I am a prospective UTSG social science year 1 student. I am interested in Rotman commerce(accounting) and life science(biology). Is taking both programs’ required courses too overwhelming? If I only take RC’s required courses in year 1, I have 2-2.5 credits left. Any recommend courses that is helpful for me to enter for RC? If i failed to enter RC, can I still take ls’s required courses in year 2? If so, then I will be enroll in year 3 in ls? Any drawbacks except delay graduate?
hi there,
i’m assuming that you’re in year 1 of the social science stream and planning to transfer into rotman. if you’ve got your sights set on rotman, i’d recommend really focusing on the 2.5 credits of 1st year rotman prerequisites that they list here and making sure to get good marks in those courses and a high gpa overall.
i’m not personally in rotman, but usually gpa is king when applying to programs, and even students who are already in the rotman stream need to maintain certain marks in the prerequisites to stay in the program. not to stress you out or anything! gpa isn’t everything — but it can definitely help your chances.
in terms of courses, i’d recommend trying to play to your strengths. ‘bird courses’ can be different for everyone depending on what you’re interested in or good at, so while it’s nice to get some reviews from people about different courses, i would take it with a pinch of salt and also consider what you’re most interested in/confident with. if you’re good at bio, you could try bio120 or bio130, which can be used for lifesci programs. 1st year seminars are also another way to take some more interactive, fun courses (which are often mark boosters). picking ‘easier’ courses can also hopefully take off some of the stress from school and leave you with some time to do extracurriculars that might add to your rotman supplementary application (yes, you need that too…).
if do you get into rotman, i’m not really sure how manageable it’d be to do a biology program too because, well, again, i’m not in rotman. technically it’s doable, but you might have to opt for a bio minor to fit all the required credits. you could also take more than 20 credits (possibly taking longer to graduate), or just take some bio courses as electives.
luckily, the bio programs are all open enrolment, meaning that anyone with 4.0 credits completed can enrol in the program — you just have to apply at the end of first year. apparently rotman transfers are really rare though (again, don’t let that scare you! still give it a shot) so if you don’t get into rotman it’s good to have a backup, and there are a ton of other programs to choose from in artsci. you can apply to any other combination of programs in artsci in your upper years, including lifesci, social sciences, or economics if you’re still interested in something that’s kind of commerce-related.
btw, if you’re worried about upper year courses and being able to fit all your program requirements, i’d recommend using degree explorer to plan things out!
best of luck,
aska