I know it's kinda early but I'm trying to see which life sci second year programs interest me. I looked at the required courses and stuff but I wanted to ask people on MI what they think of the programs. Like how the workload is, the first year cut off, and even the kinds of jobs you can get. Btw, for now, I'm not really interested in med school, if that's relevant. <.<

I'm kinda leaning towards Honours Molecular Biology and Genetics, but I haven't ruled out the other options yet. So any info/advice?

Well technically speaking the only "Life Sci" program in level two is Honours Life Sciences but i know what your mean, and MI is the best place to go for this info

I see you're in first year life sci, what are you planning on doing next year?

Can't comment on the other streams, but I'm in Honours Life Sci. The one advantage of the program is that it is super flexible. There are only a few courses that are required, and the rest you choose from a long list of "approved" courses. I find this stream is perfect if you're not sure yet what you want to do exactly.

Whatever Life Sci stream you take though, you're pretty much going to end up having to go into a graduate program or professional school. These types of degrees don't get you much by themselves.

Yeah most people plan on doing grad school anyways, and im looking at, if the marks are right mol bio and genetics, bio, and life sci

Yeah, life science is very, very broad (which is good or bad depending on how you look at it). You should probably look into what you wanna do before you decide your major though (it'll save you a shit ton of time). Goodluck

Biochemistry is wicked badass. Just sayin'.

Here's some links: 1 and 2.

EDIT: From my understanding most of the cutoffs went up due to high demand. Chem Bio went down because the class size was increased to 38 from ~25. This is second-hand information so I can't be positive about it.

Just letting you know that Fall Preview is this Saturday. Although it is aimed at high school students, you could drop by and ask upper year students at the Life Sciences booth about upper year programs. More information here: http://future.mcmaster.ca/tours/in-p.../fall-preview/.

The life sci workload, is the smallest of all the streams. (not counting requisite courses ie. orgo, physics,stats that certain medschools want you to take.)

if you can manage a 10 average you will pretty much have your choice of any program you want- but most are a bit below that (but it is HIGHLY variable)

You'll be specializing into something else right.. or you can stay in genreal life sci. The other diciplines are more work that regular life sci and alot of overlap in courses i find. But even though the work is 'harder' it seems easier than first year because you aren't knew to everything and are aware of how stuff works.
look at the course calendar it'll tell you everything you need to know for second year courses

my biggest advice would be to choose what interests you!
That's the biggest thing when it comes to university, and that's why life sciences is so great! The general first year allows you to get a taste of everything, then you can apply to whatever you're interested in.

Chances are if you're leaning towards Mol Bio & Genetics you'll end up going with that. Look into some of the courses you'd have to take in that program and see if you can picture yourself studying them for the next 3 years!

As for work load, every university program is going to be a lot of work, whether you're a psychology student, a humanities student, or an engineer. the work load should be your least concern! like i said, if it interests you, you shouldn't mind doing the work!

Thanks for the replies.