{"id":16879,"date":"2016-04-21T15:23:52","date_gmt":"2016-04-21T19:23:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/askastudent.utoronto.ca\/?p=16879"},"modified":"2019-07-20T20:46:55","modified_gmt":"2019-07-21T00:46:55","slug":"specialist-and-a-major","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/askastudent.utoronto.ca\/?p=16879","title":{"rendered":"Bob Ross wants you to succeed"},"content":{"rendered":"

*Hi,*<\/strong><\/p>\n

*I am starting the specialist international development program at UTSC in\u00a0the fall, and I was thinking of also doing a major in studio. I was\u00a0wondering, how feasible is doing both a specialist and major? Has it been\u00a0done before? I am thinking of taking 6 courses per semester to achieve\u00a0this, would that be extremely difficult? I am in no way extremely academic\u00a0or anything, my grades are above average.*<\/p>\n

*thanks!*<\/strong><\/p>\n

*a Bob Ross fan*<\/p>\n

\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014<\/p>\n

hey there,<\/p>\n

people have definitely done specialists and majors together. you\u2019re allowed to take up to two majors or specialists and up to three programs altogether<\/a>, so one specialist and one major is totally within the allowed scope of programs. some specialists only require a few more credits than a major would, so sometimes, there\u2019s\u00a0not really a huge difference between doing a double major and doing one major and a specialist.<\/p>\n

the difficulty level does depend on which specialist and major you\u2019re interested in, however. the thing about the programs in which you\u2019re interested is that the IDS specialist (i can only assume you\u2019re not doing co-op) requires 13.0 credits<\/a>, while the studio major requires 8.0<\/a>. that\u2019s 21.0 credits, which is 1.0 credits above what is takes to get your degree, and that\u2019s not even accounting for breadth requirements<\/a> or any electives you might like to take. it\u2019s a lot.<\/p>\n

similarly, you are\u00a0allowed<\/em> to take 3.0 credits every semester (past that, you need to make a request to the registrar\u2019s office<\/a>). that being said, it is very difficult. you\u2019ve been in school for a year; you can probably imagine it. i would say it\u2019s doable if you don\u2019t have a job or any other significant commitments, though even then, it\u2019s not fun.<\/p>\n

all this considered, i would say that it might be smarter to downgrade one of the programs you\u2019re considering. a double major (16.0 FCEs altogether) or a specialist and a minor (17.0 FCEs altogether) would be much more manageable. since you\u2019re asking this question, you must have a very specific reason for wanting to do a specialist and a major (hopefully it\u2019s not that you think it sounds impressive, because literally no one \u2013 and that includes employers \u2013 will care).<\/p>\n

i would ask you to interrogate your own\u00a0motives carefully, and also seek second and third opinions \u2013 from advisors<\/a>, the registrar\u2019s office<\/a>, etc. ask yourself what you\u2019ll be able to do\u00a0successfully<\/i>. there\u2019s no use in overloading yourself and then not doing particularly well in IDS or<\/em> studio.<\/p>\n

in summary: it\u2019s all doable. but it\u2019s hard. definitely seek out more advice before making a decision.<\/p>\n

finally, i couldn\u2019t figure out a way to incorporate bob ross into this post, but here\u2019s a motivational .gif to inspire you to figure out the best path for you:<\/p>\n

\"bob<\/a><\/p>\n

you can do it.<\/em><\/p>\n

cheers,<\/p>\n

aska<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

*Hi,* *I am starting the specialist international development program at UTSC in\u00a0the fall, and I was thinking of also doing a major in studio. I was\u00a0wondering, how feasible is doing both a specialist and major? Has it been\u00a0done before? I am thinking of taking 6 courses per semester to achieve\u00a0this, would that be extremely difficult? I am in no way extremely academic\u00a0or anything, my grades are above average.* *thanks!* *a Bob Ross fan* \u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014 hey there, people have definitely done specialists and majors together. you\u2019re allowed to take up to two majors or specialists and up to three programs altogether, so one specialist and one major is totally within the allowed scope of programs. some specialists only require a few more credits than a major would, so sometimes, there\u2019s\u00a0not really a huge difference between doing a double major and doing one major and a specialist. the difficulty level does depend on which specialist and major you\u2019re interested in, however. the thing about the programs in which you\u2019re interested is that the IDS specialist (i can only assume you\u2019re not doing co-op) requires 13.0 credits, while the studio major requires 8.0. that\u2019s 21.0 credits, which is 1.0 credits above what is takes to get your degree, and that\u2019s not even accounting for breadth requirements or any electives you might like to take. it\u2019s a lot. similarly, you are\u00a0allowed to take 3.0 credits every semester (past that, you need to make a request to the registrar\u2019s office). that being said, it is very difficult. you\u2019ve been in school for a year; you can probably imagine it. i would say it\u2019s doable if you don\u2019t have a job or any other significant commitments, though even then, it\u2019s not fun. all this considered, i would say that it might be smarter to downgrade one of the programs you\u2019re considering. a double major (16.0 FCEs altogether) or a specialist and a minor (17.0 FCEs altogether) would be much more manageable. since you\u2019re asking this question, you must have a very specific reason for wanting to do a specialist and a major (hopefully it\u2019s not that you think it sounds impressive, because literally no one \u2013 and that includes employers \u2013 will care). i would ask you to interrogate your own\u00a0motives carefully, and also seek second and third opinions \u2013 from advisors, the registrar\u2019s office, etc. ask yourself what you\u2019ll be able to do\u00a0successfully. there\u2019s no use in overloading yourself and then not doing particularly well in IDS or studio. in summary: it\u2019s all doable. but it\u2019s hard. definitely seek out more advice before making a decision. finally, i couldn\u2019t figure out a way to incorporate bob ross into this post, but here\u2019s a motivational .gif to inspire you to figure out the best path for you: you can do it. cheers, aska<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[51],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-16879","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-subject-post"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/askastudent.utoronto.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16879","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/askastudent.utoronto.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/askastudent.utoronto.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/askastudent.utoronto.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/askastudent.utoronto.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=16879"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/askastudent.utoronto.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16879\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/askastudent.utoronto.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=16879"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/askastudent.utoronto.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=16879"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/askastudent.utoronto.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=16879"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}