I think many people go into specializations solely looking at the name, and not researching the specialization heavily, like the courses, type of opportunities the specialization offers, requirements later on, etc. Me for example, didn’t realize until much later on, that I may not exactly love Microbio and Immunology like I thought I would, and I’m glad I reconsidered it, and looked out for other options. And I made a pretty starling discovery. We all know that the more difficult specializations to get into in Science are Honors Cellular Physiology (I think this should accept in 3rd yr only but thats just me), Microbiology (fairly difficult), I’m sure there are others, but those are the 2 I have noticed. I don’t know what the average acceptances are like for Pharmacology.
But typically science specializations have almost identical first year courses, and similar second year courses. The second year courses are where things start to diverge. Except for chem and biochem, typical core courses are Chem 233, Chem 235, Biol 200, Biol 201, and maybe Micb 201/202. Now Chem, and Bio are the ones that are the most typical. But for Biology for example, you must take these core courses + a large load of bio courses:
| Second Year for Biology | |
|---|---|
| ENGL 100-level or SCIE 1131 | 3 |
| BIOL 200, 230, 234, 2604 | 12 |
| Two of BIOL 203, 204, 205, 209, 210, or MICB 2015,7 | 7(8) |
| CHEM 233, 235 | 4 |
| Electives1,2,4,5,6,7 | 4(3) |
| Total Credits | |
As you can see there is only room for 3(4) electives, so ONE elective course. Also for another specialization that isn’t extremely difficult to get into chemistry:
| Second Year | |
|---|---|
| CHEM 201 | 3 |
| CHEM 202 | 3 |
| CHEM 2037 | 4 |
| CHEM 211 | 4 |
| CHEM 213, 245 | 4 |
| MATH 200 | 3 |
| MATH 221 | 3 |
| Electives5,6 | 6 |
| Total Credits | 30 |
or Biochem
| BIOL 200, 201 | 6 |
| CHEM 201 | 3 |
| BIOL 2347 | 3 |
| CHEM 2038 | 4 |
| CHEM 213, 245 | 4 |
| MATH 200 | 3 |
| Electives9 | 7 |
| Total Credits |
As you can see, each specialization is loaded, that there is not much room for electives. All of these are not considering honors by the way. And Chem by the way, or biochem (shivers), their chem >>> chem 233. Now these specializations all take work to get into of course, but you don’t need a stellar average to get in. Now Microbio, which is on a difficulty scale, harder to get into.
| MICB 201, 202 | 6 |
| BIOL 200, 201 | 6 |
| CHEM 205, 233, 2356 | 7 |
| Electives4 | 11 |
| Total Credits7 | 30 |
Do you see the difference? Of course there are restrictions to electives, but not enough that you can’t add some fun, easy courses in there. It’s definitely something interesting I’ve noticed. The FREEDOM of all the electives definitely looks nice to me right now. And the fact that they tend to help gpa’s ^^[don’t hate for that comment, a Gpa bumping post will be my next likely]
In terms of specializations personally, I found out I am a Biology student. When I was looking at courses, it’s when i realized how MUCH bio courses it is. 🙂 I actually want to do honors cell and developmental biology, but you must apply for that through Biology at the end of 2nd year. Great, more applications ;] As for now, continuing learning this summer, and enjoying the summer.
Happy Belated Canada Day
I was once in your position, except that I switched majors at the end of 3rd year from M&I to Integrated Sciences.
ISCI gave me a lot more freedom as well, and I was able to successfully combine Microbiology & Biochemistry together in my own designed major, with a focus on Cancer Biology. Consider it as another option.
Wow that sounds really interesting, because I like more than one specialization and never thought of doing more than one together. I creeped your blog, and saw that you are now pursuing a PhD at MIT, that’s really amazing!
Thank you, Binta. There’s a much longer back-story to my journey in ending up at MIT, and it involved not successfully being admitted into the program at first. The short story is I entered via the back door lol, and I’ll always be thankful for my supervisor for putting in a good word.
Professionally-speaking, I have to say that having a good amount of math, computer science and statistics classes under one’s belt is a really useful thing, regardless of whatever major one does. In research, especially, being able to think in a quantitative, continuous fashion can be a really, really big boon. Even outside of research, knowing calculus beyond first-year or statistics or CS can provide a very different perspective and take on problem-solving. Just some two-cents worth from someone who passed through UBC.