hey! so im a first year who was switched into social science from life science because of a grade requirement in grade 12. im taking all life sci courses currently but im worried i wont get all the courses i need for a lifesci program next year because of my admissions category. how would i switch back to life sci? is it an easy switch or would i have to jump through a lot of hoops??

hey there,

omg twin, where have you been.

first off, i can tell you that it will all be ok, because i did this myself. when i was in first year, i was in the social sciences admission category, but then after getting into social science programs i decided i sorta hated it. i then spent my second year taking pre-req courses for my life sci program and got in the summer after my second year.

you’ll be in a better position if you’re already taking life sci courses during your first year. but it would be helpful if i knew exactly which life sci program you wanted to get in to? like are you taking the first year pre-req courses this year? or does the program not have any pre-reqs?

check if your program has pre-reqs

because there are two types of programs — open and limited. this website does a great job of explaining the difference, if you want to check it out. but basically, some programs will have a list of first year courses you need to take to get into the program when you apply the summer after your first year, while other programs are “open”, with no required courses.

what you’ll want to do to figure this out is search “your program” art sci calendar on google. for example, this is the art sci calendar’s page for biology. if you click on the drop-down for the biology major, you’ll see that it says “open enrolment program” under enrolment requirements. so that means anyone who applies can get in.

however, if you look at the immunology page and click on the drop-down for the immunology major, it says something different under enrolment requirements. here, it says “limited enrolment program”, and lists courses that you have to take in order to get into the major.

so essentially, all you have to do to get into your life sci program is take the pre-requisites (and sometimes, meet the required grade threshold of those pre-requisites). but if there are no pre-requisites, you’re literally chilling. it doesn’t matter what admission category you’re in, anyone can get in.

to make it easier, i was told that admission category don’t mean anything, and they just make things seem more complicated than they really are. they do not tie you down in any way. the only program that i know actually requires you to be in their admission category is the comp sci specialist.

if you haven’t taken pre-reqs yet:

now, going back to your question of whether you have to jump through hoops. if you are already taking all the pre-req courses you need this year, or if your program has no pre-reqs, then you will have no hoops to jump through. all you gotta do is click the button to enrol during program enrolment and you’ll have switched to life sci.

however, if you have not taken required pre-reqs yet, i fear there will be some hoops. they will be jumpable, but they will be a lil frustrating.

the main thing that got me was enrolment priority on courses. i have an inkling this might be the same issue you also run into, since you mentioned you’re worried you won’t get the courses you need for your program?

basically, during enrolment, some courses are restricted to certain student groups who have “priority” for a few weeks, until they open up enrolment to everyone else after. often, if the course is popular, it’ll just fill up during the priority period.

in my case, the pre-req courses like MAT135 and BIO120 that i needed were restricted to “only first years in life sciences” during the priority enrolment period. i was worried because i literally needed them to get into my program and was watching the numbers slowly fill up as i waited for general enrolment period to come.

in the end, they did not fill up. but by the time i could enrol, all the good lectures and tutorials had been taken and i had to deal with the most diabolical schedule. (i am being a little dramatic but what else am i here on this earth to do).

so it ended up fine, but it was super stressful. i highly highly recommend seeing an academic advisor at your college registrar to help you figure it out, because that’s what i did — i don’t think i could have done it alone.

but yeah, that’s the only thing that made the switch to life sci difficult. still, i was pretty surprised that all you need to do to switch from social sci to life sci was take the pre-req courses and it was a lot simpler than it seemed. and now, i’m really glad i made that decision despite how scary it felt.

so i hope this all made sense and answered your question. best of luck to you, you’ve got this!

over and out,

aska