prereqs - askastudent

biology, prereqs, programs, science, switching

so we all just have the same problems huh

November 8, 2024

Hello!! I was wondering how hard it is to transition from Physics to Biological Physics/ Mathematical and Physical Sciences to Life Sciences, assuming I get accepted into the Physics program. I see that I have to take BIO130 to get into the Biological Physics specialist program, but I don’t have Biology Gr12 (Needed for BIO130). Is there any way to waiver that prerequisite for BIO130, or do I have to let go of the biological physics program 🙁

hey there,

i’m assuming you’re currently in first year? these are some great questions, and it’s actually really common to be confused about all this. i literally went to my registrar confused about this exact same stuff (different program switches though) during my first year.

let’s go through it together, and hopefully i can help clear things up.

how hard it is to transition between science departments

switching programs is actually SO much easier than it seems, especially within the sciences. i’d be a little more worried for you if you wanted to switch, say, between physics and architecture, but going from physics to bio is definitely on the simpler side. people do that all the time, and you’re gonna be ok!

pretty much, to switch programs, all you have to do is get into the program you want to switch to. you are not locked in to anything!

the first thing to note is that there are two types of programs in the faculty of arts & science: open and limited. i’d recommend you check out this sid smith website, which gives a great overview of how open/limited programs work.

for open programs, there are no required courses, you just need to have an expected completion of 4.0 credits to get in. basically, if you’ll have 4.0 credits done by the end of your first year, you apply during the spring of your first year. no application is required – for open programs, you literally just click the enrol button in acorn.

for limited programs, you’ll have to complete 4.0 credits, but also might have to complete required courses with certain minimum grades. these requirements are different according to the program.

so what this all means is that you can switch pretty easily between physics and bio programs. i took a look, and almost all the bio programs are open enrolment! you can check it out yourself here. click on the programs to see their drop down descriptions, where it’ll say whether the program is open or limited.

getting into the biological physics specialist program

the biological physics specialist program is actually also an open enrolment program, all four streams of it. you’ll see this on that page i just linked, if you click the drop down of each stream of this program, each of them says “open enrolment”.

this means that there are no required courses to get into the program! you can automatically enrol at the end of your first year if you’ve completed 4.0 credits.

i see that you think you’ll have to take bio130 to get in to the biological physics program. but what you might have gotten confused about is enrolment requirements vs. completion requirements. don’t worry, i also got these confused during my first year.

just because a first-year course is listed on the program page, doesn’t mean you have to take it to get in. you actually don’t need to take all your first-year courses in first year, you can absolutely take them in second year too. it’s more like a suggestion of how to organize your years, but not a rule whatsoever.

if you look at one of the biophysics specialist stream pages, like the physiology stream, you’ll see that there are no courses listed under “enrolment requirements”, so there are no required courses to get in.

bio130 is instead listed as a first-year course under “completion requirements”. so you just need to take this course sometime during undergrad to graduate from the program, not to enrol in the program.

getting into bio130

i’ve got good news for ya: there’s actually a way that you can take bio130 even without having taken grade 12 biology! according to the artsci calendar’s page on bio130, it does say you need to have gr. 12 biology and chemistry. but it also says if you don’t have these, you can just get the permission of the department, by emailing bio130(@)utoronto(.)ca .

i had this problem in my first year with bio120! i thought i couldn’t take it because you needed gr. 12 bio, which i didn’t have. but all i needed to do was send them an email, and they said something along the lines of “yes, you’re allowed to take it but just be warned that people who haven’t taken gr. 12 bio tend to get worse marks in the course or drop it. so take it at your own risk”.

if they tell you something similar, do not be scared off! this intimidated me and i entered the course with so much fear but i think it’s funny that it ended up being one of my easiest courses LOL.

so yeah, i hope i explained this clear enough and that it helped somewhat. the tldr is: check if a program is open or limited enrolment. it’s super easy to switch if it’s open, which most bio programs are. the one you want is open, so yay. and also, you can get the pre-requisite for bio130 waived if you email the department.

best of luck!

over and out,

aska

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arts & sciences, biology, chem, prereqs

you’re welcome ??

