the engineering and management program and was considering that but what I want out of the business program is the accounting and finance aspects, not so much management, so I'm not sure that would be right for me. How is commerce at mac? Is it challenging or exciting at all? I have friends who ask me why I would choose to apply for business at mac instead of a different school with a "better" business program. Do you think it's an awesome program, and does it prepare you well for a job in the business industry after graduation? A question I really wanna ask is HOW IS THE TRADING FLOOR??? sorry, so many questions XD Hearing mac has a virtual trading floor really got me excited and I just wanted to hear from someone who was a commerce student at mac if this facility was as cool as they make it seem

I'm not sure what the commerce course selection is like for people in the Eng Management program...but I do know you are able to take some accounting and finance courses (some are even required I believe). I love the commerce program here! I don't know why people keep saying that. McMaster has a very underrated undergrad commerce program, but it's a great program and getting even better. In third year you have the opportunity to go on international exchange and/or do a 12-16 month internship. The first couple years are more of getting the foundation down for each of the functional areas of business, and your upper years are dedicated to application and often real-life business projects. I'm in marketing, and am not much of a finance or accounting person so I haven't used the trading floor at all. But I do know a couple people who are quite involve with the trading floor and it seems to be a big part of their learning experience at DeGroote.

Don't get me wrong, personally I love Mac's business program. If you are a hard worker and get involved, you can become really established and have a lot of meaningful things to write on a resume. But to be objective, I would not recommend you coming to Mac for Business if you are smart enough to get into Eng.

I can only see someone coming to Mac rationally if they want a high GPA which was what I was going for. The amount of recruitment here is sub-par at best, only the few top students will get the good positions, but usually if you are smart enough to get a 80+ GPA and get involved at the same time, you can do that at most schools too... I would recommend it if you go to schools such as Laurier, UTSC etc. Personally I am looking to get to Western IVEY or UBC Sauder next year.

I am not a biased person too, I personally found myself having a fulfilling time here, but I am one of those few who are lucky. Most students who are not as lucky and are average students will not do as well as an average student at another school. If you just simply look at the recruitment statistics from other schools such as IVEY or Queens, they blow us out of the water. They have over 7 pages of firms, IN 10 FONT, 7 pages of companies who hire form them at 12 font... Here they can barely muster 1 page at 12 font and they try to put them in 3 columns to make it look like more firms hire here.

If you want opportunities, go else where. If you want to go to grad school, then come here and get a high gpa and be more involved then the less motivated peers here.