hi! i’m a grade 12 student who’s just applied to UTSG social sciences. I’m interested in psych research as a career but more on the arts side. i know that psych is only offered as a life science and is really science heavy at u of t, but i read on their website that social sciences and humanities students can also declare a psych major if they have the pre reqs to do so.
so i’m wondering, exactly how much wiggle room would i have with customising my courses? im kind of worried about having to take a lot of hardcore science courses. its really not my vibe.
also, would i have to double major? because they don’t offer a ba in psychology do they?
ughhhhh help pls
heyyo,
i’m super excited to answer this one because it’s something i already knew a bit about!! in bygone days i was also considering psychology, and as a not very sciency person myself, was a bit disheartened to see that uoft only offered a science degree for psych.
you are correct that utsg only offers psychology as a science program. HOWEVER, the fact that you applied to the social science admission category does not mean that you can’t do a psychology program. within arts and science, your admission category doesn’t restrict you when it comes to which classes and programs you can take.
the only thing you’d have to watch out for is the prerequisites for the program. i’m gonna assume here that you’re an ontario student. for the psych major, you have to have a passing grade in grade 12 calculus and vectors and grade 12 biology.
now as for how sciency the program actually is… well, let’s take a look at the required courses. the only one that jumps out at me as truly math or science-based is statistics I.
now, you COULD double major, or you couldn’t. see, the way programs work at uoft is a little wacky. if you wanna do psych, your options would essentially be:
- A psych major and another major
- Another major, another minor, and a psych minor
- A psych specialist
if you only wanna do psych, you’d do the specialist, which is basically a super-major geared towards people that wanna pursue research or grad school. it also requires more credits… including another stats course and research courses. if you do a psych major and a major in an arts field, you could choose whether you want an arts or science degree at graduation. pretty cool. or if you only do the psych minor, your degree would be in either arts or science depending on your major.
wooooooow that’s a lot of info.
bear with me for a little longer, dear reader.
you could also look into UofT’s other campuses in Mississauga (UTM) or Scarborough (UTSC). both of them also have psych programs. UTM’s major has some sciencey sounding courses, but unlike UTSG I don’t see any required math courses. for some reason UTSC has a crazy amount of psych programs (like. just look at this). i can’t summarize all of them without making this post a trillion words long, but from what i can see there’s some lab and data analysis courses involved.
all of this to say… you’ll have your first year to think about things. if you’re still interested in psych, 100% take PSY100 since it’ll give you a sample of what the subject is like (and it’s a prerequisite for psych programs). take classes in other areas you might be interested in, and see where the year takes you. explore!
be like dora.
i hope the boatload of info i just dropped on you makes sense, and not like the ramblings of an incoherent person who happens to know a concerning amount about how psych programs at uoft work. i promise i’m normal.
promise.
best of luck with applications and your first year!
cheers,
aska