so we all just have the same problems huh

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