May 5, 2024

Hi! So I recently got accepted into the uoft arts and science program. I applied for humanities back in October, but after taking chem and bio in second semester I’ve been curious to take some science courses in uni. I looked online and sadly the chem course at uoft requires calculus and functions (that I didn’t take). Is it still possible for me to take this course, or do you have to have the high school prerequisites? Thank u ??

hey there,

ayy congrats on getting accepted!

if you take constructive criticism, it would be super helpful if i knew which chem course at u of t you were referring to? there are, like, at least a couple (there are over 70 chem courses).

jokes, i’m just being a hater. i’m gonna assume you’re probably talking about the standard first-year chem course required for pretty much all science programs: CHM135.

you’re right that the academic calendar says CHM135 requires the prerequisites of grade 12 bio, and grade 12 calculus and functions. so what i would do in this case is email the chemistry department directly and ask them if it’s in any way possible for you to take the course without the grade 12 math prerequisites. i’m not sure if they will say yes or not, but this was what i did for BIO120, and they let me. i would encourage you to email them asap, so that you know whether you need to consider enrolling in online school to complete the prereq.

i actually took CHM135, and i would say it’s definitely do-able without calculus or functions knowledge. however, take this with a grain of salt because i did actually have the calculus 12 prerequisite, so maybe it unconsciously helped, idk. but unless i’ve erased it all from memory, i recall there was only one lab out of five that even referred to functions on a graph. it was just pure memorization, you didn’t actually need to know calculus for it, and either way, it was all explained in the lab book. it definitely doesn’t need bio as a prerequisite though, since i didn’t even take biology 12 either, and i cannot recall anything in that course that required pre-knowledge of bio.

anyways. nothing can make me un-remember difficult CHM135 was, so just be prepared. the general consensus was that BIO120 was much easier, so if you don’t end up trying out chem, at least try out bio. in general, people say that the spectrum of difficulty with first year science courses goes like this: physics>math>chem>bio. (if you want my opinion, i think chem was harder than math, and i loooved BIO120).

if you’re genuinely interested in it, i highly support this endeavour to try your hand in uni science courses! they are so interesting and kind of change the way you see the world around you! if you wanted, you could absolutely complete the math prerequisites through TVO ILC, which i’ve seen people do. my friend did that, and it might seem overwhelming to take a whole calc course online, but it really wasn’t that big of a deal. definitely worth it in the end—think of it as an investment in your future.

also, did you know that you can actually take a major in sciences while taking a major in the arts? i learned that embarassingly late LMAO. so just putting it out there in case you ended up girlbossing too close to the sun and end up loving the science courses you take so much that you want to pursue a science program.

over and out,

aska

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admissions, math, prereqs

another mathless student

March 1, 2024
hi, I’m currently in highschool in India (not a Canadian citizen) and am trying to get into UofT for chemical engineering. Unfortunately I did not take math in 11th grade, despite being excellent at it. How can I still apply for the undergrad? Should I complete math courses from TVO ILC? Thank you.

hey there,

well, first of all, you’re not alone. i’ve recently received some similar questions about not taking math prerequisites in high school.

so, to apply to chemical engineering at u of t, you’ll be applying under the admission code TB to the faculty of applied science and engineering. that means you’re looking at the admission requirements for all applicants to the faculty of applied science and engineering. according to their website, this includes senior level courses in mathematics (including calculus), chemistry, physics, and english.

(also, if you’re interested, there is a specific section at the bottom of this site on requirements and document details specific to each country).

and so we’ve got ourselves in a little bit of a situation here. your program requires that you take senior level high school math, but you haven’t taken grade 11 math yet. here’s the good news: the engineering website says that in the case that you haven’t taken one of these prerequisites, you can complete the grade 12 ontario high school equivalent prerequisite subject. furthermore, they actually recommend completing the course through the independent learning centre (ILC), so yes, to answer your question, you can complete math courses from TVO ILC.

but hold on, let’s dial it back for a sec. i noticed that you’re only asking about grade 11 math. to my understanding, you would actually need grade 12 level math to meet the admission requirements, since they specify that calculus is included. meanwhile, i looked at the ILC website for you, and it also seems like you’ll need grade 11 math as a prerequisite for the grade 12 math courses on there. so i think you might need to take both grade 11 and 12 math on the ILC, unless there’s a way for you to somehow bypass the grade 11 prerequisite.

just keep in mind that for ontario school systems, the admission requirements specifically ask for two grade 12 math courses:
1. advanced functions (MHF4U)
2. calculus & vectors (MCV4U), which requires advanced functions as a prerequisite
so if you’re taking your grade 12 math prerequisite through the ILC, which is within the ontario school system, i think you would need to take both of these courses. the international student admission requirements are “senior level courses in mathematics (including calculus)”, which probably means you need the calculus & vectors course. but according to the ILC website, to take calculus, you need advanced functions. and to take advanced functions, apparently you need a grade 11 math course.

