don’t psych yourself out, you’re okay

Hi! I’m currently a grade 12 student who is about to apply to university. I was looking at the St. George campus for psychology requirements and it says that Grade 12 Biology is one of them. The thing is…my current biology mark is in the 60s. So I was wondering whether the requirement means that it’ll be included in my top 6? Or whether they are just looking or it? Or how does it really work…

hey there,

ah, a senior doing college admissions. i hope you’re taking care of yourself, that can be a stressful time. but i come delivering good news! your biology mark does not necessarily have to be included in the top 6 grades that are used to calculate your admission average.

here is why:

when applying to uoft, you’re really just applying to admission streams rather than a specific program. basically all the programs are categorized into these six admission streams, and that will be what you select on OUAC when you fill out your application. these streams are: computer science, humanities, life sciences, mathematical & physical sciences, rotman commerce, and social sciences.

here is a chart that breaks down the required high school courses by stream. you’ll see that psychology falls into the life science stream, which only requires english and calculus. i know that it’s a bit confusing because this site says psychology requires english, calculus, and bio. but in this case, bio is not required for entry to the stream. therefore, it does not need to be one of the six marks used in your grade calculation.

so if you have a seventh course that has a better mark, then that would be used to calculate your admission average instead of your biology mark. i hope this helps and that everything goes well for you!

over and out,

aska