Erm, it's ultimately up to you. You need to figure out what you're interested in and if you do happen to go into a program you don't like, there's always a way to transfer into something else in second year. It's a good thing you took those grade 12 courses because it keeps your options open.

Engineering/science stuff is going to be hard...obviously. Erm, the only advice I can give is to not go into Social Science...lol.

If I was smarter I'd probably do Psychology, Neuroscience, and Behaviour program by the SCIENCE department (I'm in the one offered by socsci). /sadface

Maybe come visit Mac one day and talk to some academic advisors? Or get into some nerdy program because it's always easier to transfer into a program that doesn't have as strict requirements...ex. going from engineering to psychology (who the eff wud do dat)

Economics and Political Science! Great combination of using both math and critical theory to explain how the world works.

My only advice is learn about a topic you are most interested in. I took engineering at first because I was afraid of not getting a job and I found it somewhat interesting, but after I switched I have been so much happier and am actually passionate about what I'm learning. If you are truly good at what you do, you should get a job no matter what program your in.

If you like math and physics. Eng all the way !!

Originally Posted by dmzz

The college major is almost completely insignificant, today. It is one of the very last things you should be worrying about. What you should worry about, however, is developing skills which will enable you to be successful at whatever you do. Critical thinking skills are the #1 thing you can take out of University.

Do not worry about what you think you want to major in, or what you think you want to do as a career. 99% of people will change what they take, and almost no one will truly know what career they will have, because of the fluctuating market, and you not really knowing what you like. I guarantee you will find things you didn't know about, and really enjoy, in University.

My advice? Whatever it is you do, work 110% at it. If you hate it, you can switch, but at least you can look back and be proud at what you did. If you love it, and find out in 3rd or 4th year it is what you want to "do" you are going to wish you worked harder earlier on. Opportunities will make themselves apparent to anyone who is good at anything they do. Whatever you have fun doing, do it; if you find something else you enjoy MORE, do that.

(This is mostly from a superb book which came out recently: "The Thinking Student's Guide to College" by Andrew Roberts. It really confirmed my beliefs, and shattered my pre-conceptions.)

While I'm sure this is great advice for a lot of students, it isn't actually that practical for some streams. Possibly my biggest regret university wise was that I didn't spend more time worrying about the program I would enter. I went into science just as a way to keep my options open, and I enjoyed most of the courses and had decent marks. But I realized pretty early on that none of the job opportunities interested me- you have to look at the job you want as well as the courses you're interested in.

Luckily Mac had a program that let me switch into nursing and still graduate within the original four years. But if they hadn't, or I hadn't gotten in, I would have had to waste a lot of time and money to become a nurse. Or I would have stayed in my original program out of a sunk cost fallacy, and potentially end up in a career path I didn't want. That worry could have been avoided if I had just gone into nursing straight out of high school.



That said, nursing is an awesome field, and I would definitely recommend it! Its possible to switch into it if you later decide that's what you want to do, but its much easier to go into nursing from the get go.

Originally Posted by stefanadye

If you like math and physics. Eng all the way !!

I hate math, love physics. But going into pure physics would've seemed boring to me.

Originally Posted by Marlowe

While I'm sure this is great advice for a lot of students, it isn't actually that practical for some streams. Possibly my biggest regret university wise was that I didn't spend more time worrying about the program I would enter. I went into science just as a way to keep my options open, and I enjoyed most of the courses and had decent marks. But I realized pretty early on that none of the job opportunities interested me- you have to look at the job you want as well as the courses you're interested in.

Luckily Mac had a program that let me switch into nursing and still graduate within the original four years. But if they hadn't, or I hadn't gotten in, I would have had to waste a lot of time and money to become a nurse. Or I would have stayed in my original program out of a sunk cost fallacy, and potentially end up in a career path I didn't want. That worry could have been avoided if I had just gone into nursing straight out of high school.



That said, nursing is an awesome field, and I would definitely recommend it! Its possible to switch into it if you later decide that's what you want to do, but its much easier to go into nursing from the get go.

I would actually love to go into nursing at mac. Do you get a lot of hands-on experience in those 4 years?

Engineering all the way!

As a couple other posters mentioned, have you considered Kin?

I'm in 3rd year kin, and I love it! Mac's kin program is a lot more "science-y" than a lot of other school's kin programs, and there's a really great group of people in kin!

If you have any questions about specific courses, feel free to ask!

As a nursing student myself my advice is only choose nursing if that is a career path that you can see yourself following. Nursing is a very specific program, so if you decide that it isn't for you the courses you will have taken will only count towards electives. You can get into Med school with a BScN, but as other posters have mentioned you can do that with virtually any program and the right MCAT scores. However, if after a few years in another program you decide that nursing is for you Mac does offer an acclereated program in Nursing. I don't want to discourage any possible new nursing students, but I do encourage you to consider both the pros and cons.

Originally Posted by stefanadye

If you like math and physics. Eng all the way !!

Absolutely not. I've got quite a few friends in various branches of engineering (or all - chem, eng phys, tronics, electrical, mechanical, materials). You use physics and math in engineering, yes, but you don't really learnmath and physics outside the immediately applied context.

Originally Posted by Marlowe

While I'm sure this is great advice for a lot of students, it isn't actually that practical for some streams. Possibly my biggest regret university wise was that I didn't spend more time worrying about the program I would enter. I went into science just as a way to keep my options open, and I enjoyed most of the courses and had decent marks. But I realized pretty early on that none of the job opportunities interested me- you have to look at the job you want as well as the courses you're interested in.

Luckily Mac had a program that let me switch into nursing and still graduate within the original four years. But if they hadn't, or I hadn't gotten in, I would have had to waste a lot of time and money to become a nurse. Or I would have stayed in my original program out of a sunk cost fallacy, and potentially end up in a career path I didn't want. That worry could have been avoided if I had just gone into nursing straight out of high school.



That said, nursing is an awesome field, and I would definitely recommend it! Its possible to switch into it if you later decide that's what you want to do, but its much easier to go into nursing from the get go.

so doctor wasn't an option? or did you think that would take too long?

Originally Posted by manap3000

so doctor wasn't an option? or did you think that would take too long?

OMG SOMEONE WHO DOESN'T WANT TO BE A DOCTOR?!?!? WHAAAT?!?!?

(sorry, couldn't help it)

It was definitely something I was interested in at one point, along with being a dentist, pharmacist, vet, etc. Pretty much all the other professional programs that are open to students with a science degree. I thought science would be a safe way to keep my options open, so that I didn't have to make a decision until later.

Then I got to university, and I realized a few things:
-I don't want to do more schooling once those four years are done. I kindof want to get out of school and start living my life.
-I'd almost certainly have to go into a large amount of debt to complete more schooling, something I'd managed to avoid so far.
-If I tried to get into one of those programs and failed, I'd either have to waste time applying again and again (probably while wasting a large amount of money), or continue in a MSc program, which didn't interest me at all.

That said, I do realize that when I started Grade 9 four years of high school seemed like forever, by Grade 12 I didn't want to leave. And its quite possible that will happen with university when I get near the end. If I do decide that I'd rather try to become a doctor, I can still do that with a nursing degree (and the first two years of science are where most of the pre-reqs are). If I don't get in I have a guaranteed job.

My program deals with the integration of engineering into medicine -- which basically deals with the aspect of modern medicine that isn't the doctory side of things. If you want to do med and like engineering, but don't want to spend years of your life rote memorizing factoids to have a small chance to enter the super competitive and stressful world of pre-med, then this field is for you.

I also misread the title as 'pogom' which was uh.....