Okay, I've been learning a lot here on these forums and just have one more question for now.

So for my program (Business) I am required to get 120 credits and all my required courses to graduate. What I'm wondering is, if I came back for another year would it be possible for me to come out with two degrees?

For example, lets say both the Business and Biology degrees require 120 units to graduate (including the required courses) and I'm in the Business program.

If I were to get all the required courses for business and use my electives to get as many of the required courses for Biology as I could. Could I then come back for an extra year or use my summers/extra time after graduating with my business degree to attain all the remaining required courses for Biology that I didn't get with my electives and come out with two degrees?

Basically what I'm wondering is - since I have already done 120 units for business (assuming that the second degree im interested in has a required 120 units to graduate as well) would I then only need to get the required courses or would they make me restart from the beginning and make me get more electives despite the fact I already have 120 credits.

I feel like I made that much more confusing then It had to be.. I apologize.

Biology has a lot of requirements and restrictions that I definitely don't think you'd be able to finish it in a year. If you do a non-Honours degree for 90 units, you may be able to. The only issue is that biology courses have alot of restrictions on who can enrol. So as a business student, you may have a very difficult/impossible time to get all the courses in. The only alternative would be to graduate with business and apply to the biology program as a second degree.

You'd probably have an easier time doing this with a BA. Econ, for example, would be easy to complete after a commerce degree... bio, not so much. Lots of prereqs and zero overlap. Probably more trouble than it's worth.

Don't take my word for it but I honestly don't think you can come out of this with two degrees unless you already have one and re-apply again as a first year for the second one. Even if you actually have all the course requirements (and I mean 120 for business and 120 for bio) in the 4-5 years. I think this is simply because when you pay tuition you pay for the department you're in. If you're a business student and take bio electives - you don't pay the bio tuition rate for the credits but the business tuition. I know this for a fact because I'm in soc sci and my friend's in engineering but she wanted to switch to soc sci for second year. We took the same courses (soc sci courses) throughout the summer but she paid a good grand more than i did cause she's still in engineering and paid the engineering tuition rate per credit. Thus you get what you paid for. You pay for business you get a commerce degree, you pay for bio you get a bio degree. The only option i think you have is either figuring out if you can do a double major but I don't think that's possible with commerce and certainly not with something from the sciences and something from business. Another option you may have is finding out if past credits from the university can count to a degree you're working on now. If so, then finish commerce with as many bio courses, reapply as a first year through ouac for bio and transfer all those courses through for this degree and finish earlier than the normal 4 year. sorry for the long post and hope this helps.

It doesn't matter that you pay tuition for a different department. You're allowed to come back for a second degree in a different department and it typically only takes 1-2 years (for non-hons and hons, respectively), assuming you've planned things properly.

This is the link to info in the old course calendar: http://registrar-old.mcmaster.ca/CAL...ent/pg130.html (I'm too lazy to go find it in the new one, but you should check to make sure stuff hasn't changed).

So, sit down and plan what courses you're going to take throughout your four years, incorporating as much of the bio requirements as possible, and THEN go see an academic advisor. They'll be able to help you a lot more if you've already tried to set up all of the requirements.