blegh, that was a mouthful. so many prerequisites! for your sake, i am glad you’re good at math.

anyways i really hope i’m understanding this right. just keep in mind that this is just my best interpretation of what steps you need to take, and don’t follow this blindly. i would actually really recommend that you directly contact the engineering admissions office at admissions@engineering.utoronto.ca to make sure you’re doing all of this right. and if you’re still confused, you can shoot me another question!

good luck! i hope it all works out for you.

over and out,

aska
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failing, prereqs, repeating course

prereqs do be wrecking

December 19, 2023

desperately need some help. i kinda did really bad in 3/5 of my courses. i passed my bird courses but the 3/5 that I’m pretty sure I failed….kinda need them. I’m taking the part 2 of those classes next quarter. and I’m taking extra required courses in the summer….what do I do…

i saw this thing on reddit that the part 2 of classes, I might be kicked out if I did bad first semester. do I take those courses again second semester? can’t I take those in the summer…or do I take my part two classes next year. I’m scared for my life I’m sorry for the long question

hey there,

first of all, do not be sorry, my dude. this is not a long question at all.

just to be clear on the situation: you may have failed courses that you need as prerequisites for your classes next quarter and over the summer?

what i’d do is double-check if there’s a certain grade threshold you need to meet in these courses to fulfill your prerequisite requirements. if there isn’t a grade threshold, you don’t need to worry about being kicked out for doing poorly in those prerequisite classes. you just need to make sure you pass the courses.

if there is a grade threshold you need to meet and you don’t meet it, or if you fail the courses, then you unfortunately won’t be able to take the “part 2” courses you have scheduled, nor will you be able to take anything else that has the same prerequisites. the likelihood is that someone in the department will check whether you have the prereqs at some point in the semester, and if they find out that you don’t have them, you can be removed from those courses at any time.

so if you don’t fill your prerequisites this semester, it may be best to focus on filling them next semester, and taking your “part 2” courses in the summer instead.

also, remember not to trust everything on reddit! it’s a good starting point but we see well-meaning misinformation on there all the time. the best thing to do is usually to hit up your registrar. it’s definitely best to ask them what to do since they help people in your exact situation all the time.

i hope everything turns out okay, sending love and encouragement! this sounds really stressful too, so if you ever need extra support, here is a resource that might be helpful.

over and out,

aska

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prereqs, repeating course

the sky’s the limit! and by “sky”, i mean “second time”

June 7, 2023

Do extra repeated courses count as prerequisites for a course?

hi there,

ah, a short, sweet, and simple question. i like it. i like you.

yes. according to the academic calendar’s policy, you are able to repeat a previously passed course to meet a prerequisite.

here are some things to note about extra repeated courses: first, they don’t count towards degree credit or your GPA, and you are only allowed to repeat the course one time — you won’t get a third try at it. also, you have to request to enrol in one at your college registrar’s office. and finally, if you reaally want to make sure that it would be counted, you could check with the department that’s requiring the prerequisites by emailing them.

over and out,

aska

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prereqs, prospective student, psychology, subject POST

throwback to the psych major era

February 20, 2023

hi aska, i’m a grade 12 hs student who got accepted into uoftstg for social science. i’m looking to major in psych, and i failed to realize that uoft doesn’t offer a psych BA. my problem is is that i don’t have the gr 12 prerequisites of calc or bio. my question is: uoft’s social science page they state, “at the end of your first year, you can combine programs outside of your own admission category” does this mean i can double major and enrol in the psych program despite of my missing prerecs?

hello there young one,

congrats on your acceptance! so after the barrage of psych major questions we got last semester, i’m prepared — this post from december is all about high school prereqs for psych at uoft and pretty much answers your question i think… (done. that’s it. that’s the post. do i just… go now?)

but in the spirit of recycling, lemme hash out some of the main things about high school prereqs here… and some other things. basically, after first year, you’ll have to apply for your POSt, which is just uoft’s fancy name for your specific program, which doesn’t have to be within your admissions stream. you can definitely mix and match and jump around different majors/minors/specialists in all different areas of uoft arts and science. but preqrequisites are prerequisites, and the psych programs all list gr. 12 calc and bio as prereqs so chances are you’ll have to get those credits in order to be accepted. you should definitely email the psych department just to check (psy.undergrad@utoronto.ca) with them first, though.

if you do have to complete those prerequisites, you could try to take them in the summer before university, or through night school/online options if they’re offered by your school board.

