Hi! First of all before I ask my question, thank you for being super informative in answering the questions in a personal and friendly manner. It has helped so much since I start my first year soon! Okay, so I would love to take some economic courses but on the website it says the prerequisite is high school calculus. I only took advanced functions and an economics course so far, do I have to take calculus to enrol? Thank you and have a lovely day!!!
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hi there,
no worries at all– it’s what i’m here for, but i really appreciate your appreciation. writing an anonymous blog can feel a bit like shouting into the void, so it’s always good to hear that the stuff i’m putting out is useful!
i’m not entirely sure which website you’re referencing, because u of t being u of t there are a ton of places you could be getting your info. regardless, i’m pretty sure what you’re seeing is the program prerequisite, and not the prerequisite for courses specifically. as far as i can tell, you don’t actually need high school calc to enrol in first-year econ courses. the artsci calendar lists secondary school calc/advanced functions as recommended preparation for ECO100, key word being recommended.
ECO100 is quite tough from what i’ve heard, so i would be cautious going into it with absolutely no calculus background. but i guess the point is if you wanted to you could. and if you take ECO105, the intro course for non-specialists, nothing is mentioned with regards to recommended preparation. if you’re not planning to be an econ major, i’d recommend you give this one a try. while i’ve never taken the course myself, i have several friends who say it’s pretty easy to do well as long as you put the work in. meanwhile, i have one or two humanities friends that took 100 to prove to themselves they could do it, and… kind of just regret it now. there is a strong argument, though, for taking 100: if you’ll be doing higher-level econ later on, it’ll prepare you better for that more advanced study. your call, you know yourself best.
if you do want to be registered in the econ major later on (you’ll choose your programs of study at the end of first year) i would look into getting that high school calculus credit. perhaps from an online course provider, as long as you can make sure you get credit. you’ll need it for admission into the program– i believe even if it’s a high school prereq, it will be enforced. so just keep that in mind.
hope this helped! welcome to u of t and best of luck with your first year.
cheers,
aska