Hi, I wanted to go into life sciences and was wondering weather you can choose a major in life sciences from the first year. Also, is it difficult to get accepted? thank you.
Ah, the end of the semester, quite a gruesome time for us all. Therefore, I’ve decided to economize the replies. That way I can answer all of your enquiries, AND have enough time to attend the UC Hanukkah party! (Disclaimer: askastudent is an unaffiliated, non-denominational entity, with no specific religious tendency other than a severe weakness for latkes).
So the answers to your questions are:
1. no
2. yes
Just kidding, I wouldn’t do that… after all, why am I here, if not to wildly inflate otherwise straightforward responses with mindless babble?! Yeah, I love you too…
So, for the life-science-major question, students at the faculty of arts & science usually choose their program of study (major/minor/specialist or some combination of the three) at the end of the session in which they’re expected to complete 4 FCE’s (full course equivalents; which means 4 full-year courses, or 8 half-year courses or something in-between). Usually that means the end of the first year of study. If you have transfer credits from another university that may be a different story… But let’s not get into the murkier areas for now.
Is it difficult? Well, that depends on which specific program you desire. See, life science is an umbrella term for a whole lotta programs ranging from the mundane (biology), to the more intricate (molecular genetics and microbiology). Even though many of the life science programs have the same first-year requirements, there is quite a lot of variation between them. So when you get your admission letter from UofT, you can pick up the A&S calendar, where you can find all the offered LifeSci programs and their respective first-year reqs.
