Yes...I know it's horrible, but I'm still going back and forth a bit.

It's going to be either Mol Bio and Genetics; Core Bio or BioPsych (I ruled out BioChem pretty much...)

Can anyone tell me anything else about the programs? I've lurked around the old threads and I'm still stuck... >.<

The problem is I'm pretty sure I'll going to get into all of my choices, I'm a good bit about last year's average, so no help there. :(

Originally Posted by britb

Yes...I know it's horrible, but I'm still going back and forth a bit.

It's going to be either Mol Bio and Genetics; Core Bio or BioPsych (I ruled out BioChem pretty much...)

Can anyone tell me anything else about the programs? I've lurked around the old threads and I'm still stuck... >.<

The problem is I'm pretty sure I'll going to get into all of my choices, I'm a good bit about last year's average, so no help there. :(

Second year of Genetics is still pretty general. But I looked at the third year courses, the ones that actually belong to the molecular biology department and they are pretty genetics heavy. What would you like to know specifically about the program?

Well, I am in Biology (core) and I absolutely love it mainly due to the fact that I have the freedom to select the courses that I want to study and to learn about, while still being able to have a wide variety of biology, health sci, psychology, and biochem courses options to choose from. This is particularly helpful if you are unsure about which direction you want to specialize in, since obviously you can pick from practically any bio course which cover everything from ecology to physiology to cell biology. And then once you see which courses you are attracted to, you can switch into that specialization.

It also allows me to have a lot of electives which is awesome since there are courses from other faculties which I want to take. For instance, I took music performance which is a course that allows you to have private music lessons.

But the good thing about being in any Biology program (specialization or not) is that it is very easy to switch between majors since most of the core courses overlap. Your major isn't set in stone and people do it all the time.

Think about where your current interests lie.

Open the floodgates,

How lab-heavy is it, compared to say Honours Bio (the default, lol)? And what kind of things to you look into, besides transcript/transl, etc?

{I know they changed a lot of Bio courses over to be called "molecular Biology", but the name freaks me out just a little bit, no idea why} What kind of things do you do for a thesis? Do you know any topics that have been done previously? Does Chem come up a lot, other than the two evil orgo courses? A few people I know discounted the program because they thought their chem wasn't strong enough. My chem's pretty good, though I have a healthy dislike of organic chem. What about physics?

Oh, and for Honours Bio, how difficult is it to get a thesis in fourth year, since its not guaranteed like in the specializations?

Is there any real difference outside of uni with specializations?



Thanks for helping out guys, I've made four year plans for all three of the programs, lol, since I don't know which way I'm gonna go.

One good thing about Bio without any of the specializations is (in the past at least, I'm not sure if it has changed) you didn't need to do an Honours thesis.

The main difference between molecular biology and other biology specializations like BioPsych is the amount of memorization required for specific pathways (ERCC7 verses XRCC1). I personally hated that stuff, so I stayed away from molecular biology, but if you enjoy that stuff then that's a great option for you. All biology courses have a memorization component, but I preferred the courses were you could reason things out.

As I am graduating from Biology with an unofficial minor in Psych, I can tell you that the program is really enjoyable. I like the arts so being able to take courses in social psychology was a nice break from science-heavy courses. The stats course is supposedly boring but super easy.

Overall there's not much difference from Biology (Core) versus other specializations.

If you do a thesis in BioPsych it's usually not that bad because most of them are survey based, which are a lot less time-consuming than lab-based theses. As long as you have the required average, you shouldn't have a problem finding a thesis supervisor as long as you look early.


With respect to Orgo and Physics, there's really not that much that you need to remember ...

I found that I didn't really like BioPsych. The name seems to suggest a lot more Bio and a lot more Psych. Since stats and orgo takes up 4 of your 10 classes, you don't end up with that much more of either than you had first year. At most you'll get 3 of each, and that's if you don't want to take electives. I think once you get Orgo and Stats out of the way though you'll be able to take more interesting courses.

You also don't get a lot of electives throughout the upper years, so doing a minor in History might be hard without taking more classes than needed.

I figured out pretty early on that I wanted to switch out of the program, so I didn't follow the required courses as closely as I could have, but the BioPsych society has sample schedules for the 3 years on their website that would be helpful in deciding if that's what you're interested in.

Tailsnake and Harlequin are both also in BioPsych, and as far as I know they're actually sticking with it, so they'll probably be able to give you less debbie downer opinions.

Originally Posted by britb

Open the floodgates,

How lab-heavy is it, compared to say Honours Bio (the default, lol)? And what kind of things to you look into, besides transcript/transl, etc?

{I know they changed a lot of Bio courses over to be called "molecular Biology", but the name freaks me out just a little bit, no idea why} What kind of things do you do for a thesis? Do you know any topics that have been done previously? Does Chem come up a lot, other than the two evil orgo courses? A few people I know discounted the program because they thought their chem wasn't strong enough. My chem's pretty good, though I have a healthy dislike of organic chem. What about physics?

Oh, and for Honours Bio, how difficult is it to get a thesis in fourth year, since its not guaranteed like in the specializations?

Is there any real difference outside of uni with specializations?



Thanks for helping out guys, I've made four year plans for all three of the programs, lol, since I don't know which way I'm gonna go.

A lot of labs in second year, but like I said second year is still really general so you'll probably be taken those courses in the other programs anyways.

There was a lot of transcription/translation in a lot of my classes. The good thing is you only have to learn it once. Biochem 2B03 teaches it really well and after that I didn't have to pay much attention in my other courses when that topic came up.

I'm personally trying to get out of Mac before 4th year. I'm applying to optometry this september. So I don't really know much about thesis. Although I probably should do some research on it in case I don't get accepted. But I might do a project instead... Still haven't decided yet.

There's only organic chemistry but you can also take a couple chembio courses if you want. As for physics, I have only taken 1B03 and 1BB3.