Good Afternoon,
I have a double major degree in English and French Literatures, and I will be finish all of tem fully by 2021. However, my parents decided that that is taking too long and want me to graduate with my English B.A in 2019 and then moving on with my French as a part-time student. Can that possibly be happening? They want to do that just so that I can get a full time work as soon as possible, or worse disowned and all of that situation.
Thank You very much.
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hi!
yikes, this is a very tricky situation you’ve found yourself in. hopefully my answer helps out a little.
because of the degree requirements, you need to complete at least a specialist, two majors, or a major and two minors in order to graduate. so if you wanted to drop french, you’ll have to switch your english major to a specialist in order to meet the degree requirements.
something to keep in mind before you make the switch, however, is the fact that the english department changed their curriculum. these changes will be going into effect starting the 2018-19 fall/winter session. this means that the program requirements have changed and if you switch from a major to a specialist, you would be subject to the new program requirements rather than the old ones (if you don’t switch, you would continue to follow the program requirements that you’re already following). you should look into what the new program requirements are and see how many you will have completed with the old major program. hopefully, most of the credits that you took for the major are still applicable for the new specialist. the main difference i see between the old and new programs is that the english department seems to no longer accept cross-listed (ie. non- ENG) courses, but there could be more intricacies that i don’t know about. i suggest getting in touch with the english department for more information.
then, if you wanted to do french after finishing your english specialist, you could come back as a non-degree student. non-degree students are students who have earned their bachelors degrees and are coming back to take courses without working towards a degree. you could be taking courses for a variety of reasons: self interest, complete a prereq for grad school, whatever. that could be a good option if you still wanna do french but you also want to finish your english BA ASAP.
another thing: i don’t know how many credits you have left before you graduate, but you do still need to complete 20.0 FCE to graduate. depending on how many credits you have now, you may have to do more than 5.0FCE per year AND summer courses in order to graduate in time for 2019. i wish i could do the math for you, but i don’t know how many credits you have completed. also i’m notoriously bad at math, so maybe don’t trust me with that.
while it is totally possible to be in more than 5.0FCE in the fall/winter and do summer courses, it is a very heavy course load and not recommended. in fact, many students take LESS than 5.0 FCE per year. while it is up to you what you do with your degree–and if you really wanna zoom through it, that’s possible– it might be a good idea to think about WHY you’d be zooming through your degree. it’s your education and you should decide the pace that you wanna go at, not your parents. and switching from a 2021 to a 2019 graduation date is a pretty drastic change. obviously, i don’t know you so i don’t want to tell you what to do. but i suggest that you think deeply about what you want out of your time at u of t.
finally, i suggest that you make an appointment with an academic adviser your registrar’s office to discuss all your options. whether it’s sticking with a 2021 graduation date or trying to figure out how to zoom through your degree. they’ll be able to give you a ton of info that i’m not privy to.
i hope this helps!
good luck!
xoxo,
aska