You Thought GIFfrom Swag GIFs

they should be completed by the end of your first year at the latest, because that’s around the time you typically apply for POSt — although you should also confirm that with the department just in case they ask for the prereqs following a different timeline. hope that helps!

best of luck,

aska

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current student, prereqs, psychology

psych major questions make a comeback (ft. high school prereqs)

September 15, 2022

I have been trying to find an answer to this question everywhere, but it seems like not alot of people have been in this situation. Long story short, I have yet to be accepted into the PSY major (intend to graduate with a double major in PSY + SOC); however, I will complete all the required courses for both programs by December 2022. The issue is, I do not have the HS courses required for the PSY program. Will I still need to complete those to be accepted into program?

hey there,

so you’re right, i don’t have experience with this personally — but my guess is that you probably do need to get those hs prereqs. for example, the utm psychology website says, quite emphatically, that hs prereqs are “NEVER waived for any reason”. utsg psychology hasn’t put up any info about waiving hs prerequistes for their programs but seem rather strict about not waiving psy course prerequisites. i haven’t seen much about utsc, but… you get the idea. i’d definitely recommend emailing the psychology department to ask directly and make sure, but the general vibe that i’m getting is that they probably won’t accept you without those prereqs.

Shrug Really GIFfrom Shrug GIFs

luckily, missing hs prereqs aren’t all that uncommon (i’m lowkey drawing stuff from this other post with a very similar issue) and if you do need the hs courses, you can take them in summer school or night school with the tdsb, or any other school board that offers it. maybe not the most fun times, but at least you won’t be stuck with that missing prereq forever.

hope that helps and good luck!

aska

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current student, math, prereqs, UTSC

gr 12 math strikes back

September 2, 2022

hi aska! so im going into my first year at utsc, there are some courses that sound really interesting but the pre-reqs for most of them are grade 12 math which i completely avoided taking. is there any way (even if its not this year) that i can ever take the courses?

hi there and welcome!

don’t worry, you won’t be doomed because of that pesky prereq, at least not forever. i would recommend first emailing the instructor to ask if you can have the prerequisite waived.

Russell Please Let Me In GIFfrom Russell GIFs

some courses allow this, however you will still be responsible for getting caught up on the material, of course. depending on how comfortable you are with learning the math, and whether or not the instructor is allowing waivers for the course in the first place, this may or may not work for you.

you can also get credit for grade 12 math through tdsb night school (registration is still open i believe) or summer school, which both have remote and in person options. i’m sure other school boards and even private companies offer similar services to get high school credits, too, which you could look into.

as a disclaimer, i haven’t personally taken night school/summer school courses so i can’t give much of a review, but i’ve heard that they can be more relaxed than their normal school counterparts, which sounds great unless you’re hoping to take a very math-heavy course. if you end up wanting more of a math background, uoft’s math department has the pump program which is a series non-credit summer courses that reviews high school math to prep for university.

And Thats A Lot Of Math Math GIFfrom And Thats A Lot Of Math GIFs

i hope that answers your questions, and good luck with all that math!

aska

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choosing, courses, current student, prereqs

course selections is like tetris but more frustrating

March 5, 2022

Hello! I was wondering… if we’re supposed to take classes for our enrolled major (second year) but also want to enroll at the end of our second year for another major- how do we balance our course load to take the prerequisites AND our major requirements? Thanks a bunch 🙂

hey there,

hope second year is going well~ i’d probably prioritize the courses you need to enter the major you wanna apply for, and then try to fit in the courses/prereqs you need for your current major.

for most majors, there’s no strict requirement on what year you take your courses in, so you could take some of your 200-level courses next year if needed, and just generally mix and match the different course levels as long as you have the prerequisites.

you might want to plan everything out on degree explorer to make sure that you’ll have all the prereqs you need for upper year courses. course planning is kind of a pain but there’s also something satisfying when you finally get all of those forty-something coloured blocks to fit in your plan :’)

Car Tetris GIFfrom Tetris GIFs

hope that helps,

aska

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admissions, prereqs

be freeeee my child (from math)

January 23, 2022

Hi I am going into grade 12 and I was wondering if I needed to take grade 12 functions to get into UofT? I’m really weak in math and I just know that if I took advanced functions, it would make my average drop significantly. The program I want to get into only requires me to take English as a course so would it be necessary for me to take math?

hey there,

apologies for the late reply!! but it looks like you’re already on the right track by checking out the requirements for your program!

i’m assuming you’re applying from a canadian high school, in which case, you just need to submit your top six grade 12 courses, including english (ENG4U or EAE4U). you can find more info here. so if the program you’re interested in doesn’t require advanced functions, you don’t need to take it!

