Hi! I’m a (possibly) incoming UTSG artsci freshman who has too many academic interests. Firstly, would it be possible to do a 2nd major (or minor or 2nd degree) in biomedical engineering? Secondly, is there a way to submatriculate into an MSc program from chem/biochem specialization? Lastly, is there some way for me to skip the introductory courses (apart from transfer credit)? Sorry for ruining your day with a barrage of obscure questions! ?
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hey hey,
lmao i feel like 40% of the people on this site are in some kind of serious academic trouble, and 20% are keeners like you (very kind, apologize too much, interested in literally everything). don’t worry, you’re not ruining my day with a barrage of obscure questions. i thrive on obscure questions. we cool.
i’m not aware of any option to take biomedical engineering in conjunction with an artsci program. to even be eligible for biomedical engineering as a minor, you need to be in one of the core 8 engineering programs or in engsci. the biomedical systems engineering major, meanwhile, has hella requirements. you only get to enter it after two full years of engsci foundational courses. i can’t imagine an artsci kid juggling that on top of another major, even if it were allowed. i suppose you can get in contact with the department if you really wanna know for sure, but i think the answer is unfortunately no on this one.
to address the lil’ musing about second degrees you seem to have thrown in…. i’m not really sure if a second degree is really what you wanna do, even if you’re super thrilled about everything. i have a feeling your first degree will tire you out a lil, or at least enough to make you wanna reconsider. especially doing a second degree in engsci, i dunno man, it seems like a lot. and then when you add the amount of student debt you’d be carrying after one degree, let alone two… yikes. just some things to consider, yknow? hang on to the second degree thought until you’re close to doing your first degree. then, if you still want to do a second degree, talk to the academic advisers at your registrar and get a lil guidance on it. that would be my take.
as for the submatriculation thing… i was unable to find any info on this via the big ol’ world wide web. so i reached out to someone who’s pretty well connected in the chem department, and they told me that they’re not aware of any submatriculation options within chemistry. even if you’ve been working underneath the same supervisor for a long time and hope to do a phd with them, you’ll still need to actually apply to admissions to do so. i’m not sure if it’s different in biochem, but like i said, there doesn’t seem to be any readily-available internet info on this, which suggests that the answer is no submatriculation. once again, i would reach out to the department if you want a super solid answer, though. chem contact info linked here, biochem info linked here.
in terms of skipping required introductory courses without transfer credit… i would say the answer is also probably no, otherwise a ton of people would be doing it. i’m assuming you’d be wanting to do this in order to take a wider breadth of courses, or something? introductory courses tend to have some pretty important information, and even if you could skip out on them i wouldn’t recommend it– the foundation you get in those huge first year courses tends to be quite important for the academic work you’ll be doing later on in your degree.
but once again, you could contact the department running the course and ask, if you have a super duper legitimate reason to be skipping an intro course.
this whole post has been an enormous “pls ask someone else” but i hope my insights have at least been… insightful! keep that excited, i-love-everything energy. it’s refreshing, and makes my brain feel a little less melty. wishin’ you all the best as you weigh your options for next year!
be Boundless and stay healthy,
aska