hello,
so I’ve been thinking about these questions for a long time but i can’t find an answer and frankly there is no one i can ask to help. so i just finished my first year here at uoft in life sciences and now is the time to choose posts. my goal is to study dentistry. i have applied to a specialist in neuroscience and a minor in psych and i was thinking i should do a combination of those( neuroscience specialist and psych minor) or a major in neuroscience and a major in biology which is a type 1 post. however, i have heard that neuroscience is really hard and if i dont wanna go to medical school and am aiming for dental, then i should choose something easier. the problem is I don’t know what the best post to get into is if you wanna become a dentist. so i was just wondering, what should my post be? or should i just go with neuroscience and biology(major+major) or neuroscience and psych(specialist+minor) ?
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hey there,
so, you wanna grow up and be a kid’s worst nightmare, huh? well, good on ya. i’d like to be that, too, but unfortunately i don’t have any qualifications to back me up and apparently whispering, “Count Olaf is near!” at random children in grocery stores is “rude” and “unsettling.” whatever. talk about prejudice, right?
the academic requirements for uoft’s DDS program are fairly general and you could probably fulfil them with either?combination. also, decisions are not completely based on your grades: your DAT score also plays a part – so whichever POSts?you choose, it’s not gonna make it or break it. which is comforting.
both the neuroscience major and specialist meet nearly all the academic requirements all on their own, but keep in mind that one pesky requirement that all science students hate: the humanities requirement. it’s just one full-year course, and if you already took one in first-year, you don’t have to worry about it. if you didn’t…
hold tight now, ’cause i’m about to do some really dry calculating:
the neuroscience specialist is 11.0 FCEs (not including first year courses), and the psych minor is 3.0 FCEs (not including PSY100Y). assuming you’re taking a regular course load, that gives you 1.0 spare FCEs, which may have to be used for that humanities req (though there is the possibility of a couple of courses overlapping, i.e. satisfying requirements for both POSts). so your first combination is a pretty tight fit – however, if that’s the one you feel comfortable doing, then absolutely go for it.
your second combination comes to a total of 11.0 required courses, not including first year (again, there is the possibility for a little bit of overlap between required courses, but remember the 12 distinct credits rule). this combination gives you a bit more wiggle room for courses.
at the end of the day, i can’t make this decision for you. and i really shouldn’t – i can’t even tell you the difference between neuroscience and psychology (they both have to do with the brain, right? which one’s the one where you lobotomise people?). but i do know this: you should always go with the thing that makes you feel like you’re on top of the world. also, because dentistry does have quite a high CGPA requirement, you should go with the thing you think you’ll do better at (how did you do in PSY100H1? in BIO120H1 and BIO130H1? these things can help you decide).
and if it turns out you’ve made the completely wrong decision, you can always change your POSt this time next year.
best of luck (you sadistic tooth demon),
aska