Youre Free Now Run Go GIFfrom Youre Free Now Run GIFs

i think you probably know where to find the program requirements, but just in case, you can check out specific programs from the full list here, or get a really good breakdown of programs by categories here.

the only other thing i’d recommend to look out for is if any of the courses you might want to take in the future have advanced functions as a prerequisite. the arts and science calendar is a real godsend for listing all the programs, and their courses, and the prereqs of those courses, so if you have a program in mind you can definitely check it out to be sure!

so yeah, bascially, you should be all good! hope you’re living your best math-free life~

aska

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prereqs

very vague and mysterious of you

June 12, 2021

I’m currently in high school and I’m planning on taking a course in the summer to meet the requirements of my condition. Has anyone done this before and can you share what the process was like?

———————————————

hi there!

i’m not really sure what you mean by the requirements of your condition… do you mean your conditional acceptance?

without more information, i’m not sure that i can answer this in a helpful way. i do know that people take summer courses to meet course prerequisites — one common summer course to take is calculus. if you’re worried about meeting math prereqs, you can look into the PUMP program, which is a u of t-run course that addresses that specific worry.

i’ve never taken a supplementary summer course myself, so unfortunately i can’t tell you what it’s like!

but i would recommend reaching out to your registrar’s office to ask about the process, and clarify what hoops you might need to jump through (submitting transcripts etc). even if you haven’t started your first year yet, you can book appointments with an academic advisor if you’ve been admitted to the school.

sorry i couldn’t be more helpful, and best of luck with this!

be Boundless,

aska

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courses, prereqs, subject POST

it can indeed be done

June 1, 2021

Hey Aska! I’m a grade 12 student. I’m going to UofT next year in the Life Science admission category. The truth of the matter is, I am very interested in two very different programs (life sci and poli sci). My understanding is that you can double major in programs from two different admission categories, even though you’re only allowed one admission category. Is that right? Also, do different majors have prereqs? And if they do, do you think it will be possible to fit them all in my schedule?

———————————————

hey there,

congrats on accepting your offer of admission! it’s great to hear that you’re interested in different programs — i honestly think the people who study super different things, like chemistry and history, are the coolest people on campus.

your understanding is correct — it’s totally okay to double major in programs from two different admission categories. different majors do have different prerequisites, though. you can find out what those prerequisites are by consulting the appropriate program entries in the arts and science calendar. in nearly all cases, it is possible to fit those prerequisites in your schedule with a little careful planning. degree explorer is your friend here.

in first year, your admission category will afford you priority enrolment for certain courses — since you’re in lifesci, that means it’ll be easier to get into things like BIO120. but i wouldn’t say this will necessarily stop you from registering in humanities or social sciences prerequisites. plenty of people do it, and if you encounter difficulties, you can also reach out to your registrar’s office for help. in fact, if you want to have a chat with an academic advisor before your course enrolment begins, you should be able to book those kinds of appointments over the summer.

hope this helped, and a very early welcome to u of t!

be Boundless,

aska

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chem, prereqs, UTM

check yourself before you (pre)req yourself

June 29, 2020

Hi, I am a first year going into the chemical and physical sciences program at UTM. I am looking to take a specialist in Biological Chemistry after the first year so I looked at the classes I should take. The problem is that many of the math courses require a minimum of 70% in Advanced functions and this past year I had an awful teacher and received my worse high school mark of 66% in her class. I also took Calculus and got an 83%. Will I be able to take the math courses?

——————————————

hey there!

congrats on committing to u of t and starting the lil adventure that is university!

for a question like this, i’d recommend reaching out to the UTM chemistry department (probably the undergrad program administrator, specifically) and asking about your case. i’m not sure how they deal with situations like this, and it would be best to go directly to the source. there’s a chance you might need to take an online high-school level advanced functions course and get a higher grade in order to meet the prerequisite? but they’d be the ones to confirm that.

i wouldn’t recommend registering in the course without the prerequisite, because departments will usually go into your records to check that you’ve met the requirements. if they find out that you don’t, you’ll be removed from the course with no warning, which will cause you a lot of unnecessary stress. 10/10 would not recommend.

i hope the chem department is able to shed some light on what you should do! good luck with this.

be Boundless,

